WARM AUDIO WA-44 Studio Ribbon Microphone Instructions

WARM AUDIO WA-44 Studio Ribbon Microphone

Specifications

• Model: WA-44
• Type: Studio Ribbon Microphone
• Manufacturer: Warm Audio
• Country of Origin: Leander, Texas, USA

Timeless Ribbon Tone The WA-44 faithfully recreates the warm and vintage tones of the legendary 44-style ribbon mic. It captures smooth and non- fatiguing tones with mellow highs and rich midrange, suitable for various sources like lead vocals, horns, guitars, drums, and strings.

Rich Lows & Mids, No Harsh Highs
The WA-44 emphasizes powerful bass and rich midrange, maintaining a warm and forgiving tone without exaggerated sibilance or harshness. Placing the mic closer to the source enhances the bass captured in recordings.

A Look Inside the WA-44
The WA-44 features a custom American-made CineMag output transformer that delivers rich depth and character to the recordings. This transformer ensures compatibility with modern preamplifiers and provides protection against accidental use of 48v phantom power.

THANK YOU!
Thank you for purchasing the Warm Audio WA-44 studio ribbon microphone. We feel this product offers the best in terms of sound, function, and vibe from the classic era of analog recording. We don’t cut corners when it comes to what goes into our products, and the WA-44 is no exception.

The WA-44 is inspired by an iconic ribbon microphone that first appeared in the 1930s. The vintage original was at the center of countless legendary studio recordings and broadcasts from the time it arrived on the scene, and still has a place in the most exclusive studios today. Just like the most prized vintage models, the WA-44 captures powerful bass, lush midrange, and smooth top end with tons of character. We at Warm Audio are very excited to bring this audio icon to life and we hope you try it on vocals, overheads, acoustic guitar and many other recording applications.

Bryce Young President
Warm Audio Leander, Texas USA

REGISTER YOUR WA-44!
Before we begin, please take the time to visit www.warmaudio.com to register your product. To ensure you receive proper and uninterrupted warranty support for your product, please register your unit within 14 days from purchase.

WARRANTY STATEMENT

Warm Audio warranties this product to be free from defect in materials and workmanship for one year from the date of purchase, for the original purchaser to whom this equipment is registered. This warranty is non-transferable.
This warranty is void in the event of damage incurred from unauthorized service to this unit, or from electrical or mechanical modification to this unit. This warranty does not cover damage resulting from abuse, accidental damage, misuse, improper electrical conditions such as mis-wiring, incorrect voltage or frequency, unstable power, disconnection from earth ground (for products requiring a 3 pin, grounded power cable), or from exposure to hostile environmental conditions such as moisture, humidity, smoke, fire, sand or other debris, and extreme temperatures.

Warm Audio will, at its sole discretion, repair or replace this product in a timely manner. This limited warranty extends only to products determined to be defective and does not cover incidental costs such as equipment rental, loss of revenue, etc. Please visit us at www.warmaudio.com for more information on your warranty, or to request warranty service.
This warranty applies to products sold in the United States of America. For warranty information in any other country, please refer to your local Warm Audio distributor. This warranty provides specific legal rights, which may vary from state to state. Depending on the state in which you live, you may have rights in addition to those covered in this statement. Please refer to your state laws or see your local Warm Audio retailer for more information.

NON-WARRANTY SERVICE
If you have a defective unit that is outside of our warranty period or conditions; we are still here for you and can get your unit working again for a modest service fee. Please visit us at www.warmaudio.com to contact us about setting up a repair or for more information.
With the proper care, your Warm Audio gear should last a lifetime and provide a lifetime of enjoyment. We believe the best advertisement we can have is a properly working unit being put to great use. Let’s work together to make it happen.

NOW LET’S GET STARTED!

INTRODUCTION

The WA-44 is a faithful recreation of the most iconic studio ribbon microphone of all time. Just like the legendary 44-style ribbons of the 1930s, the WA-44 delivers warm, vintage, sultry tones and excels on loud audio sources. The tight figure-8 polar pattern removes side-address noise while its custom, vintage-matched ribbon and magnet together with a CineMag transformer deliver powerful bass with a pronounced proximity effect, lush mids, and a tamed top end, reducing excessive high end harshness. Featuring premium components and elite build quality, the WA-44 is the perfect choice for capturing lead tones on vocals, horns, acoustics, drums, piano, voice work and much more.

