As discussed extensively on the pages of Age of Audio, this is a time of great change for Universal Audio. In fact, in these first months of 2022 two important innovations have been announced: the first is the production of a new series of microphones of various types; the second is the introduction of a cloud where you can use different plugins so far available only in relation to UAD accelerators.
Starting from the new microphone production, as promised, we received the brand new UA SD-1 for testing. In this period a lot of companies from the production of studio outboards have launched into the production of microphones, a sector that still works very well and in fact, even UAD has closed an agreement, first with Townsend Lab and subsequently with BockAudio, to launch its own line of microphones.
This new dynamic microphone is clearly inspired by the most famous broadcast microphone in circulation, or the Shure SM7B, omnipresent in radios all over the world, but thanks to the intuition of Bruce Swieden reached the pinnacle of popularity during the recordings of the album Thriller, with Michael Jackson who surprisingly recorded the vocal lines through this product. Like the progenitor, this new SD-1 is also a dynamic microphone with cardioid polar pattern, which makes the microphone particularly insensitive to sources coming from the rear and in a similar way to the SM7B.
Also in this case the capsule is mounted in a rather backward position inside a basket, thus eliminating the classic proximity effect, typical of this type of microphone. The basket features a black sponge that acts as an anti-pop filter, as well as preserving the capsule from droplets when talking or singing. The filter is fixed with a ring like the Shure Sm7b, a great solution as some companies that make cheap versions of this product often tend to just put it down, but over time and wear, it would come off easily. In this case, however, it remains quietly in place, even if it is more cumbersome to remove. The bracket that allows you to orient it is decidedly sturdy and overall this product respects the quality standards of the American company, giving us an excellent feeling of robustness. In size it is slightly shorter and smaller (and consequently less heavy) than the Shure.
Unison Pre-Amp Preset
Universal Audio also provides, for Apollo card users, 33 preset Unison Pre-Amp, free, customized for the SD-1. These presets help shape the input signal to provide optimal recordings for guitar, brass, bass, drums, vocals, strings or piano sounds, or for brodcaster footage.
Technical features
Analyzing the technical characteristics of this product, we note that it has a frequency response ranging from 50 to 16khz decidedly flat and on board we find two filters, one low cut at 200 Hz and a filter named Articulation Boost, which emphasizes the area between 3 and 5 kHz so as to give greater incisiveness to the spoken (or sung). The other technical characteristics are quite similar to other types of dynamic microphone, in fact we find an output impedance of 200 Ohm and a feeling of 1,3mV / Pa, perhaps slightly below average.
UA SD-1 comparison with Shure Sm7b
In the test we ran, we couldn't help but compare the UA SD-1 with the Shure SM7B. A similar feature to the Shure is that you have to pull the neck of the preamp far enough, which is great when using external preamps that can color the signal, not the best when using the Pre internal to the audio interface. As an overall sound, we are faced with a microphone with a rich and powerful sound, very similar to that of the Shure, but with a slightly less pronounced medium-low area. From the examples we have created, we can see how on the medium-high range of the female voice, the SD1 gives its best and in some things it seems even superior to the Shure, where instead perhaps it lacks a little bit, precisely in the medium \ low section.
Speech intelligibility is excellent and as mentioned, even by attaching the mouth to the filter there is no risk of proximity problems, which can also be solved with the available low-cut filter. As for the Articulation Boost, it gives us a stronger signal, but never sharp. Compared to the SM7b, but also to the Sennheiser MD441(another historical dynamic), the one on which this new SD1, does not equal the progenitors, is on the dynamics, which turns out to be a little weaker than the Shure and quite compared to the Sennheiser (even if we are talking about a double cost). We have had this evidence especially on rapid transients, both vocal, but for example both in the reprise of a snare drum, where both Shure and Sennheiser are able to work better. All this is evident when we listen absolutely to the three microphones, working with dynamics processors, obviously we can easily overcome this problem. Instead, compared to both the Shure and the Sennheiser, it has one good response even off axis.
Conclusions
With this new product, Universal Audio has forcefully entered another sector, already particularly saturated. The microphone, as mentioned, is well made and has a good sound. We appreciated the house's choice of not making a precise clone of the Shure, but a similar product which in my opinion works very well with female voices. Also the choice of having a series of Presets as a gift ready to go it was an interesting idea. But like any product on the market, in my opinion there is a small flaw. The microphone probably not having been developed internally by the company (the provenance is not written) and having a fairly fierce competition, we would have expected a slightly lower launch price.
Vincenzo Siani
Useful Information
Product: UA SD-1
Price: 299 Euro
Video
Singer 1: Angelica Parisi
Singer 2: Alessandro Mannara
Audio card: Universal Audio Apollo X8
Test carried out at Trees Music Studio
