Advanced Audio CM47, tube mic

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OK welcome to a new decade, This month there is a profile of the most sought after mic ever the AKG C12. A brand new session from local rockers Velvet Star and the first look at our modified Pre-73

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Audio Technica 4047SV

Audix D6

Beyer M201

Blue Mouse

Golden Age Pre-73 preamp

sE Z5600 Valve Condenser

Advanced Audio CM47 tube microphone

As the quality of Chinese manufactured microphones continues to improve, so the lines between the traditional German manufactured studio mics and their eastern counterparts becomes more and more blurred. A few years ago you could justify the premium price of investing in a Neumann U87 for your studio vocal mic but as manufacturing tolerances get finer and finer so the microphones coming out of China are getting harder and harder to resist. Factories like Shanghai ShuaiYin produce thousands of microphones and mic components and supply OEM mics to companies like CAD. Other manufacturers like American based ADK have for a while taken the idea of designing a mic and having it built in China and now a number of small mic manufacturers like Golden Age, have realised that by clever design you can tweak a stock Chinese mic to create a really great sounding mic at a premium price. Cascade, BPM, Joe Meek, PMI, etc all do the same.

Economy of scale makes it possible for the metalwork of the body and grill assemblies to be manufactured at a cost that simply can't be matched in the west and over the past ten years or so, many companies have shifted to buying OEM microphones from big Chinese microphone companies such as Alcatron, 797, and Feilo. They then simply rebadge them and sell domestically at market friendly price points.

American mic manufacturer Peluso use Chinese metal work for their capsules and bodies but gold sputter the microphone diaphragms in their own factory. Charter Oak and Mojave Audio, both respected manufacturers of higher end microphones, use Chinese bodies, capsules and power supplies for their tube microphones. They build different circuits to match with the capsules and use better output transformers, but still use Chinese capsules, which are generally the most expensive electrical component in a microphone circuit as well as the most influential components in the sound of the microphone. These are expensive mics so how can they justify charging £1000 for a microphone that uses the same capsule as in one of the raft of £100 Chinese U87 copies out there? It's all about quality control—they inspect the capsules and other components much more carefully and reject a much higher percentage of “bad” capsules than the manufacturers of those cheapo copies. Then they optimise the design to get the best out of it. It's all about attention to detail and there is no doubt that these mics sound great.

All this has created an interesting situation making it possible for both technically skilled DIY’ers and small manufacturers to take microphone (and outboard) components of Chinese manufacture and modify and upgrade them into considerably higher quality items...... and this is exactly where Advanced Audio comes in.

ADVANCED AUDIO CM47

Canadian Dave Thomas has over 35 years experience in the world of recording and has hot rodded mics as a necessity in his early days in the recording studio working with producers Bob Rock, Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, David Foster, Bill Porter, and artists like Bryan Adams, Randy Bachman, K.D. Lang, Paul Horn, D.O.A. Brian McCloud and Terry Jacks plus a steady stream of Vancouver’s best Studio musicians and artists

Dave knows mics inside out and a few years ago he realised that by taking a well designed and manufactured Chinese mic you could redesign various elements and produce a seriously good mic for a reasonable price. Inevitably he started to look at a copy of the most famous studio vocal mic of all time: The Neumann U47.

Obviously you can't use Neumann's original VF14 tube as a starting point as these are now ridiculously rare and expensive so Dave took as a starting point sE's z5600 tube mic. We had a z5600 in the studio last year and were really impressed with the sound and price. Dave redesigned the circuit board around a selected 6072a tube immediately increasing the headroom by 6 db and further mods to the input stage increased the linearity. By fitting a much better and larger output transformer he squeezes another 6db gain output. More modifications increase the headroom by a total of 10db and the upgraded output transformer will handle 6db more level than the stock unit and deliver 2db more output at 20hz. Finally the body is redesigned so that the capsule ends up sitting in the head grill at the same position as the original U47. (The position of the diaphragm and the grille design actually contribute to the smooth sound of the U47 , so they've gone to great pains to insure the grille is an exact replica of the original.)

