MOTM: GEC BCS2370 & 2373 ribbon mics

GEC BCS 2373 and 2370 microphones

This pair of rather handsome ribbon microphones by General Electrical Company are our microphones of the month for July & August.

The mic on the left is labelled with the model number BCS2373, and was the 'studio' model, with a single layer mesh grill, and thumb screw terminals. Like many early studio ribbons, this one has a 30 ohm output impedance.

On the right is the 2370, with a more robust housing and a curved body. These were probably used as 'lip' microphones for sports commentary and broadcasting in noisier environments. Indeed, one of our customers sent in a very nice example that came complete with its original handle.

GEC 2370 with handle

These mics were available with different output transformers for different applications. I've seen two examples of the 2370 - one had a 10K ohm output, the other measured 600 ohms impedance.

Although they look rather different from the outside, they are twins under the skin - both have identical motor assemblies, with cylindrical pole pieces attached to a large horseshoe magnet, held in place by the magnetic field along The design of the microphone is described in this patent from 1947. All of the GECs that I've seen have held their magnetic field well over time. The only real differences between these mics are the output transformer and the body.

As usual, after all these years they benefit from a good clean and a new ribbon. Particularly as this one arrived with a ribbon made from a fag-packet! Both mics are now working well and should provide some good service for years to come.

* Thanks to Santiago Ramos for additional information.

Addenda - one of these came up recently for sale complete with original box. The owner was kind enough to share this photo of the label. 

Reslosound RB manual

Here is the instruction manual for Reslosound RB microphones

Mullard mustard capacitors

Mullard mustard capacitors

:-D

Coil winder 3 - guitar pickups

There is no 'Mic of the Month' article this month - normal service will resume in July. You can read the archive HERE.

Since the Meteor ME307 coil winder arrived, things have been rather hectic and we've been busy getting it working, and having some fun winding transformers, inductors and pickups. The friction wheel / clutch that drives the lateral action was worn, but we were able to get a good used replacement part from Poland, and everything is working well.

Hungry? P-p-p-pickup a P90...

James from Hungry Ghosts came down to the Xaudia workshop for an afternoon, which we spent rolling our own guitar pickups. James wanted a pair of P90s to replace the stacked humbuckers on his 'Vintage' guitar, and I was still playing about with options for my Reverend Slingshot.

P90s are pretty simple things. We made the base plates by drilling and tapping a bar of 5mm square mild steel, and two "Alnico-5" magnets were glued to this, side by side, like this.

We wound four bobbins, at 7000, 8000, 8500 and 9500 turns, reverse winding some so that they could combine to give a humbucking effect....

Dipping the magnets in hot wax prevents microphonics, and we rigged up a 'redneck' wax potting system using a £10 slow cooker from Tesco. This works really well and I'll describe it in a separate blog post. That done the pickups could be assembled and wired.

I found some nice deep headed screws which made perfect pole pieces for the pickups. Here is the finished P90...

And the new pickups imbued James' guitar with a spooky pink glow!

OK, we made the last bit up but they do sound astonishingly good. 9500 is quite a lot of turns for a P90, but the pickups all had plenty of clarity and no shortage of bottom end either.

Redneck wax potting bath

We needed a better way of wax potting our pickups and transformers. Here's what we did on a budget...

Redneck wax potting bath for guitar pickups

It's a hacked 300 Watt slow cooker, acquired from Tesco for the grand sum of £10, which contains an inner ceramic liner and holds about 3 litres. The probe is simply a cook's thermometer (£14 from Barnitts of York).

It takes a little while to warm up, but sits at about 90 degrees all day, which is just about perfect for potting. The temperature can be further tweaked by running the bath on a variac.
Here's a newly dipped transformer coming out of the soup - a mix of bees wax and parafin wax...

Update: 1 December 2011

The batteries in the cook's thermometer died, and we really wanted to regulate the temperature and avoid the possibility of overheating the wax, so I built a little temperature controller into an old power supply box. The digital controller was 'new old stock' at £30 from ebay, and a 5 amp solid state relay and resistance thermometer came from Farnell to complete the setup. It works very well!

