David Bock has fostered (and weathered) the changes in the microphone marketplace over the last 14 years, first as cofounder and main designer for Soundelux Microphones and now with his own Bock Audio Designs. Bock's goal of uncompromised design has led to some truly great mics, including the 195, 251, 151 and the curiously designed 5-ZERO-7.
What's your history?
I started recording professionally when I was 18, while I was in college. My job was to record recitals. We had a couple of Neumann M 269 [mics], Neumann SM 2 [stereo mic], and an Ampex 440 [tape deck] and a mixer — seat-of-the-pants recording. If you don't do a good job, you don't get paid. It was great. I went for music study and eventually ended up in recording in San Francisco at Hyde Street Studios in the mid 80s. I was doing tech work and engineering.
Did the tech work come along naturally?
I've been soldering since I was seven, fixing things that had bad soldered joints and whatnot. I don't know if that's legal anymore to let a seven-year-old touch a soldering iron!
Or to inhale those fumes!
I was into ham radio in high school and I was in bands. I came from the musical side, but always had that technical bent. I built a synthesizer when I was in high school. I couldn't have afforded it otherwise! It was the same with microphones. Back in the '90s I couldn't afford then what was a horrifically expensive $5,000 [Neumann] U 47. So the idea of the new company was, "There's got to be a way to duplicate this."
Is that what set you on the path?
When I was at Hyde Street a guy who was working for Dan Alexander — Garry Creiman — showed me the ins and outs of basic microphone repair. Because of that I didn't have the same fear of microphone repair that the other techs seemed to have, and there's always a demand for that job. They had a good collection of vintage mics. I did more of that at Ocean Way [Recording] some 20 years ago. I was the day tech at Ocean Way for four years. After that I started working for a post company. I met up with one of the owners of Soundelux and we started Soundelux Microphones. I'm not going to go into that long history, but we started a microphone company in 1995. It used everybody's favorite term — "imported parts." In the years from '95 to '98 I perceived an explosion of Chinese re-branded microphones that were potentially the same thing. I didn't want to be caught up in that, and it really wasn't what I wanted to build in the first place anyway. So I started moving the company towards recreating the vintage mics that I used as an engineer.
Because you knew there was a scarcity.
I had a studio in Hollywood and it was an obvious need. In 1995 there were maybe five models of tube microphones that you could buy new. Now there are hundreds. I started on the engineering side behind the console. To me, it didn't matter what material we were working on. It was an obvious preference for the musician, and for me, to use tube microphones. They just did the job better. You could have a pile of them up, all the faders up and it wouldn't sound bad. The transistor mics I didn't like as much. That's before I'd studied enough design to understand why.
What did you eventually feel was the reason for that?
There are piles of problems. First of all, FET mics should never have never been standardized with phantom power. They should have had their own power supplies like tube mics do. That would have been a huge improvement right there. They're so finicky that they need to be specially treated. There is no simple FET circuit that works perfectly — not like a tube where you can throw a triode on a good capsule and you've got a halfway decent mic.
The inside of a tube mic is actually a airly simple circuit.
Yes. And, in fact, if you look at the latest mic — the 5- ZERO-7 — it's an exercise in incredible simplicity. But it needs to be done perfectly. Sort of like fine dining — it really requires the best ingredients. Tube mics are very simple, often deceptively so, which works for me in this market.
And you make FET mics.
I make one [the 195]. And I'm going to bring back the ifet7. The 195 is the same mic I've been making since '96 at Soundelux.
That's a very popular mic, partly for the price point and partly for the rewards of what it brings.
Yeah, it's got a lot of features and a good price point. I haven't yet seen anyone put a "fat" switch on a mic like that. The 251 we've been making since 2001, and the 151 used to be called the 251C.
Is that a fixed pattern version of the 251?
Yes, its fixed cardioid. It's stripped down. It's not stylized to the level of the 251.
When you say "stylized," what do you mean?
It doesn't have the chrome — [it's a] much simpler body and a much simpler internal assembly. It's still the same capsule. No patterns, so no expensive pattern switch. There's a lot of labor put into a 251.
I've taken mine apart and looked at it! [laughter]
Yeah, it can be done. You just have to pay attention. It's like a puzzle.
Just adding the chrome bands adds a lot to the cost of engineering and assembly?
Oh, yeah. If you want to use American metal versus Chinese metal, the price is going to be far more than double. In addition, the quality of the metal itself is better with all the American metals. We can plate them a lot more easily. With Chinese metal, the purity of the metal is not the same, so it doesn't plate the same.
When you're doing something like the 251, how close do you feel you get to the original Telefunken ELA M 251 microphone?
