Continuing on their mission of delivering affordable, modern recreations of sought-after studio classics, Warm Audio have announced the launch of a pair of new microphones, the WA-44 and WA-19. The former sets its sights on the legendary RCA 44 ribbon mic, while the latter revives the AKG D19, a dynamic mic that was a popular choice among studio engineers in the 1960s. And lastly, with the addition of ribbon and dynamic designs to their range, the company have also taken the opportunity to develop their own in-line preamp, the Warm Lifter.
WA-44
The WA-44 has been designed to faithfully recreate the sound of RCA’s iconic ribbon mic, pairing a custom Japanese ribbon with a neodymium magnet and a USA-made CineMag transformer. The result is said to deliver the powerful low end and pronounced proximity effect associated with the original design, with a high-frequency roll-off that excels at capturing a wide range of sources including vocals, horns, strings, drums, pianos and more. The WA-44 comes ships in an embroidered case with a star-quad cable, and at over 2.7kg, will require a decent stand!
WA-19
Featuring a custom, hand-assembled humbucking cardioid capsule and rugged metal body, the WA-19 promises to combine the functionality of a dynamic mic with the clarity of a capacitor design — the off-axis rejection and reduced proximity effect typical of dynamic designs remain, but with a more extended high-frequency response. There’s a variable acoustic high-pass filter built in that can be adjusted by turning a ring on the mic’s body, and is capable of cutting up to 10dB at 50Hz, while a vented body design helps to further reduce proximity effect when using closer placements.
Warm Lifter
Alongside the new mics, Warm Audio have also released an in-line preamp/booster.The new Warm Lifter is an in-line device that can be used to provide low-output mics with an additional 26dB of gain, ensuring that users are able to achieve a healthy signal level with even the most modest interface preamps. The JFET-based device maintains a balanced signal path throughout and operates on phantom power, and comes housed in a sturdy chassis that will happily stand up to use on stage as well as in the studio.
Helpfully, Warm Audio have included switchable 100Hz high-pass filter to tackle unwanted low-end rumbles, as well as a selectable 3kHz shelf boost.
“We’ve been working for a while to expand our mic line-up to include an iconic ribbon and dynamic microphone, so this is a very exciting launch for us. The WA-44 has long been a dream of ours to offer but it took time to source the right vintage-correct ribbon and magnet to be able to offer this classic sound at such an affordable price. The WA-19 revives a studio classic that may be lesser known, but brings back a unique tone in the world of dynamic mics. The original was used to capture overheads, drums and vocals for the Beatles and we’ve been stunned at the rich top-end detail we’ve been able to capture with the WA-19 compared to the standard studio dynamic mics. And, of course, we wanted to ensure that if you didn’t have a high-quality preamp, you could get powerfully clean gain when using a ribbon or low output dynamic mic, so we developed an in-line lifter preamp with added pro features.” - Bryce Young, founder and President of Warm Audio
Pricing & Availability
The new mics and in-line preamp are available now, with pricing as follows:
- WA-44: $999£999 / €1179
- WA-19: $199£209 / €219
- Warm Lifter: $149£159 / €179
UK prices include VAT.
