Staying creative in corona times - A current tip from Gefell
Even if politicians are already announcing cautious "easing" in the fight against the pandemic, it is foreseeable that contact restrictions will continue to severely restrict cultural work in the future. This is a danger, because for humans and society culture is vital, especially in crises. Stars and producers, podcasters or ambitious enthusiasts - they all have the desire to make music, want to perform, post and, especially in difficult times, reach and support their audience. The only question is, where and how?
A very up-to-date answer - "on air" communication and recording from living room and home studios despite Corona. Silbermond singer Stefanie Kloß, for example, has recorded the newest Corona song of the band "Machen wir das Beste draus" (Let's Make the Best out of It) in her wardrobe. However, the best home studio is not well equipped without a good microphone. The demand for affordable, adapted, high-quality solutions for the home studio sector is therefore increasing considerably. The trend is towards affordable yet high-quality, universally usable, compact microphones. Best of all - one microphone for every situation - vocals, speech, and various instruments. Beautiful sound with accurate and natural reproduction are in high demand. A balancing act, because small diaphragm microphones do one job best, large diaphragm microphones another. A compromise proposal - the high-end "pencil microphone" for both. Responding to this challenge with flexibility, Gefell has launched a new series of its ultimate classic microphone, the M 300. The replaceable and washable Hakan-Pop Killer ensures appropriate corona hygiene and an optimal sound.
Small in size, big in sound, inexpensive to purchase and universally applicable - since its market launch, the M 300 has won the hearts of hundreds of professional music creators, music producers and ambitious home studio enthusiasts.
This diaphragm FET condenser microphone - handmade in Gefell, also called "pencil condenser microphone" due to its compact design - offers a fixed cardioid polar pattern, a compact size for easy placement and an elegant appearance. Elegant design, successful integration of the developed electronics up to the dark bronze coating give the M 300 not only best functionality and robustness, but also a special haptics and noble aesthetics.
Following the more than 90-year-old Georg Neumann tradition, the M 300 convinces through quality and design.
Dozens of independent, elaborate recording and practical tests certify that the microphone offers the best studio qualities, easy handling, and an excellent price/performance ratio.
This is how "recording hacks", for example, summed it up: “The M300 has received consistently high praise in all applications. The microphone has a full, well-balanced sound with slightly raised treble, slightly attenuated bass and low-mids, and excellent dynamics […]”
"Proaudiosolutions" states: “This microphone is well suited for recording vocal and instrumental soloists. It shows only very little discoloration in its off-center recording, so that the sounds are natural in every angle. The M 300 is designed for a variety of applications in a wide range of environments. It is an excellent choice for studio applications such as music recording, radio, television broadcasting and film. It is also well suited for live performances and sound reinforcement for both professionals and semi-professionals. Due to its excellent cardioid polar pattern, this microphone works particularly well in adverse acoustic conditions [...]”
A "professional-audio" - ranking comes to the result: A beautiful microphone for classical recordings where sound is the main focus and a good breath support is available.
Due to the fine resolution this microphone does not prefer certain frequency ranges. It sounds neutral even at a small microphone distance. The output signal is very well suited for subsequent post-processing with reverb and similar effects. Thanks to its balance and the good resolution a timbre is reproduced close to nature.
Due to their small capsule diameter, the small-diaphragm transistor microphones of the M 300 series are particularly suitable for applications in which a minimal influence on the sound field is desired.
They have an extremely high distortion-free dynamic range with low noise, which allows them to be placed very close to very loud instruments.
The small size of these microphones is suitable for building multi-channel main microphone arrangements for stereo or surround recordings and allows them to be used wherever a visually unobtrusive microphone is required.
Finally, even more versatility is provided by modular designs of various capsule systems and preamplifiers.
With its slight presence of 3 dB between 6 and 10 kHz, the compact microphone M 300 is particularly suitable for vocal and instrumental soloists who need to reproduce sound quality in varying directions, e.g. speakers in dubbing studios and wind players.
Its advantages become apparent in film and broadcast studios for the transmission or recording of musical instruments, singing, speech or for sound reinforcement tasks in professional and semi-professional areas, even under acoustically unfavorable conditions, e.g. in churches.
A low-level noise, highly controllable impedance converter in hybrid technology that can handle high modulation levels and the transformerless circuit concept, guarantee a low replacement volume and high operational reliability. The frequency response is largely uniform for a wide sound incidence range.
The M3 capsule used has a 16 mm thick gold-coated Mylar diaphragm. It is made of ceramic to ensure high consistency regardless of temperature (a feature that also applies to MTG measuring microphones with very high tolerances). The capsule is protected by a three-layer wire mesh at the front and a two-layer mesh at the rear inputs.
Following the highest standards, the phantom power is transmitted through a DC/DC converter to increase the polarization voltage to 60 V - resulting in an impressive SPL and maximum self-noise reduction. In addition, the polarization voltage is delivered to the capsule via an optocoupler, which decouples the supply, reduces ripple and virtually eliminates any phantom power noise and interference.
The electronics are based on a clever, optically isolated power supply technology in which a high-power LED driven directly by phantom power illuminates a photocell that drives a DC/DC converter. This innovative approach cleanly isolates the capsule bias and the impedance converter busbars from phantom power, contributing to very low noise levels. This enables a transformer function without the usual ringing or bandwidth limitation.
Supplying the capsule with pure DC current results in both improved performance and lower inherent noise, especially in the broadband spectrum. The RFI protection is very high, which makes the susceptibility to radio interference extremely low. The EMC resistance of the M 300 is significantly higher than that of conventional microphones. The M 300 is connected via a 3-pin XLR plug with the microphone connection cable C 70. The power supply is 48 V phantom power, which is internationally standardized as P 48 in DIN 45596 and IEC 268-15. A two-channel powering is possible with the N 200 power supply. Use of the W 20 windshield is recommended for close-up speaking.
The M 300 stereo is a versatile microphone system for high-quality stereo recording. Different stereo microphone arrangements for recording in different stereophonic techniques can easily be realized and reproduced. The microphone system consists of a matched pair of M 300 small diaphragm capacitor microphones selected for both sensitivity and frequency response and includes the necessary stereo bar, microphone holders and riser to quickly set up an XY, ORTF, DIN or DINa stereo microphone array.
All components are shipped as a system in an appealing, padded wooden case or a robust plastic case.