Our goal with the 251 was always meant to be my enhanced version of a 251. CK12 capsules are a wonderfully unique capsule that almost always have a unique flat mid-range and are capable of a tremendous amount of low end. The original 251 had a lot of devices in the amplifier to take that bass away. I decided I didn't like that. If I want a high pass filter I'll do it at the console. I eliminated those elements and extended the bandwidth down to 5 Hz. So the capsule is a version of the CK12. They have a flatter midrange, from 3 to 5 kHz than most of the AKG capsules. It's a nice, high- frequency peak — it's not over the top.
There does feel to be a lift in the highs.
Oh, there is. It's not overwhelming and it's not unpleasant. That's the whole point of that capsule and that amplifier mating. We basically optimize the amplifier, following the capsule, to allow the 251 to breathe in the low end in a way that it had never done before. We were recording last night with one of mine and an original one as a stereo pair on piano, and it was great.
Do you have a process of trying mics on different instruments?
For new product development, it's twofold. There isn't any difference I can hear that I can't measure, ultimately. That means measurements I can make quantify and verify the audio decisions that I've made. That way I'm not operating in the dark and I know exactly how much proximity effect something has or doesn't have and all that stuff. We use a combination of measurements, but measurements don't drive the design at all.
Do you measure vintage mics to see what kind of results they have?
Oh sure, of course. At this point, I've got a lot of curves of a lot of vintage microphones. The curves alone cannot tell you anything, actually.
Because you're dealing with transient responses and more complex signatures of instruments.
There are a couple more things that need to be measured, and there's still your opinion.
You showed me years ago, and I think it's finally out — a mic with an elliptical diaphragm.
The 5-ZERO-7. It's an incredible thing. George Cardas invented it and then he and I developed it with our capsule maker in Germany. We finally came up with a package for that microphone that works beautifully. That capsule took awhile to find a home to live in, much the same way not every guitar works with every amp and speaker combination. Some are better than others. It was a little bit of a road to find the right amplifier.
Because of its shape, did it have some frequency humps and things you had to work around?
Oh yeah. It's got a nice high frequency lift, but it's not crazy. It's less than a 251, and much flatter through the midrange without sounding like an omni. It's because the in-band audio resonance is lower, because it is not symmetrical.
Right. Kind of like standing in the center of a round room...
Exactly. The standing waves are reduced. We used a golden ratio ellipse to find the correct aspect ratio. You get enough high-frequency boost. It's a condenser, so it's going to have high frequencies. It's got a beautiful, flat midrange. Because the capsule is larger, you really do get an enhanced low end without an overwhelming proximity effect. There's nothing else like it in the world.
Is it a multi-pattern?
Cardioid only. I've heard recordings with a figure 8 pattern with that and it's exceptional.
Yeah, I'm curious.
It really does bring a new level of naturalism that isn't defined by measurement. I use that term specifically. Terms like "natural" and "transparent" have been so distorted and misused that they've lost their meaning.
So you've really picked a certain field — large diaphragm microphones that are mostly tube-based. Have you thought of branching out?
Oh, sure. There are a couple of projects in the works. One of them just started shipping — the Bock Audio 50. It's a large mic, but it's a small diaphragm inside a Plexiglas sphere. We had a lot of requests from film scoring guys. They don't want to spend $62,000 for three microphones that might go noisy in the middle of the track. If you want to buy vintage mics, that's your option. I know of scores that have crackling noises that have to be corrected. It's been in development for a couple of years. It's so specific, and we're not going to make a lot of them. We've seen two other companies try and not really pull it off, so it was absolutely an open field. It's also the ridiculousness of the challenge. I thought it was something I should do. It was the kind challenge that I enjoy.
What kind of shop do you have now?
We're in Studio City now, right near Universal Center. All of our board work is done in Orange County and all of our metal work is done elsewhere.
Do you do the final assembly in Studio City?
We are "parts collection and final assembly."
Do you check every mic personally?
Yes. I'm not allowed to go on vacation!
Where do you get tubes?
You've got to buy new old stock. What an investment!
Then you've got to test all of those, obviously.
Yes. We only use new old stock in my company. One of our jobs is to find out what tubes are unpopular and buy those cheap.
Any thoughts on the future of Bock Audio?
You'll see us maintain the high end, and we won't dip too low into the low end. If we did, it would be designing for somebody else. We're committed to the quality control that got us our reputation. If we have to limit growth to do that, we will. I like to think that I bring a lot of studio experience to the company, and that it's driven by my personal interest in what I think sounds good. That's really it.
