The New Vintage 12: How Does It Sound?

Our new mic, the V12 is on its way! Not only will it be ready to ship (limited access!) immediately, but it’ll also have an intro offer during our Black Friday Sale.

Now, the V12… how does it sound?

Well, you can hear that for yourself right here: 

For the sake of this blog, I’d like to just detail the findings I had of the mic itself rather than a written comparison, so you can make your own minds up about how it sounds next to two favourite microphones within our line: the V67 and the Black Hole Series. I won't recommend one over the other as each of these sounds incredible, but I would like you to decide which is best for your needs.

Let’s Dive in.

Acoustic Guitar

If you’ve been a user of our mics for any length of time, you’ll already know how insanely well the V67 and Black Hole Series work with Acoustic Guitar. Well, the V12 is no exception - and I can see myself reaching for this mic in a lot of situations.

Due to the smooth, natural dip in the upper midrange, I found there was less pick attack, but just enough detail due to the top-end lift. The low-end was very similar to the V67, blossomed and broad, but smooth and extremely rich - the only difference being the upper range of the response which was a clear and decisive factor to the question: ‘which microphone for which source?’. On my 000 size Sigma Guitars acoustic, it was a breath of fresh air due to the dry, condensed and very full upper midrange for which I usually need to use a De-Esser to tame.).

As usual, the BH2 shone bright, but you can really hear the V12 taking its place alongside it in just how detailed and ethereal the upper frequency range is. What surprised me the most about the V12 was just how fragrant the lower end of the spectrum was, which I can only put down to one thing: harmonics. The Black Hole Series has a subtle yet blissful lift in the low-end, which when compared to the V67 with its fuller low-mids is obvious; the V12 seemed to have a perfect balance of both due to the subtle saturation character built into the circuit (the same you’d be used to if you have used an original version of the mic that inspired our V12).

Overheads and Drum Rooms

On overheads, the V12 has such a stupendous character. It’s like someone has already switched on a harmonics generator and decided ‘hey, why not more?’.

Inherent in all analogue equipment, harmonics are always there - but the kind we’re after are those sweet, sweet tube-like harmonics (or similar). Due to the make-up of this mic’s original design, and our modernisation of that technology without sacrificing quality, timbre, or vibe, I’m sure what you’ll hear within the video is an abundance of the entire spectrum. Not just

the top end, glistening high frequencies commonly experienced with tubes, but also the outstanding subharmonic content..

Again, each of these mic’s do something different, yet similar, in both the top and bottom end. The V12 however, is the only one of the trio that smooths out the harshness common within cymbal content. (which is something I often strive for. I can’t stress enough that this is subjective. I usually conduct a shoot out with all of these mics against each other depending on the source).

The V12 is not as bright as the BH2, and sounds as if it has a broader bottom end than the V67, due to the small scoop in the upper-midrange,- however this married to a lift in the 7-12Khz region, so it is becoming my new middle ground between the Vintage and Black Hole Series. 

As a drum room mic, the same is apparent, with a beautiful, luscious and bloomed low-end in all mics. Again the subtle harmonics afforded by the V12 is a night and day for me. I could see it becoming too much with a larger diameter kick drum, or when recording in a large room, but if this was the case, I’d probably use it as an outside kick mic, or on floor tom, simply because I can see it working just as well, or even better, as a mono room mic much farther back than in this example! 

In any case, you’ll be able to get this mic after the 9th November, as well as in the Black Friday Sale very soon - and current owners of a JZ mic, please remember to join the JZ Microphones Members Area if you haven't already, for additional benefits.


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