Session Test Microfoni a Condensatore

Holidays? Pokémon? Pornography?

Much better. A total session where we roll out the entire Braingasm catalog alongside the finest microphones in circulation.

The goal of this test isn't to determine who's better or worse, but simply to listen, evaluate, and discuss nuances, tones, spatiality, and attitude, setting an upper limit and understanding 'how far we can go' in designing a good studio microphone.

We spent a very nerdy day at Avalon Studio in Montefiascone, in the company of Luca Gentili and Alfio Scoparo, listening to all the Braingasm condenser microphones on vocals, guitar, and drums, comparing them with the best from Neumann, Schoeps, and AKG.

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This is the list of microphones we tested:

Neumann U 47 - 1960

Neumann U 67

Neumann U 87 Ai

AKG 414 ULS

Schoeps CMC 5

comparing with our Tube 47 and Soviet 67 , plus the J-FET’s Deluxe 12, Deluxe 36, Deluxe 47

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We can't wait to share all the news for the upcoming year, including a new lab, collaborations with the best artisans in Rome, and projects in the pipeline such as studio outboard gear and preamps...

Meanwhile, enjoy your holidays. It's been a year full of achievements, all thanks to you incurable enthusiasts.

See you in September,

Rock 'n roll

Teo.

The fine art of building a ribbon microphone - Pt.1

'The tool is half the master'... always true, whether you're a carpenter, a farmer, or a surgeon. In our case, the right tools are indispensable, and the ribbon microphone doesn't forgive.

We're working on a micrometric scale; the aluminum ribbon is 1.8 microns thick. To give you an idea of what we're talking about, here's a list from Wikipedia that illustrates the order of magnitude in question with some examples:

1-10 µm: Typical diameter of a bacterium

1.55 µm: Wavelength of light used in optical fibers

6-8 µm: Diameter of a human red blood cell

6 µm: Anthrax spore

7 µm: Thickness of a spider web thread

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Cutting a bacterium in half is already a difficult concept to visualize, let alone being careful not to damage its edges, crumple it, or make it fly away with a sigh, and so on.

For an easy-to-imagine comparison, consider that household aluminum foil has a thickness ranging from 40 to 80 microns, which is almost 50 times greater than our microphone ribbon.

But cutting is just the beginning of the work. Once the ribbons are cut correctly (4 mm wide and 100 mm long), the next phase is corrugation. This system allows the ribbon to expose more surface to the sound field than a flat ribbon. It also increases its elasticity and resistance.

We proudly present our super vintage (and, above all, artisanal) machine for corrugating the ribbon, built with used Meccano parts.

The next phase, once the ribbon is cut and corrugated, is its placement inside the structure, called the motor.

The ribbon motor is a simple mechanical system consisting of two permanent magnets glued to a metal structure.

We'll cover the housing and tuning phase in another post. For now, let's conclude our beloved scientific talk.

The ribbon microphone exploits the physical law of electromagnetic induction, the same wonder of physics that brings dynamic microphones and loudspeakers to life. In practice, the aluminum ribbon is suspended in a strong magnetic field and vibrated by the surrounding sound field. Due to this physical law, a tiny electrical current is generated at the ends of the ribbon, consistent with the incident pressure wave. This current is then extracted, converted through an output transformer, and made available on the microphone's balanced output.

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