If you have ever thought about modding your microphone to gain a better sounding microphone, no time like the present. If you were like me and a little scared to mess with your microphone's electronics or even under the shield covering the electronics, well it's not such a daunting task. I have some electronics background during my time working as a desktop support technician in the BBC and tinkling on the insides of the staffs desktop machines. What was most daunting for me was that the Rode microphone I had came with a 10 year guarantee that a few months in I have now officially voided unless they still cover for wires and other peripheral items it was sold with.
I read a lot of stuff about the Octavia mod and the change over of components on the original microphone’s circuit board. There seemed to be two main schools of thought as to how resolve the NT1A’s problem if indeed there were any major problems because it is a fine microphone with good sound. For someone who is actually not overly sibilant or has a deeper voice it is probably a perfect microphone. Going to the old adage of, 'Not every microphone fits every person'. I sang the Rode NT1A's praises when I first purchased it and paid out a lot more to purchase a replacement for my previous microphone which was a Behringer C01. I hated the sound of the Behringer so the NT1A was a great relief to hear some kind of recording that resembled anything professional.
Many people stated that the NT1A was very sibilant and couldn't handle highs and lows too well. I didn't believe it but I found http://www.microphone-parts.com website whilst I was researching the other two trains of thought. These other techniques for gaining better quality from the same microphone, they both seemed a little pricey and although one was cheaper than the other after reading more information I decided to go with changing the microphone capsule. I had never really believed that changing the microphone head basket or a few components on the circuit board could make this microphone sound like a top quality sounding microphone. I decided that the most dramatic effect could only really be gained by changing out (modding) the microphone capsule. The proven way to improve the NT1A or any other microphone was to get another microphone capsule. All of the other fixes were to me just a lot of mumbo jumbo that may or may not work.
I bought the capsule from microphone-parts.com and when it arrived I was so excited at the prospect of hearing my microphone change into a different kind of beast. The only problem was I needed to unsolder and resolder wires which I have never had the pleasure of doing in my lifetime and I also needed to change the capsule mount which is a daunting task since you cannot just unscrew the old mount and add the new one. The NT1A has a strange rubber mount used to hold the capsule in place. The capsule that is sent doesn't quite fill the whole rubber mount but I decided to not mess with the original mount. The capsule sits in place but if I bang the microphone excessively around (which I wouldn't do) then the capsule could slightly change position. I couldn't or just didn't want to mess around with the soldering of the wires and because I have a cheap to use electrician nearby I got a professional electrician to do it. So he soldered the new microphone capsule leads in place and I was excited to see what the results would be. Once I arrived home I plugged in the modded NT1A and recorded my voice and I was surprised to hear all of the sibilance from the NT1A was gone and the sound was deeper which I preferred. To me the sound produced is 100 times better. I am not an aficionado of Neumann microphones because the pricing is a little high but this microphone capsule is supposed to be a very similar sound to a famous Neumann microphone (the U 47) and to my ears this sounds like it is so.
Thanks to Matt at microphone-parts.com for giving the best customer support I have ever seen (emails answered within an hour in my case) and thanks to anyone who made this capsule and anyone else at microphone-parts.com who works there. Great product and great prices and end result a nice sounding mic with no harsh highs or lows.
I read a lot of stuff about the Octavia mod and the change over of components on the original microphone’s circuit board. There seemed to be two main schools of thought as to how resolve the NT1A’s problem if indeed there were any major problems because it is a fine microphone with good sound. For someone who is actually not overly sibilant or has a deeper voice it is probably a perfect microphone. Going to the old adage of, 'Not every microphone fits every person'. I sang the Rode NT1A's praises when I first purchased it and paid out a lot more to purchase a replacement for my previous microphone which was a Behringer C01. I hated the sound of the Behringer so the NT1A was a great relief to hear some kind of recording that resembled anything professional.
Many people stated that the NT1A was very sibilant and couldn't handle highs and lows too well. I didn't believe it but I found http://www.microphone-parts.com website whilst I was researching the other two trains of thought. These other techniques for gaining better quality from the same microphone, they both seemed a little pricey and although one was cheaper than the other after reading more information I decided to go with changing the microphone capsule. I had never really believed that changing the microphone head basket or a few components on the circuit board could make this microphone sound like a top quality sounding microphone. I decided that the most dramatic effect could only really be gained by changing out (modding) the microphone capsule. The proven way to improve the NT1A or any other microphone was to get another microphone capsule. All of the other fixes were to me just a lot of mumbo jumbo that may or may not work.
I bought the capsule from microphone-parts.com and when it arrived I was so excited at the prospect of hearing my microphone change into a different kind of beast. The only problem was I needed to unsolder and resolder wires which I have never had the pleasure of doing in my lifetime and I also needed to change the capsule mount which is a daunting task since you cannot just unscrew the old mount and add the new one. The NT1A has a strange rubber mount used to hold the capsule in place. The capsule that is sent doesn't quite fill the whole rubber mount but I decided to not mess with the original mount. The capsule sits in place but if I bang the microphone excessively around (which I wouldn't do) then the capsule could slightly change position. I couldn't or just didn't want to mess around with the soldering of the wires and because I have a cheap to use electrician nearby I got a professional electrician to do it. So he soldered the new microphone capsule leads in place and I was excited to see what the results would be. Once I arrived home I plugged in the modded NT1A and recorded my voice and I was surprised to hear all of the sibilance from the NT1A was gone and the sound was deeper which I preferred. To me the sound produced is 100 times better. I am not an aficionado of Neumann microphones because the pricing is a little high but this microphone capsule is supposed to be a very similar sound to a famous Neumann microphone (the U 47) and to my ears this sounds like it is so.
Thanks to Matt at microphone-parts.com for giving the best customer support I have ever seen (emails answered within an hour in my case) and thanks to anyone who made this capsule and anyone else at microphone-parts.com who works there. Great product and great prices and end result a nice sounding mic with no harsh highs or lows.
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