Resuscitating an elderly thread but Just in case anyone likes the idea of these mics, the following appeared on the Neumann website early in 2020:
The digital Neumann microphone technology (Solution-D) will no longer be part of the Neumann product portfolio from 2021. Last order date for dealers will be 31 July 2020. After that, the products will be available as long as stock lasts. Service for all Solution-D hardware products is guaranteed until 31 Dec 2030.
The Remote Control Software (32 Bit, available also as VST plug-in) for the digital Neumann microphones is compatible with Windows 98SE – Windows 10 and Mac OS 8.6 – Mac OS X 10.14.6. There will be no further updates of the RCS software.
I missed it until earlier this year but all the digital stuff is now under the "Historical Microphones" section of the Neumann website so it seems that's it for Neumann and digital mics. They looked like a good idea but perhaps were a solution looking for a problem and not enough people wanted them. I bought the KK capsules but with KMA analogue bodies (which are still in production) so didn't really help the cause of digital mics.
I liked the KMDs when I tried them and the digital control tricks were fun and interesting but they didn't offer enough advantages and added a lot of complication to run them alongside my other mics so I stayed analogue. Maybe there'll be some bargains around as any remaining stock is cleared, which might make it worth having a small all-digital rig for chamber music or something, particularly as Schoeps seem still to be working on digital with their new CMD42 in beta testing to replace the CMD2.
Last edited by forumuser840717 on Sun May 09, 2021 10:46 pm, edited 6 times in total.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
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In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Yes, very poor sales possibly due to a misunderstanding of the market.
With a digital mic all you can do is place it and plug it in. Where's the fun in that when there is no scope for golden-eared tweakery in choosing specific cables and /or preamps.
And that's inevitably going to make them unattractive for the kind of pros with the budget to invest significantly in digital mics.
I imagine Sennheiser and Neumann assumed the traditional broadcasters would buy into the idea, but the money's no longer in that market for this kind of radical operational reform and, surprisingly, few large digital consoles support the AES42 connection format directly either -- a supply and demand issue presumably.
Last edited by Hugh Robjohns on Tue May 11, 2021 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Hugh Robjohns wrote:With a digital mic all you can do is place it and plug it in. Where's the fun in that when there is no scope for golden-eared tweakery in choosing specific cables and /or preamps.
That's one of the things I like about them
If they could automatically select which of them were the right mic for a given situation, and position themselves too, they'd be approaching my perfect mic!
forumuser840717 wrote:That's one of the things I like about them
Yeah... but I don't think you an be considered 'normal' by the standards of most recording engineers!
If they could automatically select which of them were the right mic for a given situation, and position themselves too, they'd be approaching my perfect mic!
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
I was very impressed with the miniaturisation of the A-D circuitry, all inside the microphone body.
I was interested in the technology but had no real use for it, especially since back then it would have required a digital mixer with remote control software incorporated and extra cost.
Later on I bought a Sound Devices mixer which accepts AES microphones but won’t control them. So for me they’ve come and gone, for now, maybe like the Ambisonic microphone they’ll make a come back.
I still have my pair of KM-D with two pairs of omni capsules (nearfield and diffuse field) and still like them.
A friend had some and loved the fact that you could run 200m of cable with zero RF interference and noise on the run.
But, as Hugh said, probably not enough sales - sadly.
But the series is still current in the fact that there is the analogue KM-A (analogue) module and all the capsules and accessories as a continuing series - in fact Neumann discontinued the excellent KM100 series and replaced it with the KM-A series - much to the sadness of many KM100 series users who wished they still had it. In many ways I wish they had just updated the electronics in the KM100 module and kept the old series going.
And, as far as I know, Schoeps still do the Super CMiT gun mic. which is an AES42 microphone.
Last edited by John Willett on Fri Jun 25, 2021 5:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
They were going after the wrong market. Should have come out with USB or TB mics for the voice over artist, streamer and podcaster markets. In the current market all the USB mics on offer are plasticky low end offerings. Nothing studio quality.
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Arpangel wrote: ↑Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:00 pm
I’ve got one, and can never remember how it works,
Depends whether you have the original wooden box or the newer plastic box version.
On the original, you squirt electricity into various holes in the back and it shocks the pixies inside, making them jump about on the switches that turn the little lights on and off. Louder signals make for more electricity and more jumping pixies in the crowd.
There's a little see-saw just inside the input holes that bounces from side to side in time with the incoming electricity and turns the power on to different pixies at different times so they turn the lights on and off in time with the electricity from the two inputs.
When you send exactly the same thing to both inputs, the seesaw gets stuck in the middle and only the pixies working the red lights up the middle get any shocks. When the electricity is very different between the inputs, then pixies at the edges of the crowd get more shocks.
Simple, but effective.
The newer one uses fairies because the box is smaller and the pixies wouldn't fit.
I’ve got the newer black "Box"
It’s built into my mic amp, it’s also very temperamental, works intermittently, but it is very useful, once you use one it’s difficult to do without.
I agree. I've got one of the older wooden box ones that I've had for about 35 years and once you get the hang of them they're very useful. When they're lined up properly one can get away without using any other meters for general mixing. And they were a lot easier to carry around on location jobs than an oscilloscope! (Though mine pre-dates the perspex fronted boxes and has a glass front that needs a bit more care in transit than the perspex version.) Sounds like you have one of Mike Skeet's preamps or mixers.
Mike wrote a good article in a 1984 edition of Home Studio Recording magazine about how "The Box" works and how to read it..
It was an ingenious design in its day, but with a current price of £450 completely impractical when the infinitely more informative TC Clarity meter provides a better stereo vectorscope display, and so much more besides, for half the cost!
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual...
Yeah... but I don't think you an be considered 'normal' by the standards of most recording engineers! 
