 A classic Neumann U87 microphone Georg Neumann GmbH (Neumann), founded in 1928 and based in Berlin, Germany, is a prominent manufacturer of professional recording microphones. Their best-known products are condenser microphones for broadcast, live and music production purposes. For several decades Neumann was also a leading manufacturer of cutting lathes for phonograph disks, however, and they even ventured into the field of mixing desks for a while. Image File history File links Neumann_U87. ...
Image File history File links Neumann_U87. ...
1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Berlin is the capital city and a state of Germany. ...
A microphone, sometimes referred to as a mike or mic (both IPA pronunciation: ), is an acoustic to electric transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. ...
The company's original product was the CMV 3, a rather large (40 cm tall, 9 cm diameter) condenser microphone with several interchangeable capsule heads which gave it different directional patterns. Because of its shape and size, this microphone was often known as the "Neumann bottle". It is often seen in historical photographs of public events in Germany through the period of World War II. This article is becoming very long. ...
Neumann's factory in Berlin was damaged by Allied firebombing in November, 1943. Georg Neumann relocated his company to the much smaller town of Gefell and resumed production at the beginning of the following year. At the close of the war, this province fell under Soviet control and the company eventually became a "people's corporation" (i.e. a state-run enterprise). After the reunification of Germany, the company in Gefell, which had continued to use the Neumann name, became known as Microtech Gefell.
Meanwhile, Georg Neumann re-established his company as "Georg Neumann GmbH" in one of the Allied sectors of Berlin and in 1947 began producing a new model of switchable pattern microphone, the U 47, based on the M 7 capsule of the earlier CMV 3 series. This microphone was one of the first condenser microphones to gain widespread acceptance in the recording industry worldwide. Unterseeboot 47 (U-47) was a German type VII B U-Boat (submarine). ...
In the United States, for example, the "sound" of the best-known crooners of the 1940s (e.g. Bing Crosby) had utilized the ultra-smooth, rolled-off tone of RCA ribbon microphones; pop recordings in the 1950s (e.g. Frank Sinatra and later The Beatles) on the other hand were sharper, clearer, much more "present" and more "hi-fi"-sounding as the result of using condenser microphones with elevated upper-midrange response. The U 47, which was distributed worldwide under the Telefunken brand name, was also used for some early classical orchestral recordings in stereo. Harry Lillis Bing Crosby (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer and actor whose career lasted from 1926 until his death in 1977. ...
Francis Albert Sinatra (December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was a popular and highly acclaimed male vocalist and actor. ...
The Beatles were an English rock group from Liverpool. ...
Telefunken is a German radio- and television company, founded in 1903. ...
Other important microphones introduced by Neumann during the immediate postwar period included the M 49 and M 50, both based on designs researched and engineered at the NWDR in Germany. The M 49 used the M 7 capsule in a configuration whose directional pattern could be remotely controlled, while the M 50 featured a small, diffuse-field equalized pressure transducer embedded in the surface of a 40 cm hard plastic sphere, which gave it increasing directionality above the midrange frequencies. The company also produced equipment for electroacoustic measurement, including calibrated measurement microphones and chart recorders.
During the period from 1953 to 1956 Neumann introduced a series of small condenser microphones (KM 53, 54 and 56) especially for use in television broadcast studios. In 1957 they introduced the SM 2 microphone, which was essentially a pair of KM 56 microphones in a single body, arranged so that their directional patterns could be controlled remotely.
At the end of the 1950s, Telefunken discontinued the VF 14 vacuum tube on which the circuitry of the U 47 and U 48 had been based, so Neumann came under pressure to develop a successor. They decided to offer all three of those two models' directional patterns in a single microphone. In the meantime, the rock-'n'-roll era had begun and some engineers were recording loud vocals with singers singing directly into microphones at very close range; when the U 47 or U 48 were used in this way, the result was considered by many engineers at the time to sound unacceptably harsh. (This could be considered ironic, since the U 47 and U 48 have a cult following today specifically for use in close-up vocals, with some engineers seeming to fancy that they are re-creating a "vintage" sound--whereas in fact, they're creating a sound quality that was specifically abhorred by the "golden ears" of the era.) The result was the U 67, a microphone with less emphasis in its upper midrange response, giving it less of a "forward" tone color. In electronics, a vacuum tube (U.S. and Canadian English) or (thermionic) valve (outside North America) is a device generally used to amplify, or otherwise modify, a signal by controlling the movement of electrons in an evacuated space. ...
In 1964 Neumann developed a small cardioid capsule with considerably improved off-axis linearity; it was used in the KM 64 and U 64 microphones.
In 1965 Neumann began to introduce solid-state microphones. The first model was the KTM small cardioid, later followed by the "fet 70" series--transistorized versions of small omnidirectional, cardioid and speech cardioid microphones as well as a "U 77" transistorized version of the U 67. This series used the 12 Volt A-B powering system (parallel powering or "Tonaderspeisung") as found in Nagra tape recorders, and was therefore incompatible with existing studio power supplies. However, standard two-conductor shielded cables (as were commonly used for dynamic microphones) could now be used for connecting condenser microphones as well, obviating the need for special multi-conductor cables.
In 1966 Neumann adapted the "phantom powering" method that had been used for years in certain telephone systems, so that a compatible method of powering would allow tube microphones, solid-state microphones and dynamic microphones all to be connected to the same power supplies. Eventually the "fet 80" series grew to include over a dozen models, some of which are still in production as of 2006 (e.g. the U 87A, U 89, KMR 81, KMR 82 and USM 69). The best-known models from this series were the KM 84 small cardioid and the U 87 three-pattern, large-diaphragm microphone, which became the solid-state successor to the U 67. Tens of thousands of both models have been sold worldwide. Invented in the mid-1960s and standardized shortly thereafter, Phantom power is a widely-used method for supplying current to devices over signalling cables, especially audio. ...
In 1983 Neumann began to introduce solid-state microphones with balanced outputs but no output transformer, starting with the model TLM 170. Eventually this "fet 100" series was expanded to include a modular series of small microphones (the KM 100 series with seven different "active capsules" for various directional patterns).
Beginning in 1995 the company has also introduced a series of microphones containing a combination of vacuum tube and integrated solid-state circuitry, most notably the M 149 Tube. In 2003 Neumann introduced their first microphone with built-in analog-to-digital converters, and also began to produce dynamic microphones for the broadcast industry.
Neumann GmbH was acquired by Sennheiser Electronic in 1991. Production of Neumann microphones was moved into Sennheiser's factory in Wedemark, near Hannover, in 1993 but the company still maintains its official headquarters in Berlin along with its development department. The Sennheiser Logo Sennheiser is a German pro audio company. ...
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