There’s simply too much to talk about in today's blog post, so I’m going to just jump straight in.
The V12 is a combination of unyielding innovation, coupled with our determination to build incredible tools at an affordable price, without compromise.
Let’s dive in.
The Design
For decades now, tube mics have been loved and used on countless recordings for one simple reason. They sound incredible.
However, the thing that has always stifled workflow, efficiency, and creativity is the cumbersome nature of the usual tube mic design. For those not aware of why this is such a pain from session to session, I’ll briefly explain.
Usually, with a condenser mic, you plug it in, switch on phantom power and start recording. With a tube mic, you not only need to do the above steps, but as well as the XLR cable, you’ll need an external power supply,, so a cable goes to a socket in the wall which then makes moving the mic problematic. The mic stand must be able to withstand the weight of a tube mic (they’re usually heavy).Also, you’ll need a suitcase to pack everything back into as they can be fragile and ridiculously expensive.
We decided enough is enough and thus, the V12 was made. A careful engineering process allowed us to mimic the subtle harmonic content a tube will give you, as well as our highly acclaimed Golden Drop Technology doing much of the heavy lifting in our handcrafted capsule.
The construction should be familiar to many of you in that it looks identical to the V67 and V47, both of which have been road tested without fault and consistently provide exactly what's expected of them..
The Sounds
I’m trying to write this next part without bias as well as I can but it’s hard to word this any differently; this is literally the best mic I’ve heard. Period.
You can watch below to hear it in action against the V67 (the entire video until the comparison is also the V12!)
I can’t get over how easy it is to blend into a mix, or bring forward to shine in it’s own right. A few weeks back, I talked about the Amethyst being my ultimate workhorse, butI can see the V12 rivalling it very soon!
There’s an airiness you can’t get without valves and yet, this mic does it. I don’t know how they’ve done it, but they have. What impressed me most of all was how well it plays in proximity effect, performing a tight and consistent cardioid polar pattern allowing you to reposition where needed and where it sounds best, then hit record.
When in the mix, I found I needed no EQ whatsoever on vocals which stunned me completely - only yesterday I saw the frequency response which confirmed my suspicions as to why this was; the subtle dip in the harsher territory for vocals, married with a wide bell lift in the upper frequency range is basically what I would do in the box to most mics!
In the coming weeks I’ll be sharing my own comparisons here within my studio, along with various demonstrations of what it works best on; but after already trying it on vocals and acoustic guitar, I can see this working incredibly well as an overhead mic or room mic, as well as uses on contemporary classical instruments, piano especially.
Make sure you join our JZ Microphones Members Area, where you can gain access to early bird sales, pre-order and much more if you are already a JZ Mics owner!
When the new Vintage 12 will be available?
The new V12 will be available starting from November 9th. Sign up for Black Friday early bird access HERE and save more on all JZ hand-crafted microphones (including V12)!