Early Rode Microphones NT1 & NT2

[witzendoz]

I am glad that this post is getting some much interesting discussion, I wish someone from Rode would join in, although there may not be many people there that remember the beginnings?

One thing I do remember form the purchase of the my first NT1, a few weeks later I was engineering a session in the studio for a producer who had brought in a female vocalist for a tracking session. The vocalist was excellent and went on to become a house hold name in Australia, she was about 15 years old when we did this tracking. Anyway the producer had brought in a Neumann U87, about halfway through the session the Neumann just stopped working. He asked what I had in the studio and at the time the only large condenser I had was the NT1 (This was the 90's and I was just getting the studio up and running with what ever I could find). We put it up and tracked with it while we just looked at each other saying that we could not tell which takes were which. I would be the 1st to admit that there must be some difference, but without analyzing the takes without the music you could not tell. So the finished song had some U87 and some NT1 and nobody could remember which bits were which.

These NT1's were one of the best purchases I ever made in the early days of my studio. I still use the NT1 on almost every recording somewhere.

Cheers

Alan.

 

[Madguitrst]

Alan,

It appears you have something very interesting on your hands, maybe prototypes, possibly Langevin mics that Feilo was supplying to Rode and then got blocked by Langevin. Who knows? Not me........

In any case, if they sound good then they sound good, period.

 

[kidvybes]

And if you think the cylindrical design for solid-state LDC bodies is not 90% fashion, you're kidding yourself. There is no physical, mechanical engineering or ergonomic reason why they should prefer that form factor. And indeed not all are; as you point out there are models like the CAD, and famously, of course, the AKG C414, and a few other LDCs that break out their own look. But if it's not holding a vacuum tube, a mortar round, or a stack of Pringles potato chips, the cylindrical "look" is pure fashion.
G.

...no, the cylindrical design was maintained in coordination of the early "spider mounts" that universally clamped on to the slightly tapered cylinder body...it was also a more cost effective design as opposed to utilize the same body for both tube and solid-state variations...to call it simply "fashion" is IMHO, inaccurate...
http://vintagemicrophone.com/JShop/product.php?xProd=211

Alan,
It appears you have something very interesting on your hands, maybe prototypes, possibly Langevin mics that Feilo was supplying to Rode and then got blocked by Langevin. Who knows? Not me........
In any case, if they sound good then they sound good, period.

...as I posted above, Alan's mics were manufactured by 797audio, one of the first chinese mic manufacturers (and one of the finest)...I have corresponded with 797audio in the past, and they have confirmed this...Rode simply replaced the circuit boards with their own...and if you look at the original Behringer B1 and B2 (as in NT1 and NT2) you'll see the identical mics but with 797audio's circiut board...797audio manufactured for MXL (V77s, one of MXL's most revered models), Studio Projects, ADK and early Nady products...they continue to produce high quality product, including the current influx of Neve derivative clone preamps...

...797audio continues to manufacture that very same design to this day, and even uses the same model designation (with an added "s"):
http://www.797audio.com/cms/detail.php?id=7

...if you look at the various OEM models offered by 797audio, you will quickly recognize which popular branded mics they were involved in manufacturing...they continue to use similar model designations (like U95s)...and you'll recognize the chinese Oktava clone that showed up a couple of years ago...but it was 797audio that was responsible for many of the better chinese mics that kicked off the "cheap condenser" explosion...
http://www.797audio.com/cms/products.php?page=1

...797audio was the first of the chinese manufacturers (trained by the Germans),
"Some 40 years ago, 797, a Beijing-based Chinese government military facility (which was secret and referred to only by number) started to manufacture capacitor mics based on technology and expertise brought to them by East German engineers. These microphones were destined for the domestic broadcast market, as imports from the West were not permitted at the time. Around 10 years after they started manufacturing, the 797 specialists were asked to train engineers to build microphones in Shanghai at Feilo, another large government-owned electronics company."
(complete article here: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb04/articles/chinesmics.htm)

...although both Feilo and 797 built similar products, 797 established a reputation for superior capsule quality early on...to this day, their capsules are considered to be among the best of the chinese manufactured...Feilo was manufacturing the early Langevin CR-3a, a similar LDC but with different switch placement than the 797 version...
http://www.manleylabs.com/containerpages/Cr3a99.html

...here, in an earlier HR.com posting, 797audio responded to a request for a group buy back in 2000...check the list of mics they list as samples of their OEM client list (PMI became Studio Projects)...
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=11978

...below is the 797audio NT2S, still available today...