Recording - February 2018 - 53
Wasaphone MKII
This special-effect mic comes from across the pond in Bristol, England, home of
the Wasaphone company, whose webpage states, "If you're looking for an
old-fashioned AM radio/telephone sound, then you're in the right place."
This is our second look at the Wasaphone company. We reviewed the Signalman
mic in our May 2017 issue; it's literally a telephone model, a vintage button-style mic
housed in an actual vintage British miniature military telephone-style radio handset.
The Signalman yields an intimate, dry, gently fuzzy, band-limited telephone effect
sound-in my previous review, I called it "ghostly clear." The eponymous Wasaphone,
now in a MKII model, is the opposite-it's best described as "ghostly distant."
Taken with a grain of salt
You might have heard the British phrase, "Does what it says on the tin". The Wasaphone
MKII does just that, because it's built into a tin, and sounds like it!
The MKII is built inside of a repurposed 88 x 62 restaurant metal salt shaker. The
screw-off lid with its salt holes makes up the grill. Inside is the "capsule" or, more
accurately, a speaker repurposed from an old 1960s-era home telephone receiver. We
know that a reverse-wired speaker can become a simple moving-coil dynamic mic; that's
the principle behind Yamaha's SubKick drum mic. The Wasaphone's speaker is wired
direct to an XLR out on the bottom of the can. It mounts to a mic stand with one of the
company's brass ring holders and comes in a cloth bag.
As a cardioid dynamic mic, the Wasaphone MKII does not require phantom power.
It has a frequency range of 200 Hz-2 kHz, a sensitivity of 2.5mV/Pa at 1 kHz, and
an output impedance of 200Ω.
A sonic a-salt weapon
The sound of the Wasaphone MKII, as mentioned, is quite different from the intimate
nature of the Signalman. Its sound can be described as a lo-fi vintage telephone-like
sound... where in this case the "telephone" is made by stretching a taut string between
two empty soup cans! It has a metallic hollowness, yet is surprisingly clean and clear
within said hollowness.
It's great on voice, acoustic guitars, strings, and drums. On one song, I used it
to sample my voice singing sustained nonsense phrases and poetry, which I then
played and sequenced across a keyboard like a lo-fi Mellotron. I also liked it a lot as
a room mic, especially on drums. Even in a small dry bedroom with a liberal amount
of compression, it adds a cool unique illusion of reverby space. This trick also works
really well on group backing vocals.
How can I sum up the Wasaphone MKII? Think of its vibe as instant nostalgia...
straight from the tin!
£65 (about $89); www.wasaphone.com
RECORDING February 2018
53
http://www.digitalaudio.com
http://www.wasaphone.com
http://www.lachapellaudio.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - February 2018
Contents
Recording - February 2018 - Intro
Recording - February 2018 - Cover1
Recording - February 2018 - Cover2
Recording - February 2018 - 1
Recording - February 2018 - 2
Recording - February 2018 - 3
Recording - February 2018 - 4
Recording - February 2018 - 5
Recording - February 2018 - 6
Recording - February 2018 - 7
Recording - February 2018 - Contents
Recording - February 2018 - 9
Recording - February 2018 - 10
Recording - February 2018 - 11
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Recording - February 2018 - Cover3
Recording - February 2018 - Cover4
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