Moulton Laboratories
the art and science of sound
The Mikrodigi 360 Digital Microphone: 21st Century Technology Is Really Here!
Dave Moulton
April 1995

Recording magazine declined to publish this one. Too bad it was for the April issue! They thought it was a joke!

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How it sounded

So how did it sound? Really pretty good. With no noise or distortion, plus really accurate transient response, the Mikrodigi 360 is suitable for recording just about anything. I tried it on voice, a drum kit, a chamber symphony and a rapper in a club. In each case, the playback was a very accurate representation of what I heard in the room as I recorded. I liked the virtual spaced omni stereo algorithm the best, although the ORTF was also decent.

In short, this is a helluva microphone, right out of the box. I hated to give it back.

Right now, Mikrodigi plans to ship at the beginning of April, or about when you read this. Formal introductions should also occur about then. Cost? This is the best part. In an age when we've become jaded by fantastic decreases in price, the Mikrodigi really is too good to be true! The capsule assembly plus cable is $279, list. The processor, with batteries (16 AA), is $995 ($1129 PC Windows version). Software license (copy-protected - boo, hiss!) is $495 ($299 for the Windows Version). In anticipation that demand will outstrip supply at first, Mikrodigi plans to limit sales to one per customer until all orders received prior to the end of March have been filled.

In summary, this microphone is a breakthrough. From its digital pickup to its spherical output to its unprecedented dynamic range, the Mikrodigi 360 sets a new standard for us all to rush out and buy. If you thought analog-to-digital was good, wait'll you try acoustic-to-digital!

Mikrodigi Corporation, Inc.
98 Massachusetts Ave.
Boston, MA 02215
1-800-555-BITS

Thanks to Herb Lumquist of Groton, MA for the use of his Lincoln Town Car, and to Hardapples Cooling Corporation for use of their facilities. Also to New England Speed Kings for the loan of a blown Chevy with 30-ton air compressor.

Dave Moulton is a senior member of the Fraternity of Audio Recording Technicians.
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COMMENTS

     May 23, 2006 02:42 PM
Thank you for a wonderful article. All my usual suppliers do not seem to have one in stock yet, but they are all going to do their best to source one for me.
The pixies at the bottom of my garden say they had the previous analogue model, but that the gnomes pinched it along with a crop of magic mushrooms.
Nigel Robinson 
Newton, MA     Oct 04, 2006 06:16 PM
M.O.T.H.A.F.U.C.K. Genius.
Graham Tobias 
brooklyn, ny     Oct 05, 2006 11:14 PM
where can these mics be found now?
dan cubert 
outside of time and space, CT     May 19, 2007 09:30 PM
Dave, I'm honoured to have been using three of these incredible microphones for over ten years now, since you wrote the first review.
Two of them are used in a double M-S pattern, with the third as an IASA (Independent Agent Steerable Array ) as a highlighting instrument to provide crispness and definition to instrumental timbre in all my award winning recordings. I also have to commend you on your marvelous warranty service and followup, and all users should be made aware that the CCC (capsule containment chamber) must be kept at a minimum of 75 psi air pressure for proper acoustic wavefront energy transfer to take place.
But this is old news, it's been amply covered in the "Transactions" in 2002 and again in 2004.
Dave, please keep us posted on further developments in your research on the use of microscopic black holes in magnetostrictive energy transfer in loudspeaker magnet construction! You're really way ahead of the curve here (as usual
All best,
Yves
PS: Where's all that damned weighted pink noise coming from?!!>!#@?? Damn those flies.............
yves "tonedeaf" feder IV 

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