sE Electronics has announced two new products debuting at the 2015 Musikmesse show in Frankfurt, Germany: the RNT, a large-diaphragm multi-pattern tube microphone designed with Rupert Neve, and the guitaRF, Reflexion Filter created specifically for double-miking and recording guitar amp cabinets.
Over 19 years in development, the RNT combines a high-voltage tube circuit within the microphone itself, a floor box with a discrete, class-A amplifier circuit using the same custom op-amps as Rupert Neve Designs’ 5088 analogue mixing console, two of Rupert’s transformers, and a mic capsule designed by sE to provide headroom (153 dB) and frequency response.
Given its headroom, the mic has no need for a pad, but the amplifier circuit in the floor box has three gain settings of -12dB, 0dB (flat), and +12dB. The amplifier circuit in the floor box is +/- 2 dB from
<1 Hz to 100 kHz, and flat from 1 Hz to 30 kHz. Operating on +/- 36 VDC rails, this circuit can handle the max capsule voltage without clipping. The floor box also has a three-position high-pass filter at 40 Hz, 80 Hz, and 0 (off), and a nine-way selector switch to vary the polar pattern from omni to cardioid to figure-8, with several steps in between each.
sE’s other new release, the guitaRF, was created to simplify and enhance the recording and reinforcement of guitar amp cabinets on stage or in the studio. Aside from isolation and acoustic filtering, the guitaRF incorporates a pass-through hole for a dynamic or small-capsule mic, as well as hardware to vertically mount a ribbon or large-diaphragm condenser. The hardware lets the user phase-align the two capsules, or space them apart to capture two sections of the speaker cone.
After hearing feedback from many front of house engineers, sE learned that many of them were modifying existing sE Reflexion Filter products (like the IRF2 or Reflexion Filter Pro) to help them isolate their amp mics on stage. These modified setups can be seen on tour with artists ranging from Tom Petty to Black Sabbath, and sE’s new guitaRF was designed as an off-the-shelf solution for front of house engineers that provides the same isolation achieved with these modified setups, while also allowing for the precise positioning of two microphones on the cabinet.
Both products are being shown at the 2015 Musikmesse show, and will be shipping in Q3 2015. The RNT has an MSRP of $3,495 USD, and the guitaRF an MSRP of $249 USD.
sE Electronics
RNT
guitaRF