Prism Sound Orpheus - Audio Media

++microtech gefell + + + + microtech gefell+ + + + microtec80th anniversary Microtech Gefell 2008Microtech Gefell look back over 80 years of production, and pridethemselves in that every microphone even today is hand crafted withthe same high quality touches it was 80 years ago.Georg Neumann (L) and Erich Kühnast (R)The History of Microtech GefellHow It All BeganFor audio engineering in the studio, themicrophone is, and remains, the mostimportant tool in the interface betweenthe acoustic world and the world of mediatechnology. A thin diaphragm is required toconvert the sound waves into an electricalsignal. In the beginning this diaphragmwas made of rubber, with loose granules ofcarbon behind it whose resistance changedin sympathy with the vibrations of the sound.Georg Neumann was the inventor of thisAccommodation for the staffsystem, and at the time wasworking for Eugen Reiszwho had just started hisown business shortly before.But Georg Neumann fromBerlin believed the qualityof this signal was not goodenough. So, he developedan experimental laboratoryversion, which he named the“condenser microphone.” In1923, Germany’s first radiostation in Berlin used thefamous Reisz microphoneon a marble block, whichto a large degree was thework of Georg Neumann.On November 23, 1928,Georg Neumann broke with Eugen Reisz,and together with Erich Rickmann, foundedthe Ltd. partnership known as GeorgNeumann & Co. to start serial productionof his laboratory experimental condensermicrophone for the market. This wasthe hour of birth of the legendary CMV 3‘Neumann bottle’, and the microphone thatwas shortly to become the microphonefor every application. The company alsodeveloped new types of electromagneticcutters and pick-ups for wax discs.These new devices broughthighly improved recordingquality, and thereforebecame increasingly usedby the recording industryas well as radio stations.The 1936 Olympic Gamesin Berlin provided the firstopportunity for the classicM7 capsule to be airedlive, in a tube microphoneversion developed byGeorg Neumann. It is stillmanufactured to this day.Despite the tragic loss ofErich Rickmann, who died1938, Georg Neumann wasable to continue leading the company, true tothe ideas and principles of his late partner,and with the help and close cooperationof his manager Erich Kuehnast whose sonruns the business, in the shape of MicrotechGefell, to this day.The first breakA sudden stop for the booming businesscame with the Second World War. In 1943as the front camecloser and closerto Berlin, and theprincipal laboratoryhad undergonedamage from bothfire and the bombs,Georg Neumannmade the decisionto relocatehis companyto a safer andmore conduciveenvironment.His choice fellon the smallThuringian town ofCMV 4 with legendary M7capsuleGefell, where he and his technical director,together with around 20 employees, setup a new factory with accommodation forthe staff and created a new homeland in adisused textile mill.They began by repairing electricalappliances, and later started to manufacturethe CMV 4 “bottle” microphone using theM7 capsule developed by Neumann, andwhich was later to be used in his U 47 andM 49 microphones as well as in MicrotechGefell’s now current UMT 70 S and UM 92.1S models.Revived From RuinsAfter the war, in 1946, a couple of theemployees returned from Gefell to Berlinand established a small workshop in theWest of Berlin, mainly for microphonerepairs. This workshop later became20 microtech gefell