Phrases by Lewis Noke Edwards
Notre Dame Classic Tube Microphone | Cathedral Pipes | enquire for pricing
There’s just a few studio microphone designs that’ll discover a house on nearly each session. A handful of dynamics come in useful, whereas ribbons are good once you want a supply to fold into the background of a combination, whereas a pleasant condenser could be reserved for integral sources like a lead vocal or solo instrument. One nice possibility for this condenser is a Cathedral Pipes Notre Dame Classic Tube Condenser, Cathedral Pipes’ personal tackle the well-known ‘47’ design. Constructing on their Regensburg Dom Classic Tube Microphone, the Notre Dame encompasses a bigger physique, an “U47 precise duplicate physique” that permits for a big Jensen output capacitor contained in the physique.
Learn extra gear evaluations right here.
The Notre Dame Classic Tube Studio Microphone is a condenser, with variable polar sample, adjustable by way of the (very cool trying) energy provide and polar sample adjusting knob. You possibly can toggle between omni, cardioid and figure-of-eight patterns, and something in between. The ability provide is switched on and off with a swap coated by a doomsday-esque plastic cap, that appears cool in addition to serving the plain operate of stopping the mic being powered on or off by accident. The Notre Dame options Cathedral Pipes’s personal M7 capsule, handcrafted by Cathedral Pipes, in addition to the aforementioned Jensen output capacitor, serving its position alongside a Cinemag CM-2461NiCo output transformer.
The star of the present is the Hamburg Germany (Valvo/Phillips) PF86 NOS (new previous inventory) tube, serving to energy the microphone’s inside electronics with a little bit of the additional oomph, life and readability that tubes provide. Arriving alongside the mic, the Notre Dame is secured by a custom-made shock-mount by Rycote, a {custom} made crimson cable and a custom-colour flight case from G.O.M.C. Not content material with the entire bundle having a uniquely modern look, the mic basket additionally lights up when powered on.
In use, the Notre Dame is simple to arrange and I rapidly had a great sound. Adjusting the knob that impacts polar-pattern permits mixing roughly room sound, whereas additionally lowering bleed from the edges of the mic with the figure-of-eight possibility. The sound of the microphone is obvious and ahead, the supply materials showing to crystallise within the stereo area with depth and readability. There’s a ‘3D’ feeling to the mic’s sound, bolstering no matter you place it in entrance of, making it the right match for an vital aspect like a vocal or lead instrument, the refined grit of the tube’s response saturating ever so barely. The PF86 tube augments and refines sounds that move by means of it, permitting the sound of the mic itself to shine by means of, and in flip offering focus, element and character to – for instance – a lead vocal. A very vital aspect in an association.
The Notre Dame is actually well-built, as are the {custom} cables and the facility provide itself. It’s a strong, high-quality studio microphone that you simply’ll discover used on session after session on a bunch of sources. On sources like guitars, they bring about out the element and depth of an acoustic, whereas an electrical guitar cupboard sounds crisp, and once more, crystallised within the stereo discipline wherever you place and feels ahead and current with a great sense of depth and area. Sources that occupy comparable areas like violins, cellos and different strings would obtain comparable remedy, and I’ll admit I didn’t have an orchestra accessible to strive for this evaluation! However relaxation assured that the frequency response is balanced, true to supply whereas providing refined augmentations and readability of voice.
Total, the Notre Dame from Cathedral Pipes is the sort of studio microphone that each engineer, producer and musician ought to have of their arsenal. A pair would are available much more helpful, providing element for stereo drum overheads, room readability, or to be used as a room mic and a kick mic, a job that the U47 has famously and extensively been used for and relied on. Cathedral Pipes hand-build the weather of the mic that they will in-house, whereas different components and elements are sourced to be as true-to-original as doable. What this implies is a really trendy recreation of what the 47s of the 50s would have gave the impression of, the classic mics that stay in the present day turning into unreliable, costly to restore and keep. Cathedral Pipes transfer to resolve this, offering a high quality tube condenser, in an inexpensive bundle, constructed for modern-day that harnesses the sonic qualities of the classic mics with up to date reliability. What’s extra, the Notre Dame is only one mic in a variety of equally high-quality, high quality studio microphones, all with the rugged construct high quality and crowd pleasing aesthetic of the Notre Dame.
The Notre Dame ought to be your subsequent mic, little doubt about it. For house owners of classic tube condensers, the Notre Dame affords one thing new utterly, offering that very same, high-quality sound that has been heard on albums for nearly a century. The place the Notre Dame deviates although, is in trendy build-quality, dependable elements and operation, and a few stylish, modern attractiveness, a few of which is because of Cathedral Pipes personal, {custom} made cables, energy provide and road-case. Cathedral Pipes produce their very own M7 capsules, and paired with classic appropriate elements, and an enlarged physique, extra correct to a U47, that permits for a extra correct model of the copy. Each engineer wants a top quality studio condenser for these particular sounds, and paired with a group of dynamics and ribbons, why not make the Notre Dame yours?
For more information, go to Cathedral Pipes Microphones.
