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Draft:Nordic Audio Labs

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Nordic Audio Labs

Nordic Audio Labs is a company based in Karperö, Finland, specialising in microphone design and manufacture for the professional recording studio and broadcast market. The company was founded in 2007 by Martin Kantola.[1]

History

Background

Nordic Audio Labs’ beginning seeds were sown in the mid 1990’s when Martin Kantola, then a professional recording engineer, came into the possession of an old Neumann U47 microphone from 1953, which inspired him to build new microphones with the emotional attributes of sound like the old classic tube microphones[2]. Martin’s electronic exploits started early in life with cassette recorders turning into tape delays and telephone receivers into spring reverbs even before the age of 10, and by the age of 19 he was building an audio interface for his computer, so electronics was already a familiar area. [3]

1997 - present

In 1997 Martin designed and built his first microphone, the NU47, a wooden bodied microphone based in part on the Neumann U47, at that point making only three of them. One went to the Icelandic singer Bjork, who used it on vocals on the Vespertine album [4]amongst others, one to Bruce Swedien of Micheal Jackson recording fame[5], who recorded J Lo, Ringo Starr and others with it[6], and one he kept for himself.

Over time he refined his microphone builds from using commonly used parts such as classic capsule types, tubes and transformers, to producing microphones with the sonic attributes of the old tube microphones, but without using actual tubes or transformers. Also, he designed an original, proprietary capsule no longer relying on the classic capsule designs, making Nordic Audio Labs microphones unique in the marketplace.[7]

The company is a true family business, and the bodies and capsules were manufactured and the entire mics assembled on site in Karperö until very recently. After doing a detour to design the Amphion Loudspeakers [8]range of studio speakers, Martin and Nordic Audio Labs are now offering a range of boutique high quality microphones unlike any others.

References

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