an Alan Hyatt question

[tdawgodopolus]

Alan,

I was wondering if your company will be coming out with a small-diaphram condenser mic?

tDawg

[alanhyatt]

tdawg,

We have been working on one, but we are not sure where we will go with it. We are also working on a handheld condenser for live applications, but time and money are all factors, especially with the new B Series coming at the end of the year.

We are working like mad to finish the VT-1 in time for January. We have five other electronic products for Studio Projects on the drawing board, and I am introducing a new line which is a joint venture between myself and my good friend Malcolm Toft. This line is called Toft Audio Designs. It will be a very high end product with a very reasonable cost, so the question is...how much time do I have to do all of this?

Another issue regarding small diphragm mics is how many of them can I sell? To take the design to China, I would have to buy big quantities, so I have to sell lots of them. To build it here in the USA would jack the cost up so we could not effectively make it cost effective, which is the purpose of Studio Projects, so while I am rambling off the simple answer to your question...the answer is, I don't know.

I only have three to five years to accomplish all of this, so if it can be done within that time frame it will, but with all my stuff, I will let everyone know well before what we are coming out with.

Thanks for the question

[tdawgodopolus]

Thanks, Alan, for the quick response. Man, you're a busy guy.

tDawg

PS: Okay, I have to say this once... Go D-Backs!!!

[Queue]

I only have three to five years to accomplish all of this

Huh? Care to elaborate on that one?

Queue

Confused

[tubedude]

Yeah, what Queue said, AND whats the idea behind the Malcolm Toft Designs?... are you going after that somewhat high end Trident thing or a totally different thing alltogether? X-former stuff? I think if Toft goes all out, no holds barred, and is very careful with design and componetry that he can make something totally fantastic. Let me know what ideas are being tossed around... I WAY prefer x-former units, as do most people.
An idea I had was a dual signal path on each channel, kinda like xformer outs, nice and vanilla, or flip a switch and you have John Hardy clean and big, each channel has a switchable option. That would be cool, 2 colors per channel. Say 4 channels, 2 clean for overheads, 2 thick for kick/snare. Whatever you want, flip a switch.
Another idea, build a VERY high end pre unit built directly around and into the same box as some wonderful Lucid converters and get it out there at an obtainable price.
Good meters are nice, too, and if it has 4 or more pre's, set up a summing bus option with addiotional outs for total mix. That way 4 pres can run to the recorder for tracking, and also can be mixed and run straight to the PA amps... kinda like an API 3124+m. Good idea, kinda a mini mixer but wth some good pres.

[alanhyatt]

Queue,

Its not a health or dying thing...its a retire thing. Like I said before, this is my last conquest. I want to pull off something that no one has ever done, so here I am, working my ass off.

I promised my wife, and myself, I would not work anymore past age 55, and I will keep my promise. Both of my sons are in the business now, so hopefully they will be able to keep it going, but there is still much to do. Its not about the money anymore, its about being able to do it. Yet, there is one more surprise that if I pull it off, you all will freeak out...but, it will have to wait until it is firm.

Tubedude,

You don't know how close you are. First product shipping in January. Two Channel killer mic pre, DI inputs, the original Trident dual mono/stereo FET compressor limiter, and off course the famous Toft EQ. Great meters and chrome toggle switches included, and this is built like a brick shithouse and looks better than Avalon. This unit is killer, and target is $1299.99 retail for everything.

This will be followed up by an all out balls to the wall 8 channel Mic Pre with summing busses, limiters, DI's and every mic pre feature you can think of. Target $1499.99, with a seperate 8 channel EQ box at $599.99. Malcolm Toft is amazing and we will show the unit at the AES next month, so we are going to be very busy.