Soyuz Microphones is a company established in 2013, with its origins based in Russia, a country rightfully renowned for its history in tube microphone manufacturing. But imagine having a successful global business dealing with musicians, recording engineers and creative people, and suddenly, the head of state in your own country decides to invade another independent country and initiate a medieval war in the 21st Century.
Naturally, Russia's citizens and businesses are now suffering the effects of its foolish, hallucinated dictator whims, and the nation's products are suffering an embargo from the rest of the civilized world. Fortunately, Soyuz also successfully moved its marketing and operations away from Putin's land and the company is now managed and trading from Los Angeles, in the US led by American musician, David Arthur Brown, and Russian businessman, Pavel Bazdyrev.
The Soyuz factory is located in Tula, just 2 hours south of Moscow, a place famous for being the home of Russia’s top machinists. It’s long history of metalworking began in the 1700s when the Demidov blacksmiths were commissioned by the Tsar to build Russia’s very first weapons factory. Since then, Tula has remained a center of weapons production and machining. Tula is also famous for producing samovars and gingerbread (prianiki). Russia’s oldest microphone factory, Oktava, was founded in Tula in 1927 and Soyuz has benefited greatly from hiring former engineers, assemblers and machinists who were trained there.
How do they manage to send the microphones across to the West, we don't know. What we know is that Soyuz was previously very successful with that smart strategy of making very high-performance, highly desirable boutique microphones. The Soyuz 013 Ambisonic microphone is an innovation that directly addresses the growing need for spatial audio and creative recording. But at the core it leverages the company’s unique capsules - in this case, four Soyuz 013 FET small diaphragm condensers.
With just a single mic, the 013 Ambisonic simplifies any setup and encourages users to explore new soundscapes with unrestricted flexibility. The included custom-matched Soyuz Ambisonics plugins provide complete control in post-production, allowing users to further shape the soundfield to their imagination and create dynamic recordings that will translate across any system - stereo or beyond.
Inspired by the forward-thinking designs of the past, the 013 Ambisonic microphone combines modern technological advancements with classic sound and unmistakable quality. Ambisonics audio has been around since the 1970s and while it was pioneered with great promise, the format initially failed to gain widespread popularity. Over the years, however, Ambisonics microphones became a secret weapon for inventive producers and engineers seeking to stand out and expand their sounds. Producers like Steve Albini have notably used Ambisonics to broaden the stereo field and impart a unique sonic signature across many records. They have been used as the sole microphone for complete albums, adopted by classical engineers for entire symphonies, and used across stages and film studios to create a truly immersive experience that translates to any system.
The 013 Ambisonic microphone brings this exciting recording technique to more creators, with an original design and features that surpass other mics in its class, resulting from the quality of its four renowned 013 series capsules, all hand-machined in-house with absolute precision. Unlike the smaller capsules or electret designs found in other Ambisonics mics, these larger, custom 25mm condenser capsules provide a wider frequency range with enhanced detail and a low end that reaches deeper, creating a more lifelike, three-dimensional image of a recording.
Four Soyuz toroidal transformers bring additional depth with a subtle character that complements any source. This attention to detail and craftsmanship is a balance between art and engineering. As Soyuz states, the 013 Ambisonic has been meticulously engineered to set a new standard, built to be the new benchmark for Ambisonics recording.
Although an Ambisonics microphones captures sound with richness and realism up-front, the recordings only come to life during the mixing and post-production process. For this reason Soyuz partnered with Audio Brewers to develop a custom Ambisonic transcoder and decoder plugin suite tailored specifically for the 013 Ambisonic and compatible with every major DAW. The 013A plugin bundle allows users to re-imagine their recordings and sculpt the sound field to their liking.
The Soyuz transcoder is matched exactly to the 013 Ambisonic’s capsules, specs, and dimensions - instantly converting the original signal to Ambisonics “B Format” with the extra ability of monitoring in real-time with zero latency. The Soyuz decoder allows to effortlessly shape the recordings, with controls such as “rotation” and “dominance”, which are simple and intuitive tools to shift the sound in every direction, highlight key elements, or explore new perspectives.
Together, the 013 Ambisonic and included custom Soyuz plugins provide unlimited possibilities for creativity that translates into any configuration: stereo, headphones, surround, or immersive formats. In this way, the 013 Ambisonic microphone creates a complete solution to inspire artists and creators in a world of new sounds - all from just a single recording and a single microphone.
www.soyuzmicrophones.com
