Please tell us about your work and the Tic Music Studios, especially the Vintage Room.
Clemens Kloss:
My work mainly concerns sound and music productions in the advertising and film.
The TIC Studios have been around for 30 years and since 2017 we have the Vintage Room . It is a co-production of Flow Weixelbaumer, Florian Glaszer and me. Our approach was to create a top class analogue studio. It took a lot of experience, technical know-how and passion to realise such a project.
Nowadays, the Vintage Room is highly appreciated by many musicians and producers – Filippo Gaetani, for example, who now also takes care of the international marketing of the studio.
Furnished with everything that has ever been legendary and – from the 50’s to today, the studio presents itself as a charming retro temple with living room flair.
The interesting thing about it is that the analogue recording process and the versatile outboard technologies have brought in an almost forgotten workflow, which requires a lot of know-how and good preparation, but also relaxes the work, encourages decision making during recording and shifts the focus back towards great recording and the fun of making music and producing together.
You have recorded thousands of narrators during your career.
What makes a good voice over microphone and would you recommend Austrian Audio’s OC Series?
Durability and well-balanced sound – both characteristics that are perfectly met by both the OC18 and the OC818.
I have tested the OC18 and was thrilled. The craftsmanship is excellent and really high quality and the sound is really balanced.
In comparison to the 414 the OC18 has no excessive treble, no stubborn midrange but not too much bass – actually really good – hats off!
What do you think about the editing capabilities of the OC818 with its dual output and the Polar Designer plugin and how do you like the possibility to control the microphone remotely using the Polar Pilot app?
Dual Output – superb!
Bluetooth excellent (if you own a recent cell phone model)!
Plug in – great, but please only after an update which makes it possible to listen to the MS position quickly and easily before recording, because the plugin works great with the two recorded spherical signals.
After the plugin update MS standard microphones á la 2x 414 are history The OC818 is easier to use and has better sounding capsules!
Considering that both models are available for less than € 1000,- Austrian Audio has achieved a really remarkable result. I know of few comparable models – especially in this price range!
Please tell us about your work and your passion for audio equipment.
For more than 15 years I have been involved in professional music production, both in my own recording studio and as a lecturer at the SAE in Vienna. Especially the contact with young people in training has shown me how important it is to deal with all aspects of music production. No matter how well you learn to use all kinds of audio tools like EQs and compressors, if the signals are not good, even the best tools won’t help. And that’s where it all starts – with the musician, of course, but then comes the microphone!
I own a quite considerable selection of modern and vintage microphones myself, but especially the natural sound character paired with the possibilities of the Polar Designer of the OC818 are something special. So sooner or later a pair of OC818s will surely find a new home with me 🙂
How did you like the OC Series from Austrian Audio? What makes them special in your opinion?
The OC Series microphones impress with their natural reproduction of the sound source to be recorded. They do so without the unfortunately usual high-frequency boosting that is common nowadays and are therefore more universally suitable for me. And should it be necessary to have more high frequencies in the signal, then the signal can be brightened with a good EQ without creating unpleasant artifacts.
How do you feel about the price/performance ratio of the microphones? In particular, the OC18 and would you recommend it to your students as an entry-level microphone.
The price/performance ratio is good. The OC18 as an entry-level microphone is a safe choice, although I usually recommend my students to save a little bit more and use an OC818 if possible. Nowadays a lot of recordings are made in rooms that are not acoustically optimised, but that doesn’t mean that these rooms don’t sound interesting and then you are even more flexible with the different polar patterns of the OC818.
Tell us about your work and don’t be afraid to drop some names and please tell us a bit about the Miloco Studio TIC Music Vintage Room.
Hello, my name is Filippo Gaetani, I am a record producer & sound engineer, composer ad songwriter.
I have been working for 40+ years in music production around IT, US, UK and CAN.
In 2009 and 2010 I won 2 MOTV Ourstage Music awards with Adrina Thorpe. From 2007 to 2011 I have been an active member of LADNA, featuring producers Ken Andrews, Greg Wells and Justin Meldal Johnsen. In 2000 I had chart success writing Malina`s By Your Side which peaked at #12 on US Billboard charts. In 1987 I toured as multi-instrumentalist with Gianluca Mosole Group supporting Miles Davis, Sting & Gil Evans and Al Di Meola in their live acts.
I currently teach Music Production and Sound Engineering at VMI – Vienna Music Institute and closely collaborate as sound designer with leading software company IK Multimedia.
As musician and songwriter I am a founding member of the bands SheLoom and Q-bizm.
In 2016 I “set up shop” at Tic Music in Vienna. The studio is owned by lovely and competent people. Tic is very spacious, boasting an impressive collection of classic and modern gear and mics, pervaded by lots of natural light and a productive but friendly atmosphere. An ideal place to make and record music, really.
How did you like the Austrian Audio Mics? How would you describe their sonic quality and how do they compete to other Mics?
I had the chance to test the Austrian Audio OC818 and OC18 against classic 414 and C12`s and I was impressed by the solid and warm sound, somehow typical of the old 414s.
Despite many modern mics are inexplicably “pushed” in the high frequencies, the Austrian Audio mics seem to deliver a deep and realistic sound, which makes them very versatile for capturing several instruments and voice.
Did you find the features of the OC818, like the Polar Designer and the Polar Remote useful?
Yes, the modern technology provided allows the mic to work well on many applications, and can also be fun in creative use. The dual face capsule of the OC818 makes excellent “virtual” stereo recordings, and we found the sound result of the different micing techniques very good and full.
I love the MS technique processing, and I plan to use the OC818 on my next guitar, piano and drum recordings if I have the chance.
