Review on Neumann Condenser Microphone (Premium Edition/Nickel) by Eduardo Reyes

In a moment of weakness I pushed the magic Revain button and a week later I found a Neumann TLM 102 MT on my doorstep. After the first test recording, I knew I'd stumbled upon something good. I've been recording classical guitar and ukulele on the 102 in my home studio for months since then and have found it to be accurate, responsive, tonally balanced but significantly warmer than my KM184. The Neumann specs show a slight peak in presence at 6kHz, which I think is much less pronounced than the KM184's presence boost. Although the 102's mids are warm and sweet, higher frequencies like artificial and natural overtones still have plenty of spark and air. In fact, for the natural tone of a classical guitar and ukulele, the 102 sounds perfectly flat, ie. no EQ or other post processing required. A little reverb and you're done. The output signal is strong enough for quiet instruments so you don't need to turn up the gain. While the aforementioned doesn't sound like much to most musicians, fingered instruments like classical guitar are relatively dull and many microphones don't work, requiring the gain sliders to be hidden just to move the meters. ! In addition, the 102's extremely low noise floor allows subtle tones such as overtones to shine through the track without a hint of background noise. Finally, the 102 is a great acoustic and classical guitar stage mic in a pinch. Unlike many recording mics, the 102 is small (116mm long), rugged and has a large output. Bring your own clip as the 102 will not fit most stage mic clips. I am very satisfied with my Neumann MTL microphone. 102 MT: Impeccable fit and finish, beautiful, natural and balanced sound and pure sound. For recording classical guitar and ukulele my new favorite is the 102. Now I have to buy another one so I can record in stereo!