Warm Audio Fen-tone: C-3PO Is That You?
Another rare vintage microphone reborn, courtesy of Warm Audio.
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Warm Audio Fen-tone: C-3PO Is That You? · Source: Warm Audio
Warm Audio Fen-tone · Source: Warm Audio
Fen-tone Stereo Pair · Source: Warm Audio
The Warm Audio Fen-tone is a vintage-style figure-8 ribbon mic for capturing instruments, recreated with high-quality modern components.
Warm Audio is renowned for its recreations of classic pieces of recording gear, not only bringing iconic sounds back to life, but also making audio tools that are relevant in modern music production workflows.
Warm Audio Fen-tone
Believe it or not, the Danish lifestyle hi-fi brand, B&O, used to manufacture ribbon microphones back in the 1950s, and jolly good ones at that. One of these was the Fen-tone / Bang and Olufsen BM 3, a ribbon mic with a steel tube body that would inspire the well-known Royer R-121, which is still a favourite among engineers today.
As you’d expect from Warm Audio, the new Fen-tone recreation is built to perfection using a neodymium magnet, a custom Japanese ribbon, and a CineMag USA transformer. It also features an integrated JFET in-line preamp with a 26 dB gain boost for the low-gain microphone preamps found in the average audio interface.
These figure-8 ribbon mics became popular for recording guitar amps, brass instruments, and they were often used in ambient overhead configurations. However, with the addition of the in-line preamp switch, you can move between high-SPL and quieter sound sources while getting that classic ribbon sound.
Pricing and Availability:
The Warm Audio Fen-tone is currently available from Thomann as a single unit or stereo pair.
This style of microphone has been around for a long time, and the tone has evolved since the original, we’re excited to deliver an affordable version of its most contemporary tones. We’re all familiar with the body style of this mic, but not everyone knows it originally comes from a design from the 1950s. While other B&O-inspired designs have used upgraded ribbons & components like ours to deliver that guitar tone we all know & love, we’ve also upgraded the original switch that cycled between various modes for “Talk”, “Music”, and “Orchestra” mode, to now being an active inline preamp to offer even more value. We revived the trademark to keep it authentic to its history while bringing the Warm formula of premium components to the build to deliver today’s most sought-after guitar & instrument tones.
Bryce Young, founder and President of Warm Audio
More about the Warm Audio Fen-tone:
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