Coil winding part 2

The new ME307 coil winder is up and running, and we're jumping straight in to winding some guitar pickups. The idea was that this should be an easy place to start as they can be made with a single winding, and bobbins, wire etc. are all readily available. There is a big pickup winding community in interweb-land, so help and advice should be available.

The winder in action, with the pickup mounted on a metal plate that we made for the job...

Pickups typically use circa 42 AWG wire (0.0633 mm), which is a very fine gauge and requires care whilst winding and soldering to avoid breakages.

The wire tensioners that came with the winder were a little out of calibration, but with a little practice at setting the correct tension and winding speed, we could easily get 7000 turns onto a P90 bobbin with room to spare. It's probably possible to get 8000 or 9000 turns with practice, to wind a really hot pickup. Here's the first winding from the Meteor....

Looks nice! The next step will be to rewind some of the broken microphone transformers that we have accumulated over the past few years. But before that we need to mend the clutch plate, which is slipping.

One Note virtual piano project

Christian Borngraeber has launched this brilliant project...

He is asking for help to record single notes from a huge number of pianos, and will combine them into a single virtual instrument made up of all the little piano notes.

What will it sound like? Well, we don't know yet but probably a bit like a piano.

You can email contributions in to his website, so go and grab a microphone, pick your favourite note, and record away. And there's a free party pack for everyone who helps.

Here's how you can get involved.

Our New Coil Winder - Meteor ME307

The 'new'* Meteor ME307 coil winder has just arrived at the Xaudia workshop, after a 500 mile round trip to collect it...

We are very excited about this as it will expand our repair abilities and let us rebuild and rewind broken microphone transformers and guitar pickups. It has a counter to set the number of turns, foot actuated motor control, and of course the all important set of tensioners to allow the wire to be spooled at the correct tension.

The coil winder was probably built sometime in the 80's and is built like a tank, with some beautiful Swiss engineering inside. Everything needed a little lubrication and a good clean and, although the machine has clearly seen some years of use, everything is still working perfectly.

ME307 internal gears and drive train.

We hope to be doing our first windings later this week...

Direct Inject!

My friends in The Savoy Ballroom needed some stage DI boxes for their numerous acoustic instruments. They wanted to be able to mute the signal whilst tuning up or switching instruments, so I build these nice little boxes for them.

They are based on Bo Hansen's easy to make design, but with added bells and whistles - well, a switch, a lamp and an extra output.

Job done - now back to recording!

Transformer assembly line!

This week we have been building lots of little transformer moxes to match vintage 30 ohm ribbon mics to modern mic preamps. Correct impedance matching can deliver a +12 dB increase in level without noise penalty or loss of frequency response, which is welcome for many older microphones. Here is how a Reslo RV microphone behaves with and without the transformer:

Frequency response plots for Reslo mic with and without an impedance matching transformer

They are suitable for many old microphones including the following:

• Reslo RBL and RB 30 ohm models
• Melodium 42b
• Grampian ribbon mics (including GR1/L and GR2/L)
• Cadenza ribbon microphones (wired for low-Z use)
• RSA & Selmer ribbon mics
• STC 4033
• Altec and Western Electric ribbon microphones

More information.

Mic of the month - Melodium 42b

Our Microphone of the Month for May is the magnificent Melodium 42B ribbon microphone.

Evolving Melodium 42b - serial no. in the 1700s, 4300s and 6600s (L to R)

The Melodium 42B was conceived as a French alternative to the RCA 44 family of microphones, and is in its own way every bit as good as the more celebrated RCA mics. At 32 cm high and 14 cm wide, and weighing 2.65 Kg, the 42b is a huge microphone with a large ribbon (68 mm long by 4.2 mm wide) and big powerful magnets*, to give a strong output with low noise.

We have been lucky enough to have four of these through the workshop, and have had the opportunity to observe some for the finer details that have evolved during the production of these beauties. Over the years the grill of the 42b has been refined, with the holes becoming larger, and a solid unperforated band appearing across the bottom of the microphone. Later microphones have a three pin connector at the rear, whist early models are hard-wired.

The magnet structure has also changed over time - earlier models have U-shaped magnets above and below, whereas the later microphones have four block magnets, arranged in pairs and connected by metal plates to complete the magnetic circuit.
The photo on the left shows the later style of magnets. The transformer and inductor are in the circular metal can below. Some models have a rectangular can, but the transformer and inductor inside are similar, at least in the ones we studied. The transformer has a ratio of 1:14, giving an output impedance of 50 ohms**

There is also a facility to adjust the ribbon tension, which should be mandatory on all ribbon mics!

