Recording - October 2015 - 58

BY

MIKE

METLAY

USB microphones can be very handy for
certain kinds of recording-capturing live
shows or podcasts, jamming with friends,
and working up demos away from your studio. A USB microphone combined with a
computer gives you the chance to work with
your DAW right on the spot-overdubbing,
editing, and so on. While a dedicated field
recorder is a more compact solution, it gives
you a lot less on-the-spot flexibility, and
while you could combine a conventional
mic with a small bus-powered audio interface, you might find your options limited by
what the interface can't do.
So the question then becomes: how
much utility can you pack into a USB microphone and still have it be easy to carry and
use? Austria's Lewitt Audio has a brandnew answer to that question: the DGT 650.

Lewitt DGT 650 (and Lewitt Recorder for iOS)
More than just a USB mic-a complete recording solution
Opening the box
The DGT 650 is a full recording rig,
combining a high-quality stereo condenser
mic with a headphone monitor system,
line/guitar input, MIDI input, and all the
accessories you'll need to get set up and
going. The mic comes with an interface
breakout box, folding steel desktop tripod,
custom elastic shockmount, foam windscreen, and cables for USB (Mac OS X or
Windows) and Lightning (iOS).
Lewitt products tend to score on first impressions due to their beautiful build quality, and
the DGT 650 is no exception. The mic's fit
and finish are simply gorgeous, the shockmount is first-rate, the stand is sturdy and well
thought out, and the cables feature locking
connectors. The breakout box has amenities
like heavy-duty strain relief on its attached
cable, nonslip feet, and even a removable/adjustable fabric strap with hook/loop
fasteners to let you strap it to something stable
(like a leg of the tripod) so it doesn't move
around in use. Everything exudes class.
The mic
The DGT 650 itself is an XY coincident
stereo electret condenser mic with 17mm
diaphragms (about 2/3 of an inch, more
"medium" than "small"). That's a good
compromise, offering the smoother off-axis
behavior of a small diaphragm with some
of the character of a large diaphragm.
58

RECORDING October 2015

The mic has the usual Lewitt LCT look-
a rectangular body with beveled edges
and a dual-mesh grille. The body is nicely
nonresonant, yielding only a soft 'tic'
when tapped with a screwdriver. It measures 5.43 x 2.04 x 1.42 inches and
weighs just under 11 ounces, solid and
hefty. An onboard control panel with pushclick thumbwheel lets you set, among
other things, the mic's pad (0/10/20 dB)
and highpass filter (12 dB/octave with 80
or 160 Hz corner frequency).
Some specs: 20 Hz-20 kHz frequency
response (albeit with no tolerances given);
110 dBA dynamic range; up to 140 dB
maximum SPL depending on its gain settings; and self-noise of 30 dBA or less
depending on gain.
Breaking out
The breakout box attaches to the DGT
650 with an 18-pin locking connector.
The other end of the box has a jack for
the cable that runs to your computer or
iOS device, and three I/O jacks: a minijack headphone output, 1/4" TRS Line
Input, and a 5-pin MIDI In.
The Line input deserves a closer look. Its
input impedance is rated at over 1
Megohm, which means that a guitar or
bass can be plugged into it directly without harming the instrument's tone. You can
record a stereo keyboard or submixer

over TRS, or use a standard TS instrument
cable to record a guitar in mono along
with the mic (see below).
Controls and Modes
Clicking the thumbwheel cycles through
headphone output volume, input gain,
Recording Mode, zero-latency monitor mix
(Return from the computer blended with
Direct from the mic), filter, and pad. A
small horizontal bar graph and clearly
labeled icons tell you all you need to know.
So what are these Recording Modes?
They're four ways in which you can use
the DGT 650's two input channels. Stereo
Mode and Cardioid Mode produce XY
stereo and cardioid mono input, respectively, while disabling the Line input.
Singer/Songwriter Mode records the
mono cardioid mic signal on Channel 1
and the left (Tip) Line input on Channel 2,
and lets you record one side of a stereo
keyboard or a mono guitar/bass. Finally,
there's Stereo Line-In Mode, which of
course disables the mic.
This selection of Modes is the key to the
power of the DGT 650. With a multitrack
DAW capable of overdubs, you can easily
build an entire song from stereo band
recordings, vocals or acoustic guitar playing in mono, electric guitar input in mono,
and stereo keyboards. There's nothing to
get in the way of any source you might want



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2015

Contents
Recording - October 2015 - Intro
Recording - October 2015 - Cover1
Recording - October 2015 - Cover2
Recording - October 2015 - 1
Recording - October 2015 - 2
Recording - October 2015 - 3
Recording - October 2015 - 4
Recording - October 2015 - 5
Recording - October 2015 - Contents
Recording - October 2015 - 7
Recording - October 2015 - 8
Recording - October 2015 - 9
Recording - October 2015 - 10
Recording - October 2015 - 11
Recording - October 2015 - 12
Recording - October 2015 - 13
Recording - October 2015 - 14
Recording - October 2015 - 15
Recording - October 2015 - 16
Recording - October 2015 - 17
Recording - October 2015 - 18
Recording - October 2015 - 19
Recording - October 2015 - 20
Recording - October 2015 - 21
Recording - October 2015 - 22
Recording - October 2015 - 23
Recording - October 2015 - 24
Recording - October 2015 - 25
Recording - October 2015 - 26
Recording - October 2015 - 27
Recording - October 2015 - 28
Recording - October 2015 - 29
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Recording - October 2015 - 31
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Recording - October 2015 - Cover3
Recording - October 2015 - Cover4
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