The first designed especially for close miking of instruments, Neumann has announced the Miniature Clip Mic System. ‘We had been dissatisfied with the sound delivered by electret solutions for quite some time,’ explains Portfolio Manager, Stephan Mauer. ‘Technicians and artists alike want greater substance, higher precision for low and medium frequencies and more openness. At the same time, we wanted to finally be able to create electret microphones that offered constant performance, so that sound engineers would not have to continuously deal with production tolerances impacting sound level and frequency response.’
The new KK 14 capsule claims to come ‘without any of the production tolerances that have been associated with electret solutions to date’. The system’s modular construction is designed to ensure excellent stability and long service life for live and stage performances. The system includes nine mounting solutions that make it possible to find the optimum positioning for acoustics while simultaneously protecting the instrument.
Neumann says that its developers spent six years researching the capsules and the production processes that would be necessary to make this a reality. ‘All that work paid off,’ Mauer says. ‘This capsule is unlike anything that came before.’
With low self noise and an extremely high maximum sound handling of 152dB, the KK 14 serves both very quiet and very loud applications.
In addition, the Miniature Clip Mic System is modular and rugged. Neumann assembles the KK 14 capsules by hand and encapsulates them in a titanium housing. The capsule can be easily unscrewed from the gooseneck connector whenever necessary. All the other components are also easy to replace.
The system boasts nine options for reliable attachment to brass, string and stringed instruments, pianos, drums and percussion. ‘Our field tests quickly revealed that all users share a desire for being able to reliably and securely position the microphone. Another wish that they all had in common was wanting to avoid damaging sensitive surfaces of their instruments. This gave rise to self-adjusting spring-loaded systems and newly developed mounting concepts for specific applications.
Typical users include orchestras, theatres, musical productions, concert halls, big bands, brass sections and drummers. Thanks to connection cables with either a 3.5mm jack, Lemo, MicroDot or 4-pin mini XLR connectors, the system is compatible with all standard bodypacks for wireless set-ups.
The Miniature Clip Mic System will be available in spring 2022. The list price of the KK 14 capsule is €279/US$299. Prices for sets start at €629/US$699 (capsule, gooseneck, cable, mounting system, XLR adapter and windscreen).