TIMELESS RIBBON TONE

Delivering the iconic tonal experience at the center of recording and broadcast history, the WA-44 faithfully recreates the warm and vintage tones of the legendary 44-style ribbon mic. Just like the original, used on a variety of sources like lead vocals, horns, acoustic guitar, electric guitar cabs, drum overheads, room mics, strings, and much more, the WA-44 captures a smooth and non-fatiguing tone with mellow highs and rich midrange.

RICH LOWS & MIDS, NO HARSH HIGHS

The WA-44 captures powerful bass & rich midrange, true to the sound profile of the vintage original large-ribbon microphone. The WA-44 has an enhanced proximity effect, as the mic is placed closer to the source, more bass will be captured in the recording. In addition to the bass and midrange emphasis, the WA-44 shows off its warm “forgiving” tone by taming top end harshness above 15 kHz for smooth tones without exaggerated sibilance or harshness.

SULTRY ON ANY SOURCE
Like its inspiration, the WA-44 excels on loud audio sources. As with any passive ribbon mic, the WA-44 is considered “low output” and requires a powerful preamp. Using at least 65dB of gain will help capture rich detail on any source. The combination of the ribbon tone of the WA-44 and a quality mic pre delivers detailed audio with intimacy and focus. For a simplified solution, add a Warm Lifter between the WA-44 and your audio interface for 26dB of extra gain. The WA-44 has a figure-8 polar pattern which helps eliminate side-address noise when recording. That means that the WA-44 will pick up what is directly in front of it and behind it. This feature is great for recording two vocalists facing each other, singing into either side of the mic, or, for recording in a room and placing a different instrument to the side of the mic, without picking up as much bleed as other microphone designs. When put in practice, the WA-44 is a great choice for vocal recordings that benefit from a reduction in high-end frequencies, haunting horn sections, resonant acoustic instruments, sultry strings, flat drum sounds, deep piano tones, and much more.

VINTAGE BUILD, PREMIUM COMPONENTS

With a boutique-quality build design, the WA-44 is manufactured with exacting quality standards to match the most prized original 44-style vintage ribbon mics. The WA-44 pairs a true-to-length, custom-crafted Japanese ribbon made with 99.1% pure aluminum. The WA-44 also has a heavy, true-to-size Neodymium magnet powered by a USA-made CineMag transformer to deliver a true-to-vintage tone with added durability. Weighing in at over six pounds and including a Star-Quad shielded Gotham XLR cable connector and embroidered case, all of these components come together to revive a classic mic with a premium, vintage build.

THE RIBBON

The true-to-length ribbon inside the WA-44 is made of 99.1% pure aluminum, and is custom-crafted in Japan. Like ribbons in the original vintage 44-style mics, the ribbon in the WA-44 is nearly 60mm in length, which distinguishes it from other ribbon designs and can make the mic sound “bigger” compared to modern, smaller ribbon designs. The near-perfect purity of the ribbon is critical in achieving proper detail and frequency response. Even a small reduction in purity could reduce output, remove clarity, and raise the noise floor, which is why every WA-44 is inspected at the build level and again once it arrives at HQ in Austin, TX to ensure the quality of ribbon meets our exacting standards.

THE MAGNET
The ribbon inside the WA-44 is suspended between the poles of a premium, heavy Neodymium magnet. While the vintage original 44-style mics used AlNiCo magnets, Neodymium magnets are significantly stronger than AlNiCo magnets, and have become the new standard in premium ribbon microphone manufacturing. This allows for a more efficient conversion of sound energy to electrical signal in the ribbon microphone. Neodymium is also much less susceptible to degradation and will last much longer in regular use.

THE TRANSFORMER
The WA-44 utilizes a custom, American-made CineMag output transformer. The transformer inside the WA-44 delivers the rich depth and character of the ribbon – including the lush mids and smooth highs. The CineMag inside the WA-44 also helps the mic pair well with modern preamplifiers and studio equipment, even providing some protection against accidental use of 48v phantom power.

