Simon Bateson reviews a brand new range of microphones from Ramsa.

Ramsa is the brand name adopted for the professional products division of Panasonic, who are also the company behind Technics hi-fi equipment. Although the Japanese are not famed in the West for their transducers, Panasonic are obviously making an assault on the market, armed with a wide range of PA and monitor speakers as well as microphones. The WM-S series of miniature electret condenser microphones is aimed at two awkward areas of sound reinforcement and recording. Firstly they tackle the proliferation of expensive and inconvenient mic stands that accompany conventional multi-mic systems and secondly the susceptibility of most directional microphones to bass boost (proximity effect) and overload when close-miking loud instruments.

Introducing the Series

Four microphones are reviewed and although the actual capsules were all unidirectional and similar in appearance, they all differed in response, according to their intended areas of application. These are summarised below.

The WM-S1E is a flat-response, high-sensitivity unit with a slight peak at 15kHz, suitable for general instrument miking. The output is transformerless and balanced output and the mic is phantom powered.

The WM-S2E is an anti-proximity effect, presence contoured, low-sensitivity mic with an output transformer. There is the option of either battery or phantom powering.

Next, the WM-S5E is a highly directional low-sensitivity unit with contoured response for close-miking. It's transformerless and relies on phantom powering only.

The WM-S10E is a slightly different affair, being a headset-mounted close vocal mic without integral headphones. It can be battery- or phantom-powered.

All the capsules are similar in appearance, being made from black anodised aluminium alloy and fitted with 3-m (or 1.5m in the case of the S10E) thin black rubberised leads terminating in miniature locking plugs. These plug into remote balanced pre-amp units. For the S1E and S5E these are similarly proportioned to conventional stick microphones, but have fountain-pen style clips for attachment to boards, pockets and the like. For the S2E and S10E, the preamps are rather larger: cigarette packet size with an integral battery compartment for two AA penlight cells and a wide clip for belts and pockets.

The first three microphones come with a mounting kit comprising two types of miniature plastic clip holder, straight and right-angled; a flexible plastic-covered mounting bar (with spares) and a rubber-covered spring steel mounting clip. The point of this is to clip the microphone onto the instrument, saxophone bell or snare rim, thereby ensuring constant relative positioning and cutting down on mic stands. An optional 'mini boom' is available to extend conventional stands and hold the miniature capsule in place.

By way of contrast, the S10E is attached via a thin metal boom to an adjustable dual headband which does actually fit all but the smallest brains. However, it's not detachable for general use.

Assessment

As these microphones have only just become available, assessment time was necessarily limited. With this in mind, it seemed most efficient to compare them with one 'well-known' and one 'studio reference' mic in the recording of several instruments such as acoustic guitars, drums, cymbals and voices. The 'well-known' unit was the Shure SM58: a very popular and durable vocal and instrumental mic based on a moving-coil element, while the 'studio reference' was the considerably more expensive Sennheiser MKH406 P48 RF condenser. Due to its construction, the Sennheiser was very prone to wind noise and proximity effect so the S10E was compared solely with the SM58.

Having recorded a large combination of instruments, styles and microphones onto different tracks of a Fostex B16, they were compared on Tannoy SRM12 studio monitors. Much repeating, experimenting with mic positioning and untangling of cables later, a good idea emerged of all the units' relative strengths and weaknesses.

"On stage however, practicalities take precedence and the S10E would perform well."

Acoustic Guitar

As many will attest, this is not the easiest of instruments to record well, largely because all players have heard them in stereo, in a natural reverberant environment and can use their powers of localisation to focus on what they want to hear and ignore the resonances and string scraping that comes so painfully to the fore on application of a single microphone. The guitar is made of resonant sections anyway, which by design combine to sound correct to the player, or on more expensive performance models, to the listener, and sometimes to both.

I find that the best 'natural' way to record the acoustic guitar is in stereo, in a room without predominant resonances (but not 'dead'), at 2-3 feet distance. Try doing that with dynamic microphones and the resulting wash of hiss soon forces the old close-up method, complete with phase cancellation, rattling plectrum and squeaking strings. Live, there's little option but to close-mike or use a contact transducer.

In tests, all the microphones were placed close together (but not so close as to interact acoustically), three feet distant from the front of the guitar. On subsequent listening, several observations were noted. The Sennheiser was quite remarkably noise-free, and although slightly dull (the frequency response rolls off gently from about 12 kHz to about -4dB at 20kHz), top boost could be added without the usual noise penalty, to achieve that 'expensive microphone' airiness. In contrast, the SM58 sounded like a telephone and had a very low output, causing copious quantities of noise.

Moving onto the Ramsas, the S1E sounded very pleasing to me, largely due to a crispness imparted by the 15kHz peak. Noise was detectable but not intrusive, while the overall sound was that of a nice electret condenser, lacking the openness that only comes with the extremely light diaphragms of real powered condensers.

