Wollansak Mic on E%$y--Hilarious!

tonewoods · Post by **tonewoods** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:01 am

Check this out...

Actually had me going till I found this thread...

leigh · Post by **leigh** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 3:17 pm

It's definitely not a ribbon! I've had one of those Wollensak mics for ages, it's either just an old dynamic, or maybe a crystal, I don't remember. Here's the sound of it pretty clearly - the vocals on this track were sang through it:

http://music.leighmarble.com/track/long-overdue

I had gotten this mic with a portable Wollensak reel-to-reel, but never got the built-in mic preamp working, so this is just the mic run into the DI input on an RNP. In the mix there was a little more EQ shaping, and some de-essing, but this is 90% the sound of this mic.

cheers,
Leigh

calaverasgrandes · Post by **calaverasgrandes** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 4:05 pm

I got one of those mics along with an old tube "portable" reel to reel. The tape recorder part of it was pretty awful, but it had a nice preamp and power amp. Magnificent on guitar.
I still have the mic. The 1/4" jack is non standard. Too big to fit regular jacks.
I hacked it off and put a regular old switchcraft on it. Sounds kind neat on guitars or amped synths. But I have a cheapo sony that does the band limited thing better.
The best thing I ever got out of it was 20 minute improv session of playing the mic itself with a pair of chopsticks into a delay line.
The grill had a nice ping to it.

tonewoods · Post by **tonewoods** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 7:37 pm

"So, lets look at the mic. For starters, there is virtually no self noise.
This is due to it's cadmium bromide resistors, FET triode reduced algorhythn transistors, and mercury sputtered diaphram. The mercury sputtered diaphram gives the incoming sound source an almost liquid buyouncy. The fact that mercury is a liquid (made stable by Dieder's sputtering technique) makes all incoming energy (sound) elastic, therefore reproducing more accuratly the sound source. So, in a way, it is almost like a ribbon mic in the natural give and take of energy.

Upright bass? Ron Carter owns 2 of them! John Cage and Morton Feldmann would only use these for their recordings. They were especailly fond of how quiet these mics are. Steve Albini swears by them. John Lennon and Phil Spector used these mics exclusively for the Imagine LP. This was George Martins favorite mic."

Just classic...

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:59 pm

calaverasgrandes wrote:
The best thing I ever got out of it was 20 minute improv session of playing the mic itself with a pair of chopsticks into a delay line.
The grill had a nice ping to it.

No one must ever doubt that you are a musician.

:{turn off SNL "Acting!" voice}:

And I mean that most respectfully!

tonewoods · Post by **tonewoods** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:36 am

"Sadly, Dieder Wollensak's great mercury sputtering idea didn't hold up in the real world; eventually, it got warm enough to turn back into a liquid, and simply ran off the mylar backing, usually shorting out the FET's and resistors in the process.

While they are relatively cheap on ebay, Dieder's wife, Whilhemina Wollensak, is the only person alive that can re-sputter the diaphragms and it's something like $650 to restore, but it would still come in (excluding shipping back and forth to Germany) for under $1,000 - the subject of this thread. Unfortunately she's 84 years old and suffers from mercury poisoning, so I don't know how much longer she'll be restoring mics

Once it's re-sputtered, it should never be used in a room warmer than 50 degrees, and it should be stored in a refridgerator when not in actual use. Put it into a ziplock bag with some desicant packages.

If the singer has a warm breathy voice, you can cut a small slit into a pop filter to hold a few ice cubes in place to cool the vocals, but keep vocal sessions short."

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:42 am

leigh wrote:It's definitely not a ribbon! I've had one of those Wollensak mics for ages, it's either just an old dynamic, or maybe a crystal, I don't remember. Here's the sound of it pretty clearly - the vocals on this track were sang through it:

http://music.leighmarble.com/track/long-overdue

I had gotten this mic with a portable Wollensak reel-to-reel, but never got the built-in mic preamp working, so this is just the mic run into the DI input on an RNP. In the mix there was a little more EQ shaping, and some de-essing, but this is 90% the sound of this mic.

cheers,
Leigh

That song is totally freaking cool!!!!

leigh · Post by **leigh** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 8:31 pm

drumsound wrote:That song is totally freaking cool!!!!

Thank you. And thank you again!

supafuzz · Post by **supafuzz** » Thu May 03, 2012 7:53 am

I spoke with Eddie Kramer at the last AES New York and bought him some drinks.
He finally admitted to me that the secret Hendrix guitar mic was the..Wollensak
that Chas Chandler picked up in a flea market in Mayfair. They took out the capsule and put it in a Neumann u87 body. And then Eddie and I got thrown out by security for causing a rukus.

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Thu May 03, 2012 3:15 pm

Hmm.

The next time you "hang out", mebbe put a towel over it?

I keep my Wollensak right next to my black RSEQ ...

( I like that song, also! )

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Mon May 07, 2012 1:52 pm

leigh wrote:
drumsound wrote:That song is totally freaking cool!!!!
Thank you. And thank you again!

The whole record is really good!
[/thread jack]

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Wed May 09, 2012 9:03 am

drumsound wrote:
That song is totally freaking cool!!!!

+100 on this.

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Wollansak Mic on E%$y--Hilarious!

Wollansak Mic on E%$y--Hilarious!

Eddie Kramer

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