Neumann KM-D Digital Microphones

[Hugh Robjohns]

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!

Isn't Waves working on a plugin for that?

[MOF]

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.

[forumuser840717]

Yeah... but I don't think you an be considered 'normal' by the standards of most recording engineers!

Fair point

Isn't Waves working on a plugin for that?

Oh I do hope so! Preferably with presets and an 'Auto' function.

[John Willett]

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.

[Nites]

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.

[Forum Admin]

In the current market all the USB mics on offer are plasticky low end offerings. Nothing studio quality.

Not sure that's true... some of those in this round-up are non-plastic:

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/ch ... microphone

And Marantz offer their MPM-4000U which is a USB microphone, based around a 14mm aluminium-plated cardioid capacitor capsule.

More info: https://www.soundonsound.com/news/maran ... microphone

[Arpangel]

The Box is quite useful once you've learned how to interpret it (which doesn't take that long)

hugh

Oh yes it does, I’ve got one, and can never remember how it works, I use it as a crude level meter, and to see if my M&S is working correctly.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I’ve got one, and can never remember how it works...

I am not even slightly surprised...

[forumuser840717]

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.

[Arpangel]

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.

[forumuser840717]

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..

[Hugh Robjohns]

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!

[forumuser840717]

£450???! Blimey! I think I paid about £170-ish in about 1985. So I've had my money's worth. I must admit that mine has been stuck on a shelf in my store for ages. I wouldn't be surprised if the pixies have died of loneliness by now!

I got one of the NTP stereo scope/PPMs which had a little green screen CRT monitor built in with an RGB colour output on the back in about 1995 (model 277.550) which subsequently got upgraded to an RTW 10800 then an RTW TM7. A couple of years ago I picked up a cheap Clarity 5.1 meter on eBay, which is what I usually carry around with me on location as it's small, light, does what it says and is a lot cheaper than the TM7 so I'd be less uspet if it got knocked onto the floor, had something dropped on it or got stolen! Though I still take the TM7 out for 'best' on things like live broadcasts where it's ability to show multiple meter formats (including a decent version of BBC PPMs) all at once can be quite handy. Particularly since I updated it to the AoIP version that can take Ravenna (there's a Dante version too). I use both of those at different times and having the meter as just another box on the end of some Cat5 makes life very easy.

I also use RME's DigiCheck as it's free!

[Arpangel]

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!

I think The Box had two things against its success, at the time, it was pricey, and badly presented, the black ones were a step in the right direction, but Hugh is right, better alternatives now.
I like using mine though, I’m used to it, you can see at a glance you’re stereo field, phase etc, if anything’s wrong, that you may not actually "hear" at the time.
Yes, I have a Mike Skeet preamp, he was a friend of mine, his son gave it to me when he died, it’s a great preamp, my only one in fact, it’s performance is way beyond anything I could want. The Box forms part of the lid.

[forumuser840717]

Yes, I have a Mike Skeet preamp, he was a friend of mine, his son gave it to me when he died, it’s a great preamp, my only one in fact, it’s performance is way beyond anything I could want. The Box forms part of the lid.

Ah, I think I saw one like that with him once. I was recording a concert at St John's, Smith Square for a broadcast and, as the artist was a long time client of Mike's, he'd been in touch to ask if I minded if he did the artist's archive recording as usual; of course I didn't. It was great to see him after a gap of several years. One of his boxes was a briefcase with a built in mixer/preamp which had a Box built in to the lid. Iirr it had a couple of walkman style MD or DAT recorders built in too (or that might've been a different box he had on another job. Hmmm. Memory is definitley going!).

Mike was really helpful to me when I was in college, and before. At school, I wrote to him with questions from reading something he'd written in Studio Sound and was surprised to receive a phone call from him and a 2 hour chat about my quesitons and a load of other things. He sent me long written explanations of some of his ideas and work, circuit diagrams, and even breadboard layouts for some of his ITZA preamps, mixer modules, and MS matrices which enabled me to get started well before I could afford to buy commercial kit of equivalent quality. Something for which I'll always be grateful.

A lot of the stuff I did at uni explored things I'd discussed with Mike. He was a unique individual; eccentric perhaps but one of the most interesting, helpful, thoughtful, and enthusiastic people I've ever known. I'm always bumping into people all over the sound/recording industry who mention how he helped them at some stage in their careers. He really should've received some kind of 'official recognition' for his work and all the time he so willingly spent helping random students and others he'd never met, though I'm not sure he would've wanted that. He's very much missed. It's nice to know that his kit is still getting used.

[Hugh Robjohns]

£450???! Blimey! I think I paid about £170-ish in about 1985.

Yep! But that does include UK postage...
https://tabor-audio.uk/box.html

Though I still take the TM7 out for 'best' on things like live broadcasts where it's ability to show multiple meter formats (including a decent version of BBC PPMs) all at once can be quite handy.

I use a DK Technologies MSD600++ for 'posh jobs' for the same reasons. I also have a little DK2 meter which is great for more portable rigs. And I still look at my twin-twin AB/MS PPM Meter box more often than anything else!

I also use RME's DigiCheck as it's free!

And very useful, even if not as elegant as the others!

[Arpangel]

Yes, I have a Mike Skeet preamp, he was a friend of mine, his son gave it to me when he died, it’s a great preamp, my only one in fact, it’s performance is way beyond anything I could want. The Box forms part of the lid.

Ah, I think I saw one like that with him once. I was recording a concert at St John's, Smith Square for a broadcast and, as the artist was a long time client of Mike's, he'd been in touch to ask if I minded if he did the artist's archive recording as usual; of course I didn't. It was great to see him after a gap of several years. One of his boxes was a briefcase with a built in mixer/preamp which had a Box built in to the lid. Iirr it had a couple of walkman style MD or DAT recorders built in too (or that might've been a different box he had on another job. Hmmm. Memory is definitley going!).

Mike was really helpful to me when I was in college, and before. At school, I wrote to him with questions from reading something he'd written in Studio Sound and was surprised to receive a phone call from him and a 2 hour chat about my quesitons and a load of other things. He sent me long written explanations of some of his ideas and work, circuit diagrams, and even breadboard layouts for some of his ITZA preamps, mixer modules, and MS matrices which enabled me to get started well before I could afford to buy commercial kit of equivalent quality. Something for which I'll always be grateful.

A lot of the stuff I did at uni explored things I'd discussed with Mike. He was a unique individual; eccentric perhaps but one of the most interesting, helpful, thoughtful, and enthusiastic people I've ever known. I'm always bumping into people all over the sound/recording industry who mention how he helped them at some stage in their careers. He really should've received some kind of 'official recognition' for his work and all the time he so willingly spent helping random students and others he'd never met, though I'm not sure he would've wanted that. He's very much missed. It's nice to know that his kit is still getting used.

I think we may have met? as you knew Mike.
I recorded at Smiths Square a few times with him, I got to know him because he recorded me once, and I was immediately taken back by his knowledge and enthusiasm, he certainly helped me immensely, with my own recording problems, yes, he is greatly missed, I still here his voice "and here I am now, in the left speaker"

[The Elf]

+1 for the TC Clarity. It's so much more flexible than all those boxes of old and the version I have does 5.1 too. No alignment to do, either, if using it via the VST plug-in.

[ConcertinaChap]

Haven't been able to follow much of the later discussion because I wasn't familiar with any of the kit referenced, but for what it's worth I just wanted to add my commendation of the Clarity. Lovely bit of kit full of useful displays and I can apply it to any audio on my computer. Looks good too.

CC