Close-up of the Paravicini designed tube mikes. Dual rectangular capsules by Pearl of Sweden. Kavi Alexander recording setup at Christ King Chapel, Saint Anthony’s Seminary, Santa Barbara, CA. Kavi writes: “I was the one who got Tim to make a tube mike in the first place… I did this by getting him a pair of Milab capsules, as I had close connections with the original founder/owner of Milab, Hans Rosander, the son of the founder of Pearl.”
“Some years later Milab was sold to a larger concern and the new owners would not sell me capsules. By this time, an old employee of Milab, whom I also know well, started Pearl, having got the rights from the original founder of Pearl. Thenceforward, I have had Pearl capsules in my mikes. What you see are Pearl capsules, as are the top part of the mikes, containing the mesh. I had three pairs of Tim/EAR mikes and they all look different and don’t resemble Tim’s EAR mikes, as I had the bodies and the innards redone here in the US.
I chose the Milab and then the Pearl capsules because they do not have the “drum head” resonance present in the critical mid-band in all condenser mikes with circular capsules. Rather than have a large peak in the mid-band the rectangular Milab/Pearl capsules have two smaller resonances. Lesser of the evil, so to speak…
Frequency response is not EVERYTHING! The classic Coles ribbon mike, that is so very neutral, rolls off in the top end, more than the Milab/Pearl capsules…”