ONLINE REVIEW ON SFRECORDING.COM (October 2007)

One of my less productive hobbies is combing EBay for mics from the 1940s – 1960s. There were so many odd-ball pieces of equipment made in those years that have such 
distinctive sounds. It seems like most modern mics are focused on having a hyped high end and kind of flat mids. That is all well and good, but when it comes time to get a 
sound with a unique vibe, modern mics seem to always kind of leave me feeling cold. That is why I was so excited to get my hands on a Copperphone from Placid Audio!

Mark at Placid hand-builds these monstrous dynamic mics when he’s not busy with the Polyphonic Spree. The rather large looking diaphragm is housed inside a copper pipe
 that makes the mic look quite a bit like a pipe bomb! Construction is assuredly bulky with a nice in-built pivoting clip for mounting the mic. It’s very sturdy, but the fact that
 it’s attached to the mic means that you have to spin the whole mic assembly just to mount it. Additionally, it has a somewhat limited degree of movement. I quickly noticed 
that the Copperphone is prone to mic-stand vibration, so the option to have a shock-mount would have been much appreciated.

The Copperphone is built from old style telecom components. As expected, this gives you the “telephone” vibe but there is bit more to this mic than the typical band-passed
 sound. The polar pattern seems to be fairly omnidirectional, which, in the context of this mic, is probably a good thing. Self-noise is surprisingly lower than I expected and 
the output is fairly strong, about what you’d expect from a typical dynamic. While the frequency response is obviously very limited (you get mids, and that’s about it) the
 mids that you do get are GREAT. The Copperphone has very pleasing, crisp, but not harsh mids that are naturally compressed. This works brilliantly for things like a doubled 
vocal or for something that you need to cut through a mix without “hogging” space.

The first source I used this on was a Hammond organ. The artist was hoping for a kind of “old timey” sound, but, with the Copperphone going into a Neve 2254e, we got
 a pretty great sound that was by no means lo-fi. In fact, in the mix, it was the best I have ever heard my M103 organ sound! It was simultaneously pleasing and 
disappointing to the artist and I.
Granted, the 2254e was thickening up the sound substantially, but the two together were such a nice pairing that we went for it. Next up, we used it on a trumpet track, 
also going into the 2254e and got a similar result. The mids were totally cutting through, as horns need to do, but without the harsh upper mids and highs that a regular 
condenser often gives you on a horn. This time around, the band-passed sound was more prominent, but, to be honest, I don’t think most listeners would interpret it as
 such. Again, an equally pleasant and disappointing surprise!

Determined to get the artist his long-coveted “old timey” sound on at least one track, we employed the Copperphone on an upright piano part alongside a Neumann 
KM184. The idea was that the Copperphone may not work in the context of the song, so we recorded both to separate tracks. Soloed, the Copperphone gave us a 
wonderful, highly authentic 1930’s/1940’s sounding piano, a perfect complement to my 1890’s upright! Smiles all round.  The really interesting thing came when 
we listened back to a mix of the KM184 and the Copperphone. The Copperphone added some very nice mids and a resonance to the piano that was highly 
complementary. This made me appreciate the mic even more and has me dreaming of pairing it with ribbon mics. In this sense, the Copperphone can serve as a very
 unique utility mic, as well as a “special effect.”

Finally, we did a vocal take, which was the intended use of the artist for the Copperphone, and got exactly what we had hoped for. A kick ass old AM radio vocal sound
that just can’t be faked with EQ or plug ins. Very nice!

At $250, where else are you going to get a hand built mic with a vintage vibe but modern sensibility? I just wish more companies would make “bold” sounding gear like
 the Copperphone. Cheers to the guys at Placid Audio! – Written by Colin Fairbairn.