Renew Your Audio Media Subscription for 2009!
Renew Your Audio Media Subscription for 2009!
Renew Your Audio Media Subscription for 2009!
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
05|09<br />
AMSR<br />
BEN BURNS finds a whole lot of<br />
positives in the KMS104 plus.<br />
THE REVIEWER<br />
BEN BURNS is a London-based<br />
freelance engineer- both live and<br />
studio- with credits including Blur,<br />
Dido, Embrace, Happy Mondays,<br />
and more.<br />
60<br />
As one of the most respected microphone<br />
manufacturers of all time, Neumann will need no<br />
introduction to anyone reading this magazine.<br />
The KMS104 plus continues a tradition of excellence<br />
established by the popular KMS104 and KMS105 stage<br />
microphones. It's a phantom powered condenser vocal<br />
microphone of the ‘fet 100’ series with a cardioid polar<br />
pattern. Designed <strong>for</strong> stage use, the mic features an integral<br />
pop filter, effective shock absorption, and a balanced<br />
trans<strong>for</strong>mer-less output.<br />
In comparison with the KMS104 and KMS105,<br />
the acoustic properties of the bass response have<br />
been redesigned. In particular, Wolfgang Fraissinet,<br />
President of Marketing/Sales at Neumann Berlin<br />
explains: “In close cooperation with professional<br />
musicians, with the aid of extensive practical tests,<br />
the KMS104 plus has been especially optimised <strong>for</strong> the<br />
requirements of female voices in the rock and pop field.”<br />
So it's one <strong>for</strong> the ladies...<br />
The KMS104 plus is supplied with a padded nylon case<br />
and the relevant stand clamp. The suggested retail price<br />
is €495 excl. VAT.<br />
First Impressions<br />
Like previous Neumann stage microphones, the<br />
KMS104 plus arrives in a heavy duty cardboard tube, in<br />
which resides alot of of nylon and Velcro that holds not<br />
only the microphone, but also the stand adaptor and the<br />
user guide.<br />
Neumann says the case is ‘durable enough <strong>for</strong> touring’,<br />
which I <strong>for</strong> one will not contest – the quality is as you<br />
would expect. The mic itself looks like a normal KMS104,<br />
except it feels a little lighter (298g to be exact) and has<br />
the word ‘plus’ printed along with the model number.<br />
Mic-spotters may also notice the difference in the internal<br />
foam pop shield when holding the mic up to the light.<br />
The mandatory Neumann badge is securely sunk into<br />
the blackness of the mic body, looking very classy in a<br />
‘cooker from the 1950’s’ kind of way.<br />
If you remove the grille (<strong>for</strong> cleaning), it suddenly<br />
becomes apparent how much of a pop filter there actually<br />
is. Constructed in two parts, a 5mm thick foam cylinder<br />
hugs the sides of the metal grille while an ‘end cap’,<br />
precisely 20mm thick, blocks off the business end and<br />
catches all the spit of your lovely employer.<br />
In Use<br />
The first time you hear this mic, it is apparent how the<br />
response is ‘tailored <strong>for</strong> the female voice’, as there is an<br />
obvious bass boost. The proximity effect is strangely subtle<br />
with a sort of ‘constant’ effect, until you get very close.<br />
Then it is slightly more pronounced. Basically, the boffins<br />
at Neumann have found a way of increasing the warmth<br />
of the response, even slightly off-axis and at a greater<br />
distance from the capsule than you would expect. I can<br />
see this mic becoming a favourite instrument <strong>for</strong> singers<br />
who know how to use mics. With its unique response, I<br />
can see artists working with this once and never wanting<br />
anything else.<br />
High-level stage monitoring, using condenser<br />
microphones on stage, has usually proved challenging<br />
<strong>for</strong> engineers to deal with in the real world. Then the KMS<br />
range came along and changed the way condenser mics<br />
are utilised on stages.<br />
AUDIO MEDIA MAY <strong>2009</strong><br />
The amount of gain be<strong>for</strong>e feedback from this mic is<br />
staggering; I ended up with a single M4 monitor speaker<br />
(with just the vocal) and side fills blasting everything<br />
else – wow. Vocals with the KMS104 plus just seemed<br />
to cut through everything whilst sounding rich and<br />
transparent. A small cut in the 1-2KHz range was needed<br />
<strong>for</strong> stability in the room, and a further cut in the 125Hz<br />
region helped get the level up, but the graphic only had<br />
two small cuts in total. I didn’t bother with a high pass<br />
filter on the channel, simply because it didn’t need one.<br />
Even when you point the mic directly at the monitor speaker<br />
nothing happens.<br />
In the era of in-ear monitoring, it was only fair to<br />
give the mic a try using wireless IEMs. Usually, if a singer<br />
removes one ear to hear the ambience of a room, it is<br />
possible <strong>for</strong> 8KHz-10KHz to kick off from the ear-bud<br />
feeding into the microphone. Even with its defined high<br />
frequency response, the KMS104 plus refused to do this.<br />
In fact, the only way to make this mic squeal was to<br />
touch the ear bud to the grille and send so much level<br />
to the in-ears that it would hurt even the deafest of<br />
guitarists. With a good in-ear setup, the mic sounded<br />
NEUMANN KMS104 PLUS<br />
Condenser Vocal Microphone<br />
very warm, with the extended high end providing the<br />
expensive sparkle so many mics lack. With a flat EQ,<br />
the sound was impressive right away, and once valve<br />
compression and a nice reverb were added the vocal<br />
in-ear sound was getting much closer to studio territory<br />
than stage sound.<br />
The ambient pick-up of instruments behind the singer<br />
is always a big issue <strong>for</strong> the FOH guy, especially if the<br />
artist has a very quiet voice. Trying to get the vocal out<br />
front to rise above the combination of monitors and<br />
backline can be a constant struggle. The KMS104 plus<br />
helps us out by exhibiting reasonable isolation when<br />
it comes to background noise (<strong>for</strong> a condenser mic).<br />
In small venues where the cymbals of a drum kit would<br />
usually be placed very close to the centre vocal position,<br />
you will get lots of cymbals down the vocal line – as with<br />
any other microphone. Not even Neumann can re-write<br />
the laws of physics, but if you think about it, you get a<br />
very nice ambient drum mic built into your very nice<br />
vocal microphone... Fewer wires too…<br />
‘Cupping’ the grille of microphones seems to be a<br />
favourite hobby <strong>for</strong> quiet singers – when asked why<br />
they do this, they usually say “so I can hear myself”.<br />
Turning a perfectly good cardioid microphone into an<br />
omni-directional telephone may have its place creatively,<br />
but it won’t necessarily help anyone to hear themselves<br />
any better. All they achieve when they do this, is to<br />
remove the cancellation properties at the rear of the mic<br />
(“the bit that normally faces the big speaker”) and kill the<br />
frequency response drastically. Around the 2.5KHz mark,<br />
however, will be heard very well by everybody unless the<br />
monitor guy has planned <strong>for</strong> this eventuality. Like any<br />
microphone, the Neumann exhibits the same properties<br />
when cupped. This mic is definitely not <strong>for</strong> Eminem.<br />
I have to say that this mic does sound great on a thinner<br />
or female voice. The richness and texture are emphasised<br />
by the natural response of the microphone. I tried to <strong>for</strong>ce<br />
plosive sounds into the mic, but the filter works very<br />
effectively, blocking out any unwanted rumbling ps and<br />
bs. Even when blowing hard it’s difficult to get a dramatic<br />
tornado effect, which stand up comics will not like but<br />
