Roswell Pro Audio, maker of boutique condenser microphones, has added a new flagship to its roster: the Roswell Aztec, a multi-pattern tube mic built without compromise. The mic’s single-triode topology, edge-terminated K251 capsule, and custom-wound European T14 transformer deliver the airy, intimate top end and muscular bass of the finest vintage tube microphones. 

Rather than merely ‘clone’ a vintage design, Roswell has reimagined it with new features and upgrades. The mic incorporates a high-pass filter switch to reduce proximity for close mic placements, while a second switch enables an attenuation pad to increase headroom for high-SPL sources. A control on the power supply provides nine discrete polar patterns.

The mic’s power supply is fully regulated and excessively filtered. It includes numerous component upgrades unique to the Aztec: NOS tantalum resistors, a Swiss-made pattern control, and Roswell’s own electrolytic filter capacitors which were specially designed for audio. Even the fuse and fuse holder are upgraded to gold-plated German-made parts. 

The microphone benefits from relentless upgrading as well, incorporating an incredibly transparent NOS military-spec input capacitor and a copper-foil output capacitor made specifically for this microphone. Both the mic and PSU represent two years worth of R&D, during which countless components were auditioned, or in some cases, custom designed and manufactured.

Every Aztec microphone and power supply is built, burned in, and tested in Roswell’s Northern California workshop. Roswell ships the Aztec, power supply, shockmount, Gotham/Neutrik XLR7 cable, and AudioQuest IEC power cord (available for US/Canadian NEMA 5-15P outlets, UK/Ireland IEC ‘Type G’ outlets, and EU IEC ‘Type E’ outlets), in an aluminium flight case.

NAMM 2023, Booth #15223

Roswell Pro Audio announce a new addition to their popular Mini K microphone collection with the Mini K67x, adding a new sonic dimension to a diverse product range that includes the Mini K47, Mini K47 KD, and Mini K87. The first in the line with a transformer-coupled circuit, the new Mini K67x is designed to infuse colour, character and mojo into vocal and instrument tracks. The mic retains the “point and shoot” simplicity of the Mini K lineup, as well as the familiar compact form factor that makes it easy to position where many larger mics struggle to fit.

“If all of your microphones sound the same, you’ll be in for some rough sessions,” says Roswell Pro Audio founder Matt McGlynn. “Painters have many different colours. Recording artists and engineers should, too. We call this idea ‘sonic diversity,’ and we design microphones to deliver that promise. Each of the Roswell microphones has a unique sonic signature. The Mini K67x expands the aural landscape of the Mini K product line with a harmonically rich circuit and a unique new capsule design.”

The ‘K67x’ name refers both to the capsule design and circuit topology. The capsule is dimensionally based on the K67, although Roswell has created a proprietary voicing, which gives the mics its characteristic extended frequency response. The “x” refers to the transformer-coupled circuit, designed to complement the source with rich harmonics.  

This combination introduces a new flavour to the Mini K product line. The sonic inspiration for the K67x was the workhorse tube mic of the 1960s, which offered wideband frequency response and harmonics. The K67x capsule offers an alternative colour to the Mini K47 and Mini K87, as well as an entirely unique texture.

FEATURES:

● Proprietary 34mm capsule design

● Vintage circuit design with custom output transformer

● Hand-selected, audiophile-grade capacitors

● Heavy, solid steel body with durable finish

● Exclusive Cutaway non-resonant shock mount

BENEFITS:

● Wideband frequency response provides natural capture of many sources

● Harmonic saturation enhances the source, much like a tube microphone would

● Solid, high-quality construction ensures real-world durability and long service life

● Low self-noise keeps hiss out of your tracks

 The Mini K67x has a durable metallic grey finish. Each mic ships with Roswell’s exclusive Cutaway shockmount, a microfleece mic sock and a flight case. Like all Roswell microphones, the Mini K67x is designed, assembled, and tested in California.

There’s an air of efficiency around Roswell’s Mini K47; no-nonsense, straight to the heart of it, says what it does on the tin. And at the heart of these mics is the capsule; a K47-style one, the sort you’ll find in Neumann tube mics like the U47 and M49. The mini part? Well these ain’t no U47-sized mics.

A pair of Mini K47s turned up in the office after I met Roswell’s owner Matt McGlynn at NAMM earlier in the year. Unfortunately, I got caught up moving around a bit, and they’d only found their way onto a number of guitar recordings. Recently, things have settled down and I found the time and projects to try them on some other sources.

Even if you’ve not heard of Matt, you’ve probably landed on a website of his. Through them, you can trace his journey from recording enthusiast to a mic manufacturer who is intimately familiar with most mic designs on the planet.

These days, Matt runs three businesses. The first was Recordinghacks.com, which Matt intended to be a ‘consumer reports’ source for microphones, spilling the beans on who had original designs and who just picked their mics out of a Chinese manufacturer’s catalogue. After dissecting the specs of thousands of microphones, he moved on to dissecting actual components and started MicParts.com – the DIY epicentre of mic modding. Then came the full-blown manufacturer role with Roswell Microphones, which produces the Mini K47 and a handful of other microphones.

TAMING OF THE SHRILL

According to Matt, the Mini K47 is just his version of a longstanding mic mashup done right. Back in the halcyon days of Chinese mic copies, everyone was just happy to get a U87-looking condenser mic for a few bucks and couldn’t care less about what was inside it. What was inside wasn’t bad, either; according to Matt, it was just mismatched. 

The guts of the mics were based on the Schoeps CMC 5 preamp design. The beauty of it is its transformerless design, cutting out the main component cost. Even a bad transformer at volume costs a buck or two. But even better was the fact the circuit survives implementation with the world’s worst parts while retaining remarkable fidelity. You could build a whole circuit for 50 cents and it would still perform well!

The problem came at the other end. Looking around for a capsule that looked the part, naturally the designers turned to the microphone everyone wanted to rip off: the Neumann U87. Unfortunately, the capsule in it – the K67 – was the dead wrong choice. It had a rising frequency response and was designed to be used with a circuit that had corrective EQ in it, working together to produce a relatively flat microphone. Somehow along the way, the capsule also got shrunk from 34mm to 32mm, but that’s another mystery.

Needless to say, Matt saw an opportunity to fix the thousands of mics plagued by this high end shrillness. All it would take was to find the right capsule that would sit comfortably with the linear preamp circuit. A K47-style capsule would do just that.

Matt first offered the solution as a kit on Micparts.com. Once modders started posting results, other less handy recordists wanted in, but needed someone to do the mod for them. Inundated with requests, Matt saw it as the next opportunity: making mics from scratch.

MIC PARTS REMIX

The Roswell Mini K47 is a well-refined version of Matt’s original fix. It’s got a K47-style capsule that’s different to the Mic Parts one, though not necessarily better. He just didn’t feel right about using the same capsule for both. While the guts have been tried and tested, there was still a lot of refinement so Matt wasn’t just importing yet another dodgy Chinese mic.

To keep the cost down he went with a commodity body shape, but it’s made of steel, not aluminium or mystery metal. Secondly, instead of paint, they finished it in a durable powder coat.

The case is a generic aluminium design, with laser-cut foam. But the schockmounts are unique in that the front third of them is cut away so it doesn’t get in the way of your mic placement. You can squeeze the mic right up onto the grille cloth of your guitar cabinet without resorting to a ring mount.

The last bit of quality comes once every K47 is shipped to the States. There it’s QC’d according to Roswell’s tight tolerances over multiple tests – acoustic sweep, listening and sensitivity tests. Anything out of the range is fixed or scavenged for parts. It’s fairly different to the way most cheap mics are treated.