Lucas CS-1

Here's a guest spot from our pal Larry Devivo. It didn't quite fit a reply for Tape Op letters, but it's a great story and I wanted to share it. -LC There is a new microphone made called the Lucas CS-1. This mic is the brainchild of Terry Manning [issue #58] and Oliver Archut [TAB Funkenwerk], originally developed when Oliver was asked by Terry to modify his AKG C 12 VR. About the only thing that remained of the original mic was the body and grill (and even those were given a new paint and chrome job respectively). Terry was so impressed with the work Oliver did to this mic that they started to develop a new mic based on this particular tube Oliver had found when doing the mod to the original C 12 VR. Less than 300 total will be produced. When in cardioid pattern the mic exhibits what is know as TC (or true cardioid) and the actual output is raised by 3 dB. Not only is the output increased but the amount of "reach" when picking up sources seems to increase as well. I've never encountered any mic that captures so much detail. So much so that most singers have to step back from the microphone as to not have throat noises, breath and lip smacks over emphasized. In front of drum kits not only does it pick up the whole kit quite well, but the loudest element in the kit is the kick drum and the mic has a massive amount of low end reach. The CS-1 is a mic unlike any other I've encountered. You cannot position it where you would typically put mics - experimentation (to a degree) is the norm, at least until you get use to this particular mic. I always look at mics as camera lens. I focus and capture my "picture" with them. I know of no other mic that has such a large "sweet spot." Larry DeVivo <www.silvertonemastering.com>