Lighting&Sound America Review Instrument Microphones for drum, guitar and piano.
Written by By: Mark Johnson, Lighting&Sound America.
DPA Microphones has a rich heritage,with roots in the Danish test-and-measurement instrument manufacturer
Brüel & Kjær. Commonly known in the industry as B&K, it offered a variety of vibration and acoustic measurement instruments. B&K had a reputation for making high-quality products. In the test-and-measurement business, precision and accuracy are what it’s all about.
Of necessity, B&K also manufactured a handful of microphones used by loudspeaker manufacturers to test their products. It was only a matter of time before someone thought to try these mics for recording audio. In 1992, two B&K employees branched off and began Danish Pro Audio, which begat the company we know as DPA Microphones.
DPA has taken the concepts established by B&K and expanded and developed them into an extensive line
of microphone products for recording, broadcast, and live sound. The results manifest themselves in some extremely high-quality products.
The mics are offered in six different series for different applications. These are cleverly identified by the following: d:dicate™ Recording Microphones, d:facto™ Handheld Microphones, d:fine™ Headset Microphones, d:screet™ Miniature Microphones, d:vote™ Instrument Microphones, and d:mension™ Surround Solutions.
One for all
One such product is the DPA d:vote™ 4099. DPA casually calls it an “instrument microphone.” I’d go so far as to say that it is a true Swiss Army knife (Is there a Danish Army knife?) of pro audio, the thought being that if a mic is at first accurate in the capture of a given acoustic source, it should perform equally well in a number of circumstances.
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