Almost everything is digital in a modern recording studio: the mixing console, the recording system, the effect equipment. And now, digital systems are slowly but surely taking over the last bastion of analogue sound processing: microphone technology. At the AES Convention, Sennheiser unveiled its first digital MKH 8000 microphones, which will be available this autumn. A digital module that is simply screwed onto the microphone head converts the audio signal immediately behind the head – ‘translating’ the clear, warm and responsive sound of the MKH microphones directly into the digital world. The quality of this conversion was impressively demonstrated in a first MKH reference recording.

“We wanted to find out how the digital modules for the MKH 8000 series performed in comparison to external A/D converters,” said Sennheiser’s master sound engineer Gregor Zielinsky. The orchestra of the University of Music and Drama in Hannover (HMTH), conducted by Eiji Oue, Principal Conductor of the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and professor of conducting at HMTH, played Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 and Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. To test the A/D conversion, dual miking was used for the recording: analogue, with standard MKH 8000 microphones operating on a stationary, studio-quality A/D converter, and digital, with MKH 8000 microphones fitted with screw-on digital modules

The orchestra of the University of Music and Drama in Hannover (HMTH), conducted by Eiji Oue, Principal Conductor of the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and professor of conducting at HMTH

This dual microphone set-up allowed several master sound engineers to compare the sound directly during the recording,” Zielinsky explained. “The sound of the digital modules was warm and nevertheless clear and precise – and more spatial overall than in the recording in which A/D conversion took place later in the signal path.” Master sound engineer Wolf-Dieter Karwatky from BKL Recording Group was also highly impressed: “After the first comparisons with external state-of-the-art A/D converters, we can say that

The MZD 8000 digital module

the digital modules are at least
equal to these converters
or even superior to them.”

Benefits of the digital microphones
“The recordings showed that the A/D converters are perfectly matched to the microphone heads of the MKH series. The fact that the signal is digitalised directly at the microphone head means that there are no cable losses or signal disruptions,” Zielinsky continued. “The microphones can be remote-controlled, allowing parameter settings such as the low-cut filter and attenuation to be adjusted via an interface and a PC. For me, the digital microphone is the logical continuation of digitalisation in the studio.”

The Sennheiser Group, with its headquarters in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems. The family-owned company, which was established in 1945, recorded sales of over € 395 million in 2007, 83% of which were generated abroad. Sennheiser employs almost 2,000 people worldwide, around 55% of whom are in Germany. Sennheiser has manufacturing plants in Germany, Ireland and the USA and is represented worldwide by subsidiaries in France, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark (Nordic), Russia, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Japan, China, Canada, Mexico and the USA, as well as by long-term trading partners in many other countries. Also part of the Sennheiser Group are Georg Neumann GmbH, Berlin (studio microphones), K + H Vertriebs- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (Klein + Hummel studio monitors, installed sound) and the joint venture Sennheiser Communications A/S (headsets for PCs, offices and call centres).

Download Pressrelease:
press_release_01.07.2008.zip (2 MB)

You can find all the latest information on Sennheiser by visiting our website at http://www.sennheiser.com/ or by contacting:

Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG
Pressereferat • Edelgard Marquardt
Am Labor 1 • 30900 Wedemark
Tel: +49 (5130) 600-329
Fax: +49 (5130) 600-295
e-mail: edelgard.marquardt@sennheiser.com