frequency response and a very special “1920s radio” type sound, which worked
beautifully in conjunction with the fuller sounding stereo pair. Each microphone has its
own unique sound; the Queen Elizabeth model has a little more bottom end than the
King George VI. All three microphones have a beautiful, colourful tone that wowed the
film’s director and composer in the control room.
The Royal Tree was used extensively on the music mix for the film (in conjunction with
more traditional orchestral microphones). The director was so impressed by the sound
these microphones produced he was determined to find a way of using this unique
quality for the film’s speeches. Keeping in mind the film’s dub mix was already
underway, Peter found a solution to this by re-recording all the flat ‘speech’ dialogue
through a speaker and back into the Royal microphones at Abbey Road Studios. It is at
this time Peter thought this microphone effect would make a great plug-in.
After the film was finished, it was only too tempting to try these microphones out on other
sources to see how they sounded. In the relatively acoustically transparent vocal booth
in the Penthouse at Abbey Road Studios, a B&W 802 loudspeaker was set up in front of
the microphones. Drums, guitars, vocal and synths were then played and ‘processed’
through the microphones at different proximities.
Peter’s curiosity was rewarded with some fantastic and unique ‘filter’ type effects. The
resulting plug-in allows sound designers, engineers, producers and musicians all over
the world to give their audio the ‘royal’ treatment!
1.4 Concept and Terms
The King’s Microphones plugin is a special EQ filter processor that recreates the unique
tonal character of each of these microphones, with three proximity positions for each:
Close, Ambient and Natural.
Close
emulates the response from a source located 5cm from the microphone capsule,
creating a warmer tone through proximity.
Ambient
emulates the response from a source located 40cm from the microphone
Waves : Abbey Road – The King’s Microphones
User Guide
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