How Griff Hewis discovered the CC8’s
Griff Hewis has been involved in Professional Audio for over 20 years since graduating from Kingston University with a degree in Music Technology. He played the trumpet and piano from an early age but decided to pursue sound engineering as a career combining his love of music and electronics/technology.
Hewis is regularly seen on Front of House duties for concerts and events around the UK and has worked with many of the UK’s leading orchestras and bands such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, HM Royal Marines Band, BBC Symphony and Concert Orchestras. He has worked on major events such as London 2012 and Sochi 2014 Olympic Games, BBC Proms and BBC New Years Eve Broadcasts. Griff also owns a growing pool of equipment to support his engagements in playback/recording and sound reinforcement.
Always on the lookout for interesting new microphones, Griff discovered Austrian Audio via a webinar for the Institute of Professional Sound, where he is a director and was immediately intrigued by these new Vienna-made Austrian Audio microphones.
Low self-noise & sparkling details
Griff says “Austrian Audio kindly sent me a demo pair of CC8 to try on some of my live shows. On opening the box I was impressed with the build quality and feel of these pencil condenser mics. I had the opportunity to try them in the Royal Albert Hall where I was Front of House Engineer for a live performance of the Channel 4 Film ‘Brassed Off’ with the Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band. I used them for Drum Overheads and was impressed by the detailed and rounded sound they produced. The next month I took them to Wales for a couple of concerts with the singer Casi Wyn and Cymru Sinfonia, where I used them in the percussion section. Again, I was impressed with the detail and sparkle they delivered.”
“On further tests at home I did some A/B speech tests against some well-known and rather more expensive microphone models and they stood their ground very well. The self-noise was particularly good given the price point!”
The proof is in the pudding that Griff’s mic cupboard has now grown from 12 to 16 microphones when a deal came up online that “was too good to turn down!”