In hapless contrast, the S2E had very little by way of output and a lot of hiss. It sounded as harsh as a cheap dynamic and most unsuited to acoustic guitars. The S5E was almost as hard and more constricted at the top end. In both these units the response drops by 3dB at about 13kHz and continues to fall. Due to the proximity tailoring there was no real bass at all. Close miking proved no easier than with ordinary mics, since the clips provided would not grip anything on the guitar bar the soundhole edge and my hand goes past there! Close-miking improved the bass end but not the top, and all the consequentially emphasised resonances would only encourage feedback if used live.

Percussion

This picture underwent a radical transformation when percussion was examined. A restricted and tailored response is often irrelevant or beneficial on drums. The S5E came out best here, with a clear yet solid sound and no problems with proximity. The S2E still sounded rather harsh to me, lacking any bass unless very close to the source; this could be useful on toms however. The S1E was a bit bassy but useful at a distance, while the SM58 proved as crisp and serviceable as ever. The poor Sennheiser had great problems with overloading and bass, and was quite unusable close up.

On cymbals, yet another hierarchy emerged. The Sennheiser had that expensive sound but a double helping of bass cut was needed to remove a 'Rank-EMI' gong sound. The S1E was pleasant, with less bass and maintained the sheen of the cymbals, while the S5E was very easy to use, although of reduced bandwith, it still sounded nice and clear. And the S2E? Still harsh.

The S10E, having escaped until now, was duly extracted and sung into, (very cruel). It made the best of a bad job though and actually sounded similar to the SM58, differing in having a lighter and breathier top end which I preferred. Considering its positioning the unit was remarkably pop-free although it could be provoked, as could the Shure. It seemed happiest just below and to one side of the mouth. In a studio, headsets are not used; vocals are best done some distance from the microphone, often behind a separate mesh pop-screen. Never would a singer passionately grasp a Neumann U87 as depicted on TOTP videos; it would be in a shock-proof mounting and sung into from a respectful distance.

On stage however, practicalities take precedence and the S10E would perform well. One slight problem was headphone monitoring, since the headband pads sit just above the ears. Only 'in-ear' headphones or Morrisey's hearing aid would be satisfactory.

Thoughts of practicality lead me nicely to comment on the mechanical aspects of all these microphones: a factor which while not necessarily prejudicing their tonal quality, certainly affects their life expectancy. Ramsa currently have large advertisements proclaiming that while a singer would not survive a 50-date tour, their microphones (in this case the S10E) would. I'm not convinced. All these microphones seem delicate to me, yet they are difficult to handle and the clips are not very strong or secure. They are, therefore, easy to drop and hence stand on which probably means the end of the microphone... probably, though not being Ben Duncan I didn't try such terminal tests. An aggravating factor in the dropping and squashing stakes is the lead attached to each capsule. These are rubberised, slightly sticky, and not kinkproof. Consequently they tangle infuriatingly, to the extent that you can simply brush any one cable with your sleeve and pull all the capsules from their holders. The answer of course is to ensure that the wires are neatly dressed and taped to something solid and the preamps clipped to something. As far as the holders are concerned, the 'flexible bar' is rather like coat-hanger wire and may well break after a few flexes, though it can be shortened for re-use and spares are supplied. One end is screw-clamped into the mic clip while the other fits in a collet on the rubber-covered steel clip which is also a rather small and feeble device but adequate for horn and drum rims. Panasonic do stress this in their instructions, of course, and I feel that these should be considered as essentially special-purpose mics. If you want to mike up certain instruments, notably brass, which regularly drift off-mic, then these units and holders work fine. For general-purpose work, though, they are simply not solid enough. The headset unit is a special case; it's flimsy, but no more so than competitive units and it has a comfortable yet secure headband. It's easy to route the cable securely around your person to a belt-mounted preamp, reservations on sturdiness are less relevant to the S10E than to the other units.

Conclusions

I'm rather undecided about these microphones. In audio terms (and excepting the S2E which I didn't like), they performed pretty well, and were not wildly expensive, although you could get real condensers for less. The S1E is a sensitive and smooth unit, with only a slight tendency to spittiness, while the S5E is a very practical and unfussy closeup mic. I would expect the S10E to be very popular, being half the cost and nearly the performance of more famous names.

Easier to fault is the concept of miniaturisation in performance equipment. In the studio it is hardly essential, and live, one good swipe from an ill-aimed drumstick would surely decapitate one of these capsules, which would be a waste. The mini-boom, which was not supplied but is photographed in the handbook, also looks eminently breakable. Overall then, not a world-dominating range but one with two strong points: the S10E as a good headset (and more guitarists are wearing them these days) and the S5E for your sax players.

Prices inclusive of VAT are as follows: WM-S1E — E115.99 WM-S2E — £89.99 WM-S5E — £105.99 WM-S10E — £105.99

Further information is available from: Panasonic, (Contact Details).