Mercenary Audio - Microtech Gefell MT71 S Studio Cardioid Condenser

When the Berlin Wall came down in the early 1990's and a little company that was the original Neumann was found the UMT-70s was their first offering to "the West". Featuring an original gold sputtered PVC based capsule known for decades as the "M-7" it combined a transformerless output amplifier with the vintage capsule manufacturing technology to form the best of new and old. The MT-71s is the "cardioid only" version of the microphone. The MT-71s is at home with vocals, guitars, pianos, drums and pretty much anything you can throw at it. Its transformerless amplifier permits unparalleled transient response making it a favorite snare drum mic around our shop and its airy but rich tonal character has made this one of the few utility microphones that is used on just about every session.

Transformerless studio condenser microphone with dual gold membrane diaphragms, features cardioid pattern. Same story and specs as the UMT70 S, the only difference being the MT71 S is a single pattern microphone whereas the UMT70 S is a multipattern microphone.

Recently, Adam did a shoot-out between the Microtech Gefell MT71S and the M-930:

I though it might be helpful to record some examples and show the differences between these two similarly priced, yet, both excellent [in their own right] condenser microphones from Microtech Gefell. The M930, which uses a Gold Sputtered Mylar Capsule, and the MT71, which uses the PVC M7 Capsule. These are both strictly cardioid pattern microphones, but the MT71 does have a high pass filter and 10 DB PAD. These switches were left flat for this example. I felt that using stereo technique with “player perspective” [Drum OH in spaced pair and Piano in spaced pair] would yield the best comparison, to really hear what these wonderful microphones are capable of all the way from left to right. I used our API 3124MB+ as the preamplifier, with input gains set very low, so there would not be any additional distortion from the preamplifier. The API can be very clean at low gain, and I think it represents the microphones extremely well here. Personal favorite’s aside, I feel that both of these microphones are really incredible for a wide variety of applications, so I’ll leave all the subjective, aesthetic based stuff to you guys.

Enjoy!!!
A/B

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