Here's a short summary of the changes with serial number:

• 1500 - Small grill holes, fixed cable (no connector), U-magnets with North marked, rectangular transformer case
• 1700 - Small grill holes, fixed cable (no connector), U-magnets, circular transformer case
• 1900 - Small grill holes, fixed cable (no connector)r, U-magnets, square transformer case
• 3400 - Small grill holes, connector, U-magnets (unmarked), rectangular transformer case
• 3700 - Big grill holes, connector, U magnets, rectangular transformer case
• 4300 - Big grill holes, connector, U magnets, rectangular transformer case
• 5100 - Big grill holes, fixed cable (no connector), U-magnets, rectangular transformer case
• 5300 - Big grill holes, connector, U magnets, rectangular transformer case
• 6100 - Big grill holes, connector, U magnets (North is marked), rectangular transformer case
• 6600 - Big grill holes, connector, block magnets, circular transformer case
• 8000 - Big grill holes, connector, block magnets, circular transformer case

The latest serial number that I know of is number 9250, on the Coutant website, which has large grill holes and a connector.

The 42b has a three-position switch on the front which is used to select "Speaker", "Voix", and "Musique" modes. In the first two positions an inductor is switched in parallel with the output transformer which causes the lower frequencies to be rolled off.

Above is a frequency plot that I recorded in our anechoic mic testing chamber (well, more of a walk-in cupboard really!). This was recorded at 40 cm distance from the sound source, which is a concentric full range speaker, using a swept sine wave technique.

The bottom end boost due to proximity effect is pronounced, even at this distance, and the effect on the sound is very musical when capturing acoustic instruments. Of course sometimes you don't want or need the proximity boost, and the switch conveniently corrects for this at speaking and singing distances.

If you are lucky enough to come across an old Melodium 42b but are disappointed with the sound, it may well have an oxidised ribbon and will need cleaning. The strong magnets are prone to attracting little shards of iron, which stick to the magnets and interfere with free motion of the ribbon.

* It is worth noting that the magnets on these microphones can fade with time - a healthy 42b should have a magentic field between the pole pieces of around 4000 Gauss. One of our microphones measured at just 1500 gauss and it was necessary to replace the magnets with suitable modern alternatives. If you have a Melodium with a weak output it may be worth having the field measured and the ribbon checked. Xaudia can of course help with all those things.

**  For optimum results with modern equipment a matching transformer is recommended.

Here are some Melodium links on the web:

• Mattéo and Axel at Infernale Machine studios in Beziers, France are both Melodium enthusiasts and there are some good photos and some information in French about servicing and cleaning these microphones on their website.

• George at Kore Studios is also a fan - here is a rather lovely song that was recorded at Kore using a 42b for vocals: East Wind by Ed Laurie.

• The original Melodium brochure is available to download from Professor Stan Coutant's excellent website.

Updated 9/10/14 with additional serial numbers

Meazzi and Framez ribbon mics revisited

April's MOTM was a nice old Framez ribbon mic, and its chunky Meazzi sister also made an appearance. Here's the article... and here are the microphones:

I've had the opportunity to compare these in the anechoic box - here's how they look (click to enlarge).

Frequency plots for Meazzi and Framez mics

The Meazzi has an overall flatter frequency response, but in both cases there is a significant peak around 4KHz, which should add attack to recorded percussion and clarity & presence to vocals. The Framez is slightly more sensitive in the mid range, but falls away somewhat below 150 Hz.

Whilst revisiting these mics, it is worth looking at the Meazzi's perforated backplate resonator, which contributes to the pickup pattern and frequency response.

(Nb. Both microphones were fitted with 1.8 micrometer ribbons and wired for low impedance.)

Summer is here, and it is Reslo season.

Another typical day at the Xaudia studio & workshop...

Outside the studio .... flowers, blue sky and cows.

And inside, in the basement workshop.... a Reslo production line!
We see a lot of these little British microphones. The original ribbons are quite thick and have an unusual 'square wave' corrugation. Very often these have oxidised and become noisy, and after 50 years they usually benefit from a clean and a fresh ribbon.