Dave infact claims that this isn't a U47 clone but is about as good as he can make a multi pattern valve condenser mic to a budget and having had a CM47 in the studio now for a couple of months we think he's made a great job. It just sounds right on everything we have thrown at it from acoustic guitars and bass but particularly of course on vocals. It has a 9 position pattern switch which can go from omni through cardioid to figure 8 making it really versatile in the studio but I took the CM47 out on a mobile recently to record a classical soprano singer. They are about the ultimate test for a vocal mic as they have a massive dynamic range and it's all too easy to overload a mic.The CM47 never flinched the whole time and sounded as beautiful and smooth on even the big high notes. I don't know how you can overload this mic...We certainly don't have a mic in the studio at present that can compete with this for headroom. The bottom line as ever is price and I think this is a really good mic for the money when compared to the alternatives out there. However don’t just take my word for it. Read the review in Tape OP magazine below

To buy a CM47 direct from the Advanced Audio website is around £445 but carriage from Canada to the UK costs around £50 and then the government puts on import duty and VAT making it around £580 which is only £30 more than a bog standard sEz5600! However I have agreed to bring in a small number from Dave and promote them on the website and we've done a deal whereby if you pre order one of these mics before the VAT increase in the new year you can get it for £495.

So if you're in the market for an affordable, classy, tube condenser mic this is one to definitely try. IF YOU ARE SERIOUS then I am happy to let you have a CM47 for a trial period so you can hear for yourself .................. Email me if you are interested

See the Mic in our studio

See the Advanced Audio Website

Read Tape Op review

Hear CM47 on Soprano

First Impressions

Dear John

Thanks for your excellent and prompt service. The mic arrived well packed with everything in order. First impressions are that the flight case, power supply and cabling seemed as one would expect for a mic in this price range but the mic itself is beautifully made and reassuringly solid and the shock mount is utilitarian and built to last. As we all know microphones are a matter of taste but as soon as i started playing with it on vocals (especially in figure of 8) and acoustic guitar i was really impressed; singing into a good quality mic can really inspire you vocally and this is exactly what I found with the cm 47. It doesn't exactly "hype" things to my ears but it just sounds articulate and contemporary.

Over the weekend I had a producer friend from London up who owns a professional recording studio. He is always very blunt and with me and is enormously helpfull at quickly pointing out positive and negative aspects to my productions. When we used the cm47 to lay down some piano on one of his projects, his verdict was "it's a 1000 quid mic for 500 and where can I buy one?" I have passed on your email address to him.

In short I'm delighted with the cm47. It's a serious tool and excellent value for money .

Thanks

Roscoe Lipin

Hi John,
My initial thoughts so far are very positive. Over time i have used several mics, i own a Neumann TLM103 and when i hire a local studio i use a U87 for vocals. I would have paid more for this mic and not batted an eyelid, it looks great. So far ive used it for my own vocals and accoustic guitar mic'ing. if im honest it suits my vocal better than a U87 (not the original tube U87) and much much better than my TLM103 ever produced, in particular the mids and highs are warm and very accurate. Its also a very quiet mic, i use it in my home studio come garage and it can pick up things like my CPU fan which is not great but ive managed to sort that with mic positioning and a reflection filter and when recording i have to monitor direct through headphones only. The cardioid pattern selector is useful too, very subtle changes in room ambience are quite noticeable in a mix. Currently i run the mic through a focusrite Class A preamp and the results are the best ive acheived using this gear. Im looking to buy a UA tube pre amp later this year so will be keen to hear the results with the CM47. It comes highly recommended from me and i think this mic could really compete with anything below £1000.

Regards
Steve Eyre

Hi John,

a few initial thoughts about the CM47.

I think the mic sounds excellent, very detailed and full and when tested next to a Rode K2 on Welsh harp the difference is scary, greater tonal clarity, more depth and warmth. The polar pattern adjustment is also superb, it is easy to hear the changes brought about by adjusting from omni to cardioid, so much so that it is possible to make key choices about tonality whilst recording.

I've yet to try on vocal, but have also used on classical Indian tabla with storming results, once again, a full rich tone that captures the dynamics of the performance better than any other mic in my collection.

Maybe it has a little more self noise than the K2, but I guess this is a vintage mic, and the pay off is the wonderful rich warm recordings.

If you would like any examples of these recordings drop me an email.

I'm loving the mic and intend to investigate more in the next few weeks ....., will keep you posted!

cheers

Jon Leadbeater

I've had an Advanced Audio CM47 valve condenser mic in the studio for about 4 months now and these are some first impressions.
Firstly, I'm not in a position to make direct comparisons between this mic and a Neumann U47 tube simply because we don't have an original u47 tube and, given that originals change hands for at least 6 times the price of the CM47, comparisons would be fairly useless anyway, so I'm trying to evaluate this mic solely on its performance in certain situations. Microphones are just getting better and cheaper all the time and it does get harder and harder to write anything new about any given mic but heres my initial thoughts for what they're worth!

