Neumann TLM 102 review by Jamie T – part one
| Posted in Music Technology
The Neumann TLM 102 studio microphone has now arrived in the marketplace with a mission to bring the Neumann name within the reach of home-recording enthusiasts for the first time. It’s a significant change – until now the German brand has largely been the preserve of big-budget studios frequented by big-selling recording artists. According to Neumann, the TLM 102 has been developed to offer the same quality performance as its high brow stable-mates, but for a lot less money.
But what about successful artists who like to record at home? To give this new microphone the ultimate road test, we turned to NME Award winning, Mercury Prize nominated star Jamie T, whose recently released second album Kings & Queens was recorded (with help from his long-standing technical guru Ben Coupland) not even in his bedroom but in his garden shed. Yes, his shed.
In fact, it’s fair to say that Jamie and Ben as a duo are pioneers when it comes to recording chart-conquering albums at home on a less than big-budget set-up. “At the moment we’re using an old copy of, I think, Logic 7 or 8,” explains Ben. “Plus we have some free plug-ins, and a little Mackie desk,” he adds.
Meanwhile, although Jamie tells of his discovery of sequencing leading to days of “getting up, turning on the laptop and not stopping writing all day”, he swears that his interest in equipment is practically non-existent: “I don’t want to learn about this stuff,” he stresses. “I like to approach every new thing knowing nothing about it, and then experiment with it.” Ben adds that “if Jamie wants to do something and doesn’t know how, then I can do it for him.”
It’s hardly the technology-chewing set-up that most pop stars opt for when they create a facility at home, but that’s part of the joy of Jamie T’s approach to recording his work. The finished tracks are, he explains, often a mixture of recordings from the shed and later re-workings in major facilities. “Sometimes when you’re in a studio you have to wait ages for the mic to warm up and then, when you finally hear the vocal back, it’s too clean,” he explains. “So you go back to the demo. It’s good to have a mix of both.”
Which is precisely where the TLM 102 comes in. When DV247 meets Jamie and Ben, shortly before the pair depart for an Australian tour, they explain that they have been using the bigger brother of the 102, Neumann’s TLM 103, for recording vocals plus guitar – the result can be heard on Kings & Queens. However, the choice of mic is a coincidence – neither of the pair have a connection with Neumann or a particular fondness for the brand. Instead, the TLM 103 is being used simply because it meets their requirements, matching the performance of the equipment deployed in the major-league studios they sometimes book. The same test has been applied to the TLM 102 – does it deliver on expectations with the minimum amount of preparation?
“We used it to record the vocal take for a Bruce Springsteen cover,” Jamie reveals, keeping tight-lipped on the song in question or whether it will be released. Ben adds that he “didn’t use any EQ or anything, we just set it up and used it.”
It’s a steep test then, but both Jamie and Ben are happy with the result. “It sounded great,” smiles Ben. “Very crisp and clear. If anything I think it might have slightly more headroom than the 103.”
In fact, Jamie and Ben’s initial reaction to the microphone is so positive that Jamie is already planning how he could use it on tour. Find out more tomorrow, in the second part of Jamie T’s exclusive review of the Neumann TLM 102 studio microphone.
About Barney Jameson
A contributor, editor and in some cases creator of more music and pro audio magazines than he cares to remember, Barney Jameson is a veteran of writing about gear, and a pretty keen singer songwriter to boot.
Having started his musical education reading old copies of the Melody Maker while riding the tube to University in the mid-nineties, Barney once sang in a band called Sugarstone, troubling record company chequebooks not quite enough to make it a career option. Instead, he achieved his goal of starting a music magazine of his own when he founded Playmusic in the early noughties. Later on, having exploited VIP access to as many festivals as possible, he wrote about the pro audio industry throughout Europe and the Middle East, travelling to far-flung destinations such as Dubai, Doha and Muscat (nice mountains).
As the latest addition to the DV247 team, Barney has big plans. But when he’s not plotting online domination of the musical instrument world, he keeps himself busy writing songs on a battered old acoustic guitar and playing them to audiences in his home town.
Tags: Jamie T shed, Kings & Queens, Neumann TLM 103, Panic Prevention