Microphone of the Month - Framez ribbon microphone.

April's microphone of the month (MOTM) is this glamorous shiny blue ribbon microphone by Framez (not to be confused with Framus!)

This has no model or serial number, but is probably from later 1950s or early 60s. Framez were an Italian brand related to Meazzi - according to one source the name is a contraction of Fratelli Meazzi (trans. Meazzi Brothers), which does sound plausible. Framez / Meazzi also made some cool oddball guitars, and were associated with Wandré Pioli. Fetish guitars have much more information about these guitars.

Back to the microphone! This looks very much like a copy of the RCA 74b 'junior' microphone, but us physically somewhat smaller. And it is a pretty good microphone in its own right. The magnets have retained their strength over the years, measuring a healthy 4500 gauss between the pole pieces.  It has a hefty transformer with taps for both low and high impedance, making it suitable for both recording and PA use.

This one arrived with a thick flat ribbon - probably a DIY 'kitchen foil' repair. With a proper 2.5 micrometer ribbon installed, and the mic rewired for balanced, low impedance operation, the sound is clear with a strong output, just lacking a little of the low end proximity boost that you find with many ribbon microphones. The 'low' impedance tap is 1:45 ratio, which gives around a 450 ohm output with the 2.5 micron ribbon.

I'm actually very impressed with this little microphone, and it looks great too!

Update 23/4/11

We managed to get hold of a Meazzi ribbon microphone for comparison. It's a little less glamorous, and has a similar ribbon dimensions, but a very different motor assembly.

Strange things you find inside mics, part 2

A few months ago I wrote this blog post about the strange things that I had seen inside ribbon microphones. In those cases the 'strange things' in question were put in there deliberately by previous owners or techs trying to repair or improve the microphone.

Since then I have come across a couple of microphones which contained even weirder things - insects!

Before modern foams, felted wool was widely used in microphones for shock mounts, wind shields and the like. Unfortunately, moths love this stuff too.

Here's an old STC4033. You can see the moth eggs on the lower block of green felt.

Worse still, one of the moths had become lodged behind the ribbon:

Moths also seem to like the wool lining and felt mounts on AKG D12s - here you can see the eggs and damage to the lining in the inside corner of the grill:

Anyway, I guess the lesson to be learned is that microphones should be stored in dry, clean places and not in the garage, or at the bottom of the wardrobe. 

:-D

(thanks to Steve Parry  )

DYNAMICKÉ MIKROFONY

I love Czech!

MOTM: Shaftesbury Velodyne Supreme

As you may know, I study quite a lot of vintage ribbon microphones. In general these are simple devices, with just a ribbon, motor, magnets and output transformer . The details and quality of the parts may vary, but most have the same mode of operation. But just once in a while something surprising comes along. Like this Shaftesbury Velodyne Supreme microphone, which is a ribbon microphone with a twist.

The output of a ribbon mic will scale in proportion to the length of the ribbon, at least up to a point. The idea behind the Velodyne was to give increased output by using a super-long ribbon. Normally that wouldn't give you as high an output as it should, because of 'rippling', or other incoherent vibrational modes. But by fixing the ribbon in multiple places they claim to avoid this problem. The microphone was sufficiently novel at the time for the inventors to apply for protection. 

The full patent application is here.

Well that's the theory. In practice the microphone has one giant ribbon that goes round corners, and each length of ribbon has a 'node' in the middle, so in total it has 8 elements, each at 45 mm x 4 mm. So 360 mm of vibrating ribbon!

What is more, the microphone has no transformer! I guess the designer thought it had enough impedance already and did not need one.

I wonder how well it worked? Sadly we may never know. The ribbon is broken in many places, and is glued down, so it will net be an easy thing to replace. I'm still struggling over whether to try and get this working or not. I suspect it really ought to be left in its historic condition, but I am curious about how it would have sounded.


Postscript: History shows that this design was not a success. Whether this was for sonic or economic reasons, we can only speculate, but Shaftesbury appear to have abandoned the concept. Their later ribbon microphones were a much more conventional affair, like this Shaftesbury RT model - ribbon, magnets and transformer.