Welcome back to the blog! As we enter the final months of the year, it's getting close to both Christmas, and a certain sale many of you look forward to for many reasons. We've covered just about every topic imaginable this year, and as the last portion of the year is so busy as already mentioned, I wanted to share with you some helpful insights into just why do industry professionals trust in our brand in the way that they do.
So, with that all said, let's dive in!
Vintage Series
I think I can say with great certainty that our Vintage Series mics are by far and away those that most people will be aware of at this point in time. Artists of every genre and varying calibres have been seen using them in the studio or live, including Metallica, Dave Grohl & Mick Jagger, Architects, and more; but the question remains as to how they came across us in the first place?
Well, a good place to start is with the engineers or producers they work with. There's a quite literal plethora of industry pro's that have been using the Vintage Series mic's for over a decade now, many of whom have also won Grammy awards or had Number 1 Chart topping hits back to back with our mics playing a part in that road to success for them. However, I think a good way to summarise just why people trust in our mics so much is to just show you instead.
In the video below, Grammy award winning producer Warren Huart has provided a blind A/B comparison in which his collection of microphones worth well over $50,000 is pitted against our Vintage series to see if he was in fact able to tell the difference. The V47, V67, and V12 were all put in a close of a position to their vintage counterpart, and tested on various instruments such as Piano, Acoustic Guitar, Drums, and Vocals.
While there are a few things that skew the odds out of our favour (such as Warren not having several pairs of the mic's he was testing at the time of the video being filmed), you can get a great sense of how our vintage series holds up against the household names that have been around for well over 40-50 years that our mic's have both improved the design of and modernised to bring the sound that so many people love into the 21st Century:
The Black Hole Series and Signature Series
Both the Black Hole Series and our Signature series are also well loved by many artists and producers around the world, with some such as Sean Genocky using his for well over a decade now. Our Black Hole series has been a staple in the sound and design we have always aimed to achieve and our flagship model, the BH1S, gives the greatest versatility of any microphone in our entire line-up of microphones. Whereas, the BB29 from our Signature series is one of the latest additions to the family, designed with the intention on not only standing out in any mix, but also being the only microphone in our line-up currently with a transformer-coupled output helping to shape the sonic footprint of the mic and bring life to any recording. It also has a unique and predefined frequency response that makes it a perfect choice for any vocal, and thanks to the transformer-coupled output, there's a luxurious top-end bump that helps capture all of the detail and definition within a voice.
Our Black Hole Series is almost universally described as being transparent and detailed, without ever feeling harsh or brittle in the top-end of the frequency spectrum. It's also able to take an enormous amount of SPL (sound pressure level) allowing it to perform perfectly in front of any loud source such as a guitar or bass amp, or a drum kit alike, with no lapse in performance or precision relating to its sound and quality - I personally love how it sounds as a drum room pair of mic's or as overheads on a drum kit; thanks to it's almost flat frequency response, it negates the risk of ever allowing the cymbals to become overwhelming in the upper-mid-range while maintaining all the bulk and body of the low-end from the shells.
In the video below, our friend Austin Hull from Make Pop Music shows how he used his Black Hole Series on his own vocals on a song that has varying dynamics across the board, and takes it from the raw audio straight into his interface, all the way through to the final processed sound. I personally love this video and I love sharing it with people that want to know how easy it is to work with the Black Hole Series - Austin essentially shows just how little you need to do to take the raw recordings he captured, all the way through to a finished and radio-ready sound with minimal processing.
Make sure to follow the blog throughout this month to find out all the future information on our Black Friday sale as well, and if you have anything you'd like to ask me about our mics, you can reach out to me via email or in our JZ Microphones Members area on Facebook if you're a part of it!