#neumann u47

[the-mid-centurion]

Neumann U47 – Georg Neumann, distributed by Telefunken (1949)

This was the first microphone designed by Georg Neumann. It was also the most popular and professionally preferred studio mic of the era. I was looking at one of my old records and it said all vocals were recorded with a Neumann U47 so I looked it up. I know nothing about studio mics but it looks very cool! 

Image source: Störung

[earpeeler]

Sweetwater Sound – Vintage Neumann U47 vs. New Telefunken U47 Mic Comparison What's the sonic difference between a brand-new Telefunken U47 microphone compared to a vintage original Neumann U47?

[iheartvelma]

The producer of David Bowie’s Berlin masterpiece on recording while the Red Army is watching... literally.

Besides the Cold War hijinks, the neat takeaway is that they used three mics to record Bowie's vocals, which were done in the ballroom at the Hansa studios in then-West Berlin. 

a Neumann U47 at close range

a Neumann U67 a bit further away

another U67 even further away

The tricksy bit was putting noise gates on the two U67 mics which would be set to trigger when Bowie went into his "louder" and "histrionics" volume levels respectively. This way, the full reverb reflections of the ballroom would only come into the recording on the louder bits. 

Nowadays, we'd probably do that in software as effects on an aux insert, but it shows you can get great sound just by using a good space and doing some creative microphone setups.