New offering from Mojave Audio!
Mojave Audio is presenting their new MA-1000 microphone at AES. This will be the first model in the new Signature Series line. Designed by David Royer.

The MA-1000, Inspired by the Elam 251. Features: Original NOS 5840 Tube, 251 style capsule, custom transformer by Coast Magnetics, 15dB pad, continuously variable polar patterns located on the power supply.
Pricing: $2495.00 USD
Shipping Q4, 2015.

Drool... these guys make truly quality mics. I love mine. This would be a welcome addition to my collection.

Thanks for posting, Chris. BTW been enjoying the Mojave MA-100 pair I bought from you. Great detail without brittleness.
~Jeff

looks sweet!

thatjeffguy, post: 433678, member: 38103 wrote: Drool... these guys make truly quality mics. I love mine. This would be a welcome addition to my collection.

Thanks for posting, Chris. BTW been enjoying the Mojave MA-100 pair I bought from you. Great detail without brittleness.
~Jeff

Hey Jeff! good to hear. They went to a good home :)

These look great.

the MA-1000 looks awesome. I want this bad now lol. And here I was thinking about the 251 last week.

LOL looks are always a plus to greta performance. : )~

audiokid, post: 433683, member: 1 wrote: the MA-1000 looks awesome. I want this bad now lol. And here I was thinking about the 251 last week.

Don't get me wrong... I'd love to have this mic also; if it's even remotely close to a real 251, I'm sure I'd be happy - but then again, I'm one of those "character" loving guys, so I'd expect to like it.

But I'll admit to being a little surprised to hear you say this, Chris... considering your love for transparency. :)

I'm not jabbin' atcha, brother... Just going by what I've heard you say in the past. :)

With the tlelfunken brand reissues in the +$7k range, something from cathedral pipes, or peluso, is probably the MA-1000s closest direct competitor. I will say, I already don't like the shock mount setup, how it looks like it's built into the mic. At these prices an aftermarket shockmount from someone like rycote is a good quality buy, a necessity in my list, don't think the built in shockmount is my style, and it doesn't look ultra sturdy.

This thing could sound super sweet! I haven't heard of coast magnetics, or there transformers before now.

kmetal, post: 433688, member: 37533 wrote: This thing could sound super sweet! I haven't heard of coast magnetics, or there transformers before now.

Me neither, Kyle.
I believe that we can be assured that Mojave isn't going to be using anything less than great components in their products. Knowing Mojave's reputation for building stellar sounding mics, I think it's probably safe to assume that Coast's transformers can be regarded in the same light.

I'm sure most of us have heard of the XFO's that have become the "staples" over the years - Lundhal's, Jensen's, API's, John Hardy's, Seventh Circle, Sowter's, (I'm sure I've left out some other great ones) ...
But I do like hearing about new stuff, and it's nice to see a new one on the scene - if in fact they are new... and a little research has shown that they might not be.

http://www.coastmagnetics.com/

Their website describes them as developing transformers for aerospace, military and health industry uses... They certainly wouldn't be the first company to have origins in military or space equipment development, that eventually added commercial audio to their list of development endeavors. Telefunken and Fairchild are just a few companies who's origins were with military contracts:

Telefunken
"During World War I, Telefunken supplied radio sets and telegraphy equipment for the military, as well as building one of the first navigation systems for Germany's Zeppelin Air Force. The Telefunken " Kompass Sender" was in operation from 1908 to 1918, allowing the Air Ships to navigate throughout The North Sea area in any kind of weather. In 1928, Telefunken made history by designing the V-41 amplifier for the German Military Radio and Communications Network. This was the very first two-stage, "Hi-Fi" amplifier. Over time, Telefunken perfected their designs, and in 1950, the V-72 amplifier was developed. The TAB V-72 soon became popular with other radio stations and recording facilities. The V-72S ( I'm assuming that "S" stands for "stereo"...I could be wrong, though) was the only type of amplifier found in the REDD 37 console used by The Beatles on many of their early Abbey Road recordings..."
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telefunken
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Fairchild
Fairchild had its roots in the Aviation Industry. Sherman Fairchild - the man behind the corporation - had an intuition that Fairchild's technology could be used for other commercial ventures - including audio applications. He licensed the 660/670 design from Rein Narma, who had developed the early 660 prototype for Les Paul's personal 8 track studio. Fairchild hired Narma as Chief Engineer of their new audio division, to further the development of commercial audio products.
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I see no reason why Coast wouldn't excel at a similar endeavor. Technology is universal in its applications. It can be applied to a vast range of uses; and there's always a chance ( a good chance) that a component designed and built for one purpose could serve another. I'll wager, with a high degree of confidence, that the first computer ever designed was not built with the intention of serving the pro audio community... LOL ... yet, here we are. ;)

