New Affordable Condenser Mic In Final Stages Of Development
Pictured (L-R) are Alan Venitosh, Director of Operations and Toni Fishman, Founder and CEO. Photo by Nick Sonsini.
In this time of pandemic lockdown and social distancing, TELEFUNKEN has adapted and continues manufacturing, distributing, and even moving forward on a new condenser microphone suitable for home recording and streaming.
“It’s full steam ahead — as safely as possible,” says founder and CEO Toni Fishman. “We’re keeping every production line open, sales fulfillment, and shipping. Most of our team are at home stuffing circuit boards and doing partial assembly, which then comes in for final assembly and QC in our headquarters. I’m really proud of our team for the additional efforts they are making to stay safe and keep production happening.”
Telefunken Elektroakustik is celebrating 20 years since it revived the legendary brand and manufactured its first re-creation: the classic ELA M 251. Since then it has reverse engineered and recreated classic AKG, Neumann, and Telefunken microphones, as well as developed more affordable versions incorporating their extensive R&D knowledge.
“Our team has been focusing on safety and cleanliness for our facility and our community,” explains Alan Venitosh, Director of Operations. “By doing so, we were able to adapt a creative work-from-home strategy for both our lab technicians and our administrative team. Our lab technicians were able to take home some equipment, such as soldering irons and tools, as well as supplies, components, resistors, and circuit boards. They have been doing non-critical bulk and batch assembly work in their personal spaces at home.”
Pictured in her home office is Bree Garneau, Sales & Operations Manager. Photo by David Garneau.
Remote technology has allowed TELEFUNKEN to stay current with domestic sales and with their European sales partners. “We are able to process orders, make shipping labels, send invoices and purchase orders,” Venitosh continues. “In our 24,000 sq. ft. lab facility, we have a skeleton crew of quality control and final assembly technicians who take the projects that were worked on at home and complete them in the our lab environment. We are able to fulfill and ship, but Instead of shipping five days a week, we adopted a two shipping days a week program for the past month and we’re going to be ramping that back up next month as society gradually reengages.”
The TELEFUNKEN team is adapting to the changing landscape of today’s musicians and recording artists. “Our team who build microphones for Telefunken are also passionate musicians. They record at home, they put out their own albums, and they tour. But in this time when musicians are not able to go out on the road, we are paying attention to this drastically changing landscape. We are hearing that touring musicians are now declaring that they are now recording and streaming musicians. So we are shifting our support focus to concentrate on those needs.”
Musicians streaming live from their home studios are more prevalent than ever. “If artists choose the streaming platform to get to their audience, they need to step up the quality,” Venitosh suggests. “Streaming with the microphone on your smart phone will only take you so far. But we are seeing some really high end streams coming together, where people are taking the time to use studio microphones properly, mix them through a console or an interface and then get them up online. We’re excited to not only see our dynamic mic series in action, but also our large diaphragm Diamond Series mics being utilized.”
The latest news from TELEFUNKEN is a new, yet-to-be named condenser mic to be introduced soon at under $1,000. “This is our first condenser mic of this type, and it will be a very versatile tool for the home studio,” explains Toni Fishman. “We’ve been focused on microphones for over 20 years, striving to build quality tools that collect good vibrations to share with the rest of the world. For the time being, we hope everyone can stay safe at home, playing and recording good music to share.”
ABOUT TELEFUNKEN
TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik strives for absolute perfection. By offering historic recreations of classic microphones alongside their own proprietary designs based around the distinctive tube mic sound, TELEFUNKEN has established a product line that expertly combines vintage style and sound with the reliability of a modern-day microphone design. TELEFUNKEN’s commitment to both the sonic excellence and quality of all of their products is rivaled only by their dedication to provide the best possible service to their customers. http://www.telefunken-elektroakustik.com
