recordinghacks

New visitors might not realize that I started this website (nearly 10 years ago!) because I felt like I couldn’t make sane purchase decisions about microphones without knowing what my choices were. Online stores will only show you the microphones they sell. Manufacturer websites can hardly be trusted to be objective about their own products. What I needed was an impartial source of microphone information, to enable direct comparisons. I envisioned a searchable listing of every microphone ever made, with detailed descriptions of components, capsules, and design intent.

(What I didn’t envision is that it would take 10 years to build! In fact, I naively thought I’d knock out the entire history of microphones first, and then move on to preamps, compressors, and so on. I haven’t given up on the preamp idea… do me a favor and check back in about 10 more years, ok?)

While the microphone piece of this project is still in progress, I already consider it a success. I’ve heard from hundreds of musicians and engineers over the years who have used the numerous mic shootouts or the Mic Database to make gear choices. I was blown away when Warren Huart mentioned in our recent “Mic Madness” Youtube Live event that he personally found the RecordingHacks site inspirational in building his own business. It is incredibly touching to learn that this project that I built for my own use has become a critical reference tool for so many people. To those of you who have reached out over the years to express that this site has helped you: thank you!

Many long-time readers already know that my mic obsession took an unexpected (to me) turn a couple years ago, when I founded a … wait for it … microphone company of my own. It’s called Roswell Pro Audio. The company doesn’t make any “me too” models or “clones,” but rather borrows proven capsule and circuit designs and combines them in new ways, filling sonic niches that are otherwise under-served by existing commercial options.

The idea was not without significant risk. Did the world need another microphone company? I am grateful that the answer was yes; my efforts have been blessed by uniformly great feedback from a ton of people I respect. The Roswell microphones have been widely praised by producer/engineers including Greg Wells, Ross Hogarth, Mike Poole, Andres Saavedra, by magazines including Tape Op, Recording, Sound On Sound, Pro Sound News, and by musicians including Phil Collen of Def Leppard, Casey McPherson of Flying Colors (the Portnoy/Morse/Morse supergroup, one of my favorite bands), and by Luis Fonsi. More importantly, the Roswell mics have generated incredibly positive feedback from many hundreds of home studio owners, who are finally able to get the sounds they hear in their heads into their mixes.

But not everyone who needs a Roswell mic has heard one! That’s why we’re giving one away. Better still, we’ve reached out to some friends in the industry to put together a prize package worth over $600:

• Transgressor transient editor/EQ for drum processing, from Boz Digital Labs ($149)
• Cloud Microphones’ Cloudlifter CL-1 mic activator / inline preamp for ribbons and dynamics, $149
• Roswell Mini K47 Microphone, $299

You can hear the Mini K47 in the demo video below. The mic was used on drum overheads, guitar cab, and bass. (The Roswell Delphos was used on kick drum and vocals.)

To enter the giveaway, sign up below the video! Update: the original drawing was held in November, 2017, but Roswell Pro Audio currently (as of May 2020) gives away one mic a month. See details here.

Related posts:

Mic Madness with Warren Huart How to Build Your Mic Locker, part I The Advanced Audio CM-12 Mod Samar Audio MF65 Review

Tags: condenser microphone, giveaway, mic, Microphones, mini k47, roswell pro audio
Posted in Microphones | 3 Comments »