Timber Tones Microphones

keith.rogers

Well-known member
(Copied from my post at Acoustic Guitar Forum)

Anybody every used one of these?

I saw one in a demo over at UMGF and had jumped to the conclusion (I blame the old peepers) that it was another ETL - but no.

Timbre Tones Studio Condenser Microphones

Some demos, as well as a link to the basis ("Alice"). Interesting stuff.
 
It has essence of gimmick about it.

Maybe I'm biased, but I don't think they look very attractive either.
I don't think it's a gimmick - the mics are based on another design that uses copper, and this guy builds guitars, so chose a material he's familiar with, and has on hand probably! Personally, I'd probably feel more comfortable with the copper pipe design, if nothing else from a shielding perspective (though there may be metal we don't see).

But, I suspect the Ear Trumpet Lab folks have exploited that market (vintage? steam punk? vegan?) pretty well in the States at least. These Finnish ones are a bit cheaper, and I while I found the video demos underwhelming, sometimes looks with "good enough" sells.
 
Probably no sillier than the reason we buy nice looking guitars even if they play like dogs. Long lasting popular mics are popular because of reputation and user stability. New brands in a saturated market even if excellent, suffer against the tried and tested. It does seem a gimmic is needed. These will appeal to some people over the rather boring designs. Won't be me buying one, but if people like the sound that's great. I'm not sure about a produc like this using a free wix website though, that smacks of cheapness. A free website builder for a quality product? Hmmmmmm
 
Definitely a gimmick. That said, It's distinctly possible that a wood casing does affect the tone of the mic. If you've got $450 to burn on a gimmicky mic, go for it.
 
I looked through Timber Tones website and found no data, specs or response graphs for the microphone, just some pictures of it.

I don't think I've ever seen a mic maker website without at least some information about the mic itself.
 
seems original as in cosmetics, wood vs metal and plastics...
im amazed people can make that stuff, I have trouble finding time/patience to remove tile with a chisel and hammer, let alone the precision wood work and finish work....

I like its original approach to design, the wood thing goes with acoustics and wooden vibe, woody tones placebo? but isn't that what a lot of this is ? the cosmetic appeal and vibe...wood grains and wood dna. bluegrass, natural woods and martin guitars and wood.... colors and wood patterns. probably no two exactly alike could be appealing.

my budget I'd probably need a laminate one....
 
...
I don't think I've ever seen a mic maker website without at least some information about the mic itself.
I didn't find a lot of hard data at Ear Trumpet Labs, either.

Are you spending a few hundred dollars extra for looks, well, maybe some, but probably some of that is actual labor by people not making $0.02/microphone pushed out.

I wouldn't buy one without hearing it and being able to A/B vs. a couple of other contenders, including the ETL mics, if possible. But, one more mic, especially one with limited use cases, is way down the list right now.
 
woody tones placebo? but isn't that what a lot of this is ?

If you're engineering/producing for other artists, there might be some value in this.
If the performer sees a "woody" microphone that matches the "natural" sound they're going for, it might be able to get a better performance from them more easily.
 
Looking through the Timber Tones site, it states that the mic is based on the Open Source Alice microphone and uses a Transound TSB-2555B capsule ($13 at JLI) and a modified Shoeps style JFET circuit. I have never heard a mic with that capsule so I can't judge it from that standpoint.

At 400 euros, it sounds kind of pricey for a kit mic that can be bought from Microphone Parts for $240 (S25 Kit). Nice woodworking is fine, but I don't really buy into the notion that wood will make your mic sound natural. Wood by its nature resonates and I would think that could be a bad thing for a microphone if not properly controlled.
 
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