The CM47 is a very well built, good looking microphone with an independent power supply and a seriously industrial strength shock mount (more about this later) and the first time I used the mic was when I visited a home studio to give some advice on various problems. Part of the day was spent recording the client with a few different mics (guitar and vocal playing and singing together).
We worked our way through a Neumann u87, AKG C414, AEA R84 Ribbon, GoldenAge R1 Ribbon, Neumann TLM 103, Shure SM81, the CM47 and a couple of dynamics recording the same piece of music each time and layered the tracks in Logic such that we could make A/B comparisons between the various mics. Everything was recorded flat and we kept the mic position the same throughout.
The TLM 103 was the client's own mic with which he was unhappy anyway and as we played back the other mics I was able to point out to him where each mic differed from the others. Even in a less-than-desirable monitoring environment the differences were quite marked.

As soon as I played back the CM47 track his face lit up and a big grin appeared. He loved what it did to his voice. His only explanation was that it sounded “classier”. And it certainly did. He reckoned that the CM47 gave him a vocal sound he was very happy with for the first time since he'd set up his gear and he eventually badgered me into selling him the mic. However, let me say a couple of things here..........

I'm aware that this might sound a bit too good be true but the fact is that anyone who has access to a few different mics could have the same experience which is why I always urge people to “try before you buy” if at all possible. Given the amount of good quality mics now available at affordable prices you are bound to find something out there to suit your needs.

Secondly, I'm not a fan of mic “shoot-outs” and this wasn't intended as such. We simply found a mic which flattered his voice in a way that he liked. It could have been any of them to be honest (he initially favoured the GA R1) but the warmth and sweet top end of the CM47 de-emphasised the honky mid-range in his voice and it just sounded, well, classier. I managed to eq the 414 track to sound something like the CM but it was never quite the same.

I brought copies of the various wavs back to Fairview and listening to them on my Genelecs revealed more accurately the low frequency fullness which his monitors and room did'nt. Also the high end was positioned somewhat differently to what I'd heard on his speakers. The CM47 track reacted well to some post eq and compression but that's not to say that the others did'nt, I just always felt that, with the others, I was trying to add some indefinable quality which was'nt there at the recording stage. A bit vague I know but trust me!
The other side of this is that I used it on a rapper in the studio a few days later and swapped it for my u47fet which gave a better representation of that particular voice in a hip-hop track....so horses for courses I guess though you are never going to get a Neumann U47 fet for 500 quid!

Since that time apart from regular use on vocals,I've used the CM47 on bass guitar cabs, on guitar amps (good on overdriven sounds, smooths out nasty peaky distortion and reacts well to small changes in placement), and percussion (anything which can make a cowbell sound ok has to be worth using!)
The variable polar pattern is very useful indeed. If you can arrange to have the power supply with the polar switching in the control room then you will find find that some of the in-between settings really open up the sound and accentuate the space around the source.

I've got some good sessions booked into Fairview in the next 3-4 months and am looking forward to trying this mic on some more demanding sounds...how about Northumbrian pipes or a whole range of ethnic percussion?

Finally then, let's sit this mic firmly in it's price range. Even a couple of years ago a mic of this quality would set you back over £1000 and at its price the CM47 is definitely worth considering. At around £500 it's a very nice sounding and versatile mic that compares very well which more expensive valve condensers out there.

Dave Thomas has put a lot of effort into getting this mic out at this price point and if anything lets the mic down it's the accessories. It comes in a really nice aluminium flight case but the shock mount and pop filter are pretty much the off the shelf stuff that comes out with most chinese mics today. My main complaint is with the over-engineered shock mount. It's not a problem at all using it on vocals but it's so bulky that you sometimes can't get the mic close enough to a source, particularly speaker cabs. I've spoken to Dave Thomas about it and to be fair he thinks that its probably the best quality mount for the mic for the money bearing in mind that it's a weighty, solidly built mic. Maybe it would be a good idea to supply an additional mount which is less bulky JR

All in all then a really nice mic and a very classy performer particularly at the price and I'm looking forward to writing more about this mic when it's been here a year and been used a lot more sessions JS

Microphones and recording 2009. Advanced Audio CM47 Microphone