Military and medical specs concern is reliability and performance. It doesn't necessarily mean sounds or performs better, but it meets certain reliability standards. This xfo, is built for war lol literally! I think it's exciting that companies aren't just resting on the old faithful parts, and making fresh new takes, down to the component level. Great stuff.

DonnyThompson, post: 433687, member: 46114 wrote: But I'll admit to being a little surprised to hear you say this, Chris... considering your love for transparency. :)

I'm not jabbin' atcha, brother... Just going by what I've heard you say in the past. :)

Dusty had me when he said the tranny was the size of a donut lol.

Preamps, converters and summing amps is where I most prefer transparency . But not because of the transparency, because that's what I hear opens me up to big fat capture in the bigger picture, especially for hybrid production and blending with today's sample libraries (another topic); and, why I love combining LA2A /1176 with transformerless gear.
Too much of one thing, turns everything into a Heinz 57 so I pick my poison where I find it most effective.

I love DPA mics for acoustic music. But not necessarily for vocals. But DPA's do sound lush on vocals and acoustic guitars when you combine them with transformers. You don't put a DPA mic through some cheapo pre because it would sound glassy and cheap. And, then I would fall into the trap of blaming the transformerless for the wrong reason.

I prefer mics of all kinds. My Soundelux 250 is one of my favourite vocal mics, especially through a Millennial M-2b. The M-2b is a transformer-less pre with a tube. It's incredible. Especially combined with other transformer topology.
The reason I prefer big rail transformer-less pre's is all about the capture.

A lot of reason why I prefer transformerless gear is because of phase and accuracy in a bigger picture, which falls into hybrid summing, mastering and sound design.

:)

Don't get me wrong, I get what you're saying. It's just been quite sometime since you last talked about tubes and trannies.

That quote had me laughin' as well: "with a custom-built Coast transformer, the size of a mini donut... it just barely fits in here..."

I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at another bag of Hostess mini donuts again without thinking about that. ;)

audiokid

Damn. Now I'm hungry for donuts... but not those mini ones...

Chris, run down to Timmy Horton's for me, and get me an apple dutchie, will ya? ;)

DonnyThompson, post: 433697, member: 46114 wrote: It's just been quite sometime since you last talked about tubes and trannies.

Most of my work is around mixing, which has less to do with trannies and tubes. Transparency is the focus then..
Mics: I'd love to have every mic on the planet. I sold a whole bunch of them and I want them all back! I really want a 251.

Front end is where I have always appreciated excellent analog gear, especially Pultecs and UA comps and levelers. UA gear is pretty dirty sounding so I tend to like UA with transparent pre's. Especially, the millennial m-2b. Everyone should own at least one of them.
My appreciation for transparency is all to do with big rails and the wow factor I hear from top end transformerless products like DPA mics, SPL and Millennia Media gear.
When you have an M-2b in your arsenal, transparency has a whole new meaning. ;)

kmetal, post: 433688, member: 37533 wrote: I will say, I already don't like the shock mount setup, how it looks like it's built into the mic.

I know. Its most likely where they are being innovative with something improved or how to keep the cost down in order to keep the build affordable.

kmetal, post: 433688, member: 37533 wrote: I haven't heard of coast magnetics, or there transformers before now.

me as as well. Let,s find out more.

DonnyThompson, post: 433698, member: 46114 wrote: Damn. Now I'm hungry for donuts... but not those mini ones...

Chris, run down to Timmy Horton's for me, and get me an apple dutchie, will ya? ;)

I know, we Canadians love our Tim Hortons.

Update on the MA-1000

I just got off the phone with John from Royer. We talked about the new MA-1000. From what he said, it has beautiful lush low end goodness which is part of having that big ass transformer in it. He said it definitely has a vintage 251 character.
He mentioned a famous engineer who has been recording a famous band ( doesn't that sound interesting ;) in the USA which has always used the big Blue mic for all their vocals. The band would never switch to anything put in front of them until this new MA-1000 arrived. Its their go to now.
Hype or not, it does look promising. They are about a month away from it hitting the streets. I'm going to try and get one.

audiokid, post: 434005, member: 1 wrote: They are about a month away from it hitting the streets. I'm going to try and get one.

