What's up with thoes Neumann digital mics?

[Zeppelin4Life]

.for like $10k? Any thoughts? Seems kindof silly considering you could buy like 4 new U87s or one or two vintage U47s for the same price...

[bigtoe]

'Seems kindof silly considering you could buy like 4 new U87s or one or two vintage U47s for the same price...'

or 100 57's...

just a different mic...that's all...

i know a guy for telarc used em on a session here in town...Michael Bishop recording Robert Lockwood Jr @ Suma...they had that info up on the Neumann site...may want to ask him...he's online here and there...

Mike

[joel hamilton]

IMHO, It is just another one of the mistakes neumann USA made. I dont know that for a fact of course, but I do feel like after the TLM170 (still made in germany for real before the sennheiser merger thingy) there are a bunch of mics that nobody wants being made by a company that made some of the most sought after mics in history. Seems a little weird right? make soome 47's, Neumann!!!!! And some 67's while you are at it, and how about any of the other nice designs? Stop "improving" them by taking out the transformers!

The M149 is the first "new" mic that sounds really amazing from them in a LONG time. Everything else was designed a long time ago. They need to stay in the ivory tower and stop trying to compete in the "lower 40."

Just an opinion, nothing more.

The digital mic is lame, and they put it out a long time ago and continue to try and sell them. They are too expensive and nobody really cares about them. That is whats up with them for me.

[bigtoe]

'The M149 is the first "new" mic that sounds really amazing from them in a LONG time.'

i used that thing for about an hour once. i thought it sounded cool but no way was it an earthshattering experience....i was quite surprised...it was like "eh."

same with the 87...and the 103...and the 184...and the 84...but the UM57...whoa.

anyway - blab...get me out of this goddamned pod.

Mike

[joel hamilton]

'The M149 is the first "new" mic that sounds really amazing from them in a LONG time.'

i used that thing for about an hour once. i thought it sounded cool but no way was it an earthshattering experience....i was quite surprised...it was like "eh."

same with the 87...and the 103...and the 184...and the 84...but the UM57...whoa.

anyway - blab...get me out of this goddamned pod.

Mike

That is so funny. Everyone hears things so differently. Thank god we are all so different, or this job would be really boring. Like use THE mic, instead of "what one do YOU like for that thingy you are recording...?"

I hear you on the 103 and the 184, but the 149 was pretty awsome. I was also going to tape. UM57's are always a little weird and dim and just odd to my ear, but they are really cool for certain things.

I almost got one about a year ago, but the professor totally sniped me on it on ebay..damn school budgets...

[Zeppelin4Life]

If Neumann was to make a reissue of the U47, do you think the prices of the vintage (original) U47s would go down? Im guessing no...but then I wonder how different they would sound...I dunno..not like I can even afford anyone of these

[Professor]

Yeah, that UM57 is quite nice. It's a little bit of a pain that it is configured for 220v power, but it still comes out from time to time when it is called for. I'd like to get a second one and then send them to Gefell for a nice servicing and maybe even see what tweaking they could do to 'match' the pair a little for me. Sorry Joel.

As for the digital mics, I'd chalk it up to the difficulty of this industry in general. Neumann is trying to create new products. They are trying to develop and to innovate. The trouble is that most of the industry isn't interested in what is new as much as they are interested in what is cheap. They could certainly go and produce U47s and 67s for recording studios, but then their new broadcast microphone sold something like 100 units just to one public radio netwrok (Vermont if I recall), and if they were selling new U67s for $6k a piece, I don't know that they would sell that many. Hell, how many people are buying up the 149s?
At the AES in San Francisco, I attended the organ recital and recording setup with Ron Streicher (Audio Engineering Assoc.) and he put a pair of the digital mics up as the ambient mics on that recording. I didn't get to really hear those mics isolated from the others, or to compare them to his TLM-170s or to the Soundfield mic, but I was intrigued by the computer control over the microphone. The mic with the digital output isn't all there is with the mic. When the power supply unit is connected to a laptop, there are a whole host of controls available to reconfigure the mic from a distance. Ron used the obvious ones there for the organ concert, adjusting the pattern to get a nice blend of ambient vs. direct sound, the usual preamp functions of gain, polarity, etc. and the adjustments of the low cut filters. But my understanding of the system (and I've not really read up on it too much) is that the system is also able to 'model' a number of different microphones in the family. I'll check on that to be sure, but I believe it is able to model the characteristics of a 47, a 67, an 87, a 170, and more. If that is the case, then it is more than a simple mic with a digital output, but a modeling system similar to perhaps a Liquid Channel. And for that matter, it would be an interesting combination to take a mic that can model many other mics and match it with a preamp/compressor that can model many preamps and compressors.

-Jeremy

[Professor]

If Neumann was to make a reissue of the U47, do you think the prices of the vintage (original) U47s would go down? Im guessing no...but then I wonder how different they would sound...I dunno..not like I can even afford anyone of these

Telefunken is out there building re-issue mics and they haven't driven down the cost of the vintage pieces. I haven't made any price comparisons, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have driven up the price of the vintage pieces. That can happen when new attention is aimed at old products.
I recall that I almost bought a pair of AKG C-451e mics off of eBay for a hair over $200 about three months before the reissue 451s came out. Once the new ones came out, the old ones jumped in price to about $300 per mic. I just happened to see that auction go by while nobody was looking for those particular mics.

-J

[brew]

The digital mic is lame, and they put it out a long time ago and continue to try and sell them. They are too expensive and nobody really cares about them. That is whats up with them for me.

The Neumann Solution-D digital mic has not been around for a long time. When I used it in 2002 it was an early production protoype and I believe there were only two pairs in the US.

I've heard and used the Solution-D several times in classical recording and it is an incredible mic sonically, as well as technically. Yes it is fully remote computer controlled with software; you can vary the polarity, freq response, practically anything from a laptop in the control room. The Solution-D does not have the ability to model other microphones or preamps but I wouldn't be surprised if it was in the works.

Sure, it's absurdly expensive and not within reach of 99.9% of recording engineers, but I guess that's not who it's for either. How much was the SONY CDW-900e back in 1992, a 1x only CD burner, $8000? This is the cost of cutting edge. If 50 years into the future everybody is using digital mics, Neumann is going to be ahead of the pack. Nobody knows what their reasoning is, but it is still one of the most incredible mics I've heard.