Hugh Masekela uses Bock 151 mic to record new album
Published: MEA
SOUTH AFRICA: South African musician Hugh Masekela recently recorded his album Jabulani for Gallo Records at the Digital Cupboard studios in Johannesburg. While a variety of mics were used to record the full band, Digital Cupboard owner and engineer Ian Osrin relied on the Bock 151 to capture Mr Masekela’s voice.
The large-diaphragm, cardioid 151 is based on the Bock 251 microphone and delivers the same standard of capture. The 151 features a Bock handmade German capsule and outboard power supply with a hand-wound transformer and a Nos tube. The mic has a normal mode position that was used to downplay the higher registers of Mr Masekela’s voice.
Discussing the 151 mic, Mr Orsin said ‘in my experience, a lot of large-diaphragm vocal mics have a thin band of distortion around the 3kHz range, which seems to present itself as a grating noise. The Bock doesn't exhibit that characteristic and remains smooth throughout the vocal range.’
The Digital Cupboard has been in business since 1988. Aki Khan at Eastern Acoustics Pro Audio was instrumental in selling the 151 mic to the studio.