You Sir, are one lucky **********.

I hate you. ;)

LOL

Update. I just spoke with John again, Dusty is on the road.

Apparently its Dream Theater who had the opportunity to try the MA-1000 and loved it.

Just came across this vid... not the MA-1000, but two MA-300's and a Royer SV24...

The artist is obviously fantastic, but the sound is also stellar. It's incredibly lush.

Great player, great instrument, great mics, great room. A beautiful combination of all the right elements.

Recorded by Dusty Wakeman and Peter Doell at Universal Mastering West:

Indeed. I've posted this one here a few times. Isn't it glorious. Its the SF-24V! That is one bad ass mic.
I own the SF-24 and had the 300's. The SF24 is absolute cream for capturing space around something. I describe the SF24 like a reverb is to a mix. You only need 5 percent of it but without it, the mix would sound dead, eh. The SF-24 is like that. Royer SF series are awesome.

The MA's are all really nice. I wish I had a bigger room to record more lately. I'm really dying to get the Lake studio up and running.

Thanks for posting that. Its always a treat to hear all the Royer and Mojave video's.

Gawd! Now I'm thinking about the 24V. :coffee:

I swear microphones are my worst addiction. Just looking at them is satisfying.

Every time I hear Rachmaninoff it reminds me of my piano teacher who used to whack me on the knuckles with a wooden ruler when I made a mistake...
- probably the cause of my early onset arthritis...

- Those Mojave mics sound lucious...great vid and what a great pianist Yana is (y)

audiokid, post: 434277, member: 1 wrote: Gawd! Now I'm thinking about the 24V. :coffee:

It's just doesn't stop man, it just doesn't stop.

audiokid, post: 434270, member: 1 wrote: Update. I just spoke with John again, Dusty is on the road.

Apparently its Dream Theater who had the opportunity to try it, and loved it.

I wonder what they used it on, I would imagine a few things. Wonder also if they put in an order for one.

The few recordings I've heard w the ma-100's or maybe they were 300's have been nice and crisp and clear, without being sterile or edgey. Seems like a nice all arounder. I have a gut feel the ma-50 is gonna kill.

I haven't used any of the royer stuff, I've always questioned whether they were as much better as something like the cascade fat head, as the price would reflect.

At 4200$ I dunno about the sf. Even if you had a nice room, that's a lot of cash for an ambience mic. I'm a huge fan of ambience and room sound, but since I'm mainly in the rock world, it'd be just a bit too pricey. 75% of the time the room ambience ends up only on the drum kit, and maybe guitars. It's obviously a wonderful mic, but perhaps a bit limited in use?

That's in the range of a handbuilt boutique mic, or a c-12/telefunken. You could get 2 cathedral pipes almost for that price.

The skeptic in me also wonders what other kind of boutique pres/eqs/compressors they had I the signal chain.

I guess the fact that it's stereo kinda brings it back into the realm of real world high end pricing. But still even then, I very rarely use coincident pairs for the room mics, if ever. Maybe I should give it a try. It's common for me to have them 20ft or more for the kit or whatever, and spaced 5-20 feet apart, sometimes w one in figure 8 one cardioid. But I've had a lot of time to experiment, In the same room. But I also only own 5 or 6 mics, all of which are fairly pedestrian.

We all know that last 5% is the most elusive and expensive part of a recording, but I'm not quite convinced that that's necessarily the best way to get it. I guess I should use a royer before I speak too much about it. Lol I just want to not like it, because the last thing I need right now is another 5k item on my purchase list. Especially since I'm going to be buying my first home in the next 3 years.

I could see where it could fit into your collection Chris as you have so many other 'normal' options. I could see where a steroe ribbon can hold a unique, and worthwhile place.

Imo you don't need a very big room as long as there's a nearby hallway to toss some mics into. Facing the wall is a good technique, and the door can control the decay time the more you open and close it.

That said, I too would like a truly 'big' room to track in. Dead is easy as gobos. I'm hoping to get lucky enough to track classical piano, or a chamber or full orchestra. Hell I'd take 3rd chair violinist solo.