TOWNSEND LABS SPHERE L22 Microphone Modelling System
What’s your dream microphone? Is it Neumann’s legendary 1950s valve U47? Perhaps it’s a vintage AKG C12 or the old Abbey Road favourite, the Coles 4038 ribbon mic. Then again you might prefer a sweet Neumann U67 for bass and guitar cabs, or an imposing U49 for silky yet powerful vocals. Hmm… this is getting tricky. It’s probably best if you procure them all, just to cover your bases. What do you mean you don’t have a lazy $70k laying around? You can only scrape together around two grand, huh? Alright no problem, I’ll get all those mics plus a few more tasty models for you, and I’ll make it so you don’t need to commit to one until after you’ve done the recording. Sound good? Read on.
ONES & ZEROS
Until we’re all dreaming songs into a collective digital ether, there will likely be some analogue componentry retained in the audio signal chain for the next hundred years — even if it is just the silicon in your audio interface.
Every year, as the digital domain advances, an analogue-less world becomes ever more probable. Originally, the attention of digital developers was focused on modelling or emulating signal processors. Whether it was an EQ, dynamics or effects unit, they would manipulate audio already in the system. Guitar amp emulations were similar; though they required a front end to capture the guitar signal, only a few companies were concerned with building their own hardware. More virtual instruments hit the market — whether via sophisticated sampling techniques or modelling, tape machine modelling and a keen focus on saturation.
It naturally led to preamp modelling, but to model a preamp’s behaviour properly, you needed a fixed starting the flexibility of digital. Universal Audio and Slate took on the challenge and each built their own preamp as a known baseline to layer the character of vintage preamps over. Of course, there are some functional discrepancies like max gain, but it’s more about sonic aesthetics.
