CRAS is excited to welcome Mattias Strömberg from Milab Microphones! We began the meeting with some introductions, and then jumped into the history of Milab. Milab started as Pearl Microphones in Stockholm, and were the company that created the rectangular capsule (also seen in Audio Technica's 5040, 5045, and 5047) in 1958. They also create all of their microphones by hand. In the 1980s, they expanded internationally and eventually changed their name to Milab Microphones. One of their microphones, the Milab VIP-50, was released in 1984 and is the most commercially successful microphone that Milab has had. Users of this mic include Quincy Jones, Bruce Swedien, and was even used prevalently in Michael Jackson's Dangerous. In the 2000s, they developed the ELM capsule which is also rectangular but is larger than that of the VIP-50, which reduces the need for amplification and thus reduces the noise floor as well. It also has a very wide horizontal polar pattern, but has an incredibly small vertical polar pattern which results in it picking up very little reflections from the floor and ceiling. They also created a stage-safe condenser microphone that wouldn't feedback easily or break when dropped. We then opened up the discussion to questions, and finished up with a hands-on demonstration of the mics.
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