Roswell Mini K87 Condenser Microphone

Roswell Mini K87 Condenser Microphone

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The Mini K87 comes as the counterpart to Roswell's best-selling Roswell Mini K47 condenser--A mic I regret sending back when I reviewed here in these pages. The Mini K87 is a general-purpose studio condenser mic ready for any source you can throw at it. The Mini K87 uses Roswell's 34-mm, center-terminated K87 capsule that's especially tuned for this microphone and is coupled to a low-distortion audio circuit with transformerless output. It is the same size as the K47 but is dark gray rather than the K47's black.

You could say it's all in the details and manufacturing care when creating a good sounding condenser microphones--everything counts. First the quality capsule design, uncompromising parts selection, and excellent construction and materials. I received a factory-matched pair of the new Mini K87 mics (serial #156 and #153). They come together in a padded aluminum flight case that also has space for two of Roswell's exclusive Cutaway™ shock mounts.

Like the Roswell Mini K47, the K87 is about 3/4 the size of other popular side-address condenser mics like Neumann's U87 or U67 microphones. This is important when trying to fit microphones into tight locations or using more than one mic on a single source such as on acoustic guitars in X/Y stereo or when putting multiple microphones on a single speaker within a guitar cab.

I did open up one of the Mini K87 and found excellent construction inside generously spread across two, back-to-back circuit boards just as other microphones costing multi-thousands of dollars.

Roswell Mini K87 Condenser Microphone Kit
I set up for a singer-songwriter for my first test. I used one K87 for the vocal and the other for the singer's acoustic guitar. For pre-amplification into Pro Tools, I used a Retro Instruments Power Strip Tube channel for the vocal and an Elysia Skulpter 500 for the artist's Taylor 12-string guitar. I processed the audio, as I would normally do, to get a great sound for this particular singer and this song. I used slight compression and high pass filtering on the vocal Mini K87 microphone and Skulpter's low cut (30-Hz) and compression on the K87 on the guitar. I also used Shape 1 on the Skulpter set to 25.

I liked that the microphones were sensitive--any change in positioning is instantly heard whether the change sounded good or not. I started with the K87 on the acoustic aimed at the 12th fret but I picked up too much low mid-range frequencies and not enough brilliance. A quick swivel in the shock mount to aim the mic towards the sound hole where the pick hits the strings fixed that instantly!

What is striking is how natural, lifelike and clear these mics sounded. I could hear every vocal nuance and inflection with all the subtleties right there, front and center. I could hear the rustling of the headphones and cable on the singer's head, the peculiarities of my room's boxy sound, and even my air conditioning blowing away!

I found the Mini K87 excellent with a solid and smooth sound. I think for my somber-sounded singer, the Mini K87 was a great fit. It was never shrill of harsh sounding no matter how loud he sang. My goal would be to own one of each or a match set of both the Mini K87 and K47! With those four microphones, you could do just about any recording project easily and always get great sounds. So thumbs up on this well-made microphone from Roswell!

A single microphone is $399 MAP and hand-matched stereo pairs are $899 MAP.

Roswell ProAudio.com/.

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