Erykah Badu is riding high with four Grammy nominations from her hitalbum, Worldwide Underground, in the categories of Best FemaleR&B Vocal Performance, Best Urban/Alternative Performance, BestR&B Song and Best R&B Album. Her recording engineer, Tom Soares(New Kids on the Block, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige), captures thegamut of Badu’s performance styles, which are reputed to test anymicrophone and recording chain, if not the patience of most recordingengineers.
To complement Badu’s voice, Soares uses the Brauner VM1 KlausHeyne-edition mic. The VM1 KHE is handmade in Germany and then shippedto Heyne’s own German Masterworks in Oregon for final pair matching,tuning and adjustments. The VM1 KHE builds upon the VM1’s”spare-no-expense” philosophy with insight and expertise collected overdecades of Heyne’s detailed hands-on work restoring and improvingclassic microphones for clients such as A&M, Record Plant,LucasFilm and Disney. Among many improvements are shortened electricalpathways, hand-selected Telefunken or Siemens EF806 tubes and othercomponents, and special attention to the acoustical construction.
For more information about the Brauner VM1, go to distributorTransamerica Audio Group’s Website, www.transaudiogroup.com.