THE CABLE
One component of any microphone or signal chain is the quality of the cable. When Warm first started building and auditioning our microphones, we learned quite a bit about how the shielding and wire gauge size can drastically change audio quality of a microphone. Since then, we have launched an entire cable line using premium stock from our trusted partner, Gotham AG in Switzerland. The attached “pigtail” cable on the WA-44 is Star-Quad shielded Gotham XLR cable stock, the same internal spec used on our premier line of cables. Gotham cabling is a premium addition and is manufactured to exacting standards. The additional durability and improved sound quality is no small addition to the overall value of the WA-44.

GETTTING THE BEST RESULTS WITH RIBBONS
Every piece of professional studio equipment comes with its “need to know” information, and the WA-44, and pas-sive ribbon mics in general are no different. Here are a few tips to get started with your WA-44 and avoid common mistakes if you’re new to ribbon mics:

BE PREPARED WITH A PREAMP
The WA-44 shines when paired with enough output to bring out the detail and unique tonal character of the ribbon. In most cases, plugging the WA-44 directly into your interface preamp won’t yield the desired tonal results when compared to classic recordings. Adding a preamp with at least 65dB of gain will be a game-changer for your recordings using the WA-44.

TIP: ADD A LIFTER – If you’re looking to add 26dB of gain before your interface with minimal investment or effort, consider adding a Warm Audio WarmLifter. The additional 26dB of clean gain will pair well with most modern interfaces and requires minimal tech setup or knowledge to use right out of the box.

JUST SAY “NO!” TO 48V PHANTOM POWER
The WA-44 does not need phantom power to operate. Through our tests, we have found that the custom CineMag transformer and circuit design protected the ribbon inside the WA-44 from typical, immediate ribbon damage due to induced current from added voltage. Even with those results, applying 48v to the WA-44 is unnecessary and should be avoided.

BE CAREFUL OF MOVING AIR
While ribbon mics like the WA-44 handle loud sources (high SPL) very well, they do not tolerate “gusts” of moving air hitting the ribbon itself. Because the actual material thickness is so delicate, gusts of air can actually damage the ribbon element. Use of pop filters and the included “sock” when transporting the WA-44 will greatly reduce the chance of damaging the ribbon. Avoiding certain applications without a windscreen or pop filter like miking the kick drum port directly, or close-distance horn miking with the ribbon can also reduce any chance of damaging the ribbon.

USE DISTANCE TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
Having a good understanding of how to place passive ribbon mics like the WA-44 can be a key “missing piece” to achieving great recordings. The first tip is to consider how distance impacts the microphone’s frequency response.

PROXIMITY EFFECT –
As you move closer to the source, the WA-44’s enhanced proximity effect will begin to become noticeable. Simply put, the proximity effect means that the closer the mic is to the source, the more bass it will pick up. Sometimes, this is the exact thing the recording needs. If you find that you’re picking up too much bass during sound check, back the source off slowly until you’re pleased with the results.

MIND THE “BACK” OF THE MIC –
Because the WA-44 has a figure-8 pattern, the “front” and “back” of the mic are both picking up audio. If you are recording one source, and that source is in “front” of the mic, it’s important to pay attention to how close the “back” of the mic is to a reflective surface. If the back of the mic is right up against a wall with wood or metal on it, you will likely pick up some undesirable echo, noise, and even phase cancellation. The simplest way to avoid this is to record the ribbon towards the center of the room, putting a lot of distance between the back of the mic and the wall. This can also be solved by using diffusing material behind the mic to deaden the sound. 5

SPECIFICATIONS

• Studio Ribbon Microphone
• Faithful Recreation Of The Most Iconic Studio Ribbon Mic Of All Time
• Custom CineMag USA Transformer
• Powerful Neodymium Magnet
• 99.1% Aluminum, 2.5-Micron thick Ribbon (4.7mm x 59.7mm)
• Polar Pattern: Figure-8
• Frequency Response: 20 Hz-20 kHz (+/- 12db)
• Max SPL: 140dB
• Output Impedance: 270 ohms
• Pigtail XLR Gotham Cable With Star Quad Shielding
• L: 12.5” | W: 4.75” | D: 2.7” | Weight: 6.2 lbs
• Included Accessories: 3/8” Mic Stand Adapter, Embroidered Microphone “Sock”, Embroidered Microphone Case

© 2024 Warm AudioTM LLC.
Austin, Texas USA | www.warmaudio.com

References

• Warm Audio | Faithful recreations. Legendary sounds.

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