The 47 Upgrade
The famous Neumann u47
See the new Telefunken Electroakustik version here
The 47 Upgrade is based on the sound of famous u47 Microphone, sold by the original Telefunken company as shown above.
The original u47 has been a part of the music industry since it first arrived on the market. Its unique sound quality has been used to good affect by Frank Sinatra, a group you may have heard of named the Beatles and countless others.
This is a more mid-range sounding microphone with a solid bottom end. The u47 also has a delicious *proximity effect.
It is the defacto standard for recording solo vocalists but it works with almost anything. You can find out more about u47 at this excellent web site.
*Proximity effect is a rise in bass response that ocurrs with a cardiod microphone, as the sound source gets close to microphone.
We create a u47 style microphone using these
A New Capsule Shapes the Sound...
The capsules that come with your garden variety made in China microphones can be quiet goo, if you are lucky and get a good one. But they do NOT sound like a u47 in any way.
We replace your stock capsule with a centre terminated capsule similar to the one used in the u47. We use the Peluso P K47, Gold sputtered 34x14 mm, 6 micron, dual diaphragm capsule shown below.
It is built to have a slight lift in the upper mid- range that adds a unique "grit" to the sound and it rolls off gently above 11Khz for that "vintage" sound. You can see it in our lab's reponse graph below.
*For the budget conscious we also have the RK-47 capsule which has a very similar response above 1KHz but with a bit more low end lift (2 dB) below 100Hz.
Upgrade the circuit...
We have some options with this part. The simplest, lowest price option is simply to fix the problems with the existing circuit. This is VERY effective since there are some fundamental things wrong with these low cost microphones. We leave the circuit configuration as the 2 triode CCDA circuit but we reducethe harmonic distortion by an great amount. Typically from 3 or 5% to 0.5% with a -20dBu signal injected into the preamp.
For the most expensive option we can completely re-wire the circuit to match the original u47 circuit almost exactly. The one difference is that we use diode bias rather than the filament voltage/resistor trick used in the u47.
Add a New Tube...
We change the 12AX7B guitar amplifier tube, that came with your microphone for a 6072 vacuum tube. The same kind of tube used in the classic ELA m251 microphone.
Less noise, less distortion, wider frequency response. It's that simple.
Optionally we can use the ultra low distortion 6922 tube. Your choice!
And Change the Transformer...
There are many options for the transformer upgrade. I have listed them below with why you might choose one over the other. We can help you further if you ask for a quote.
Option 1: Don't change it
- APEX 460 mics have a pretty good transformer
- Flat response to 40KHz with CCDA circuit, low distortion
Option 2: Small transformer
- Peluso BVP11, only for CCDA circuit
- High output level, low distortion, very flat reponse
- *Cinemag CM-2480
- Recommend for CCDA circuit only
- Low distortion, colored high response (warm sounding)
Option 3 : Tab Funkenwerk T 8
- 7:1 ratio, more like the u47 for higher output level
- Smaller form factor to fit the APEX style mics.
- Low distortion, flat response to 20Khz
Option 4: BIG IRON
- Only for mics that have the room
- Higher output levels with lower distortion
- *Cinemag CM-2461 fits into the TCM1050 and makes a WOW kind of microphone
Big IRON at it's best. The NADY TCM1050 fitted with the CM-2461
*Cinemag transformers are very popular and orders take several weeks to arrive. If we have stock we can fulfil quickly but there can be delays if we are out of stock.
Prove the difference...
After we are done we re-measure the electronics and acoustic response of your microphone and print the results before and after our work you can see how the changes improved the specifications.
Your ears will tell you the real difference the moment you lay down your first track.
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FAR 47 Sound Examples
These examples were recorded simultaneously using four microphones.
You can hear all the files on one page here.
The tracks below were recorded direct into our Presonus Firestudio project. The DAW was Logic Pro 8 and the sample rate was 44.1Khz. No compression or EQ was used.
A common complaint with some low price condenser mics is call the "eshy" sound. This link demonstrates the "S" in the FAR 47.
A couple of announcer examples:
Male announcer at 24 inch distance
Male announcer at 5 inch distance
This guitar was recorded about 20 inches in front of the guitar with the mic above the height of the guitar.
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To get a quote for your 47 Upgrade
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