Pictured in Studio B at Ocean Way Nashville are Ricky Skaggs' bass player Mark Fain and engineer Bil VornDick adjusting the Telefunken | USA Ela M260. Photo by Jim McGuire.

Nashville, TN, May, 2008 — After extensive testing, popular Nashville engineer/producer Bil VornDick has purchased a pair of Telefunken | USA's small capsule Ela M260 condenser microphones. This new version of the classic 1959 microphone features a New Old Stock Telefunken EF-732 tube and a custom wound transformer from AMI/TAB-Funkenwerk.

"When I was recording Rodney Crowell's acoustic guitar," recalls VornDick. "I was getting a bright and slightly harsh sound from other mics, so I tried the new Telefunken with a cardioid capsule and it worked great the first time out of the box."

The Ela M260 comes complete with a set of three interchangeable capsules (cardioid, hyper-cardioid and omni) as well as an adaptor to allow the use of most AKG CK series capsules along with other capsules made by Red / B.L.U.E. and JZ / Violet.

"Next up, I was recording Charlie Haden's standup bass in a room with Jerry Douglas, Brian Sutton, Bela Fleck, Pat Metheny, and Bruce Hornsby," VornDick continues. "I switched to the hyper-cardioid capsule and put the mic near the top side of his bass because I wanted to target his sound and minimize leakage from the piano and other instruments in the room. An engineer's hardest battle is making the musicians feel on playback that the instrument sounds like it did when they were playing. Charlie listened back and wanted to take the microphone home with him, so I scored a home run with him."

VornDick is a graduate of Nashville's Belmont College with a degree in Music Business. In a career spanning three decades, he has recorded over 500 albums, with 45 Grammy nods and eight winners. His long credit list includes Bob Dylan, Ralph Stanley, Rhonda Vincent, John Oates, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, T. Bone Burnett, and among scores of other top artists, Alison Krauss, whose career he developed and whose albums he produced as well as engineered.

"Recently, I was working with the Lovell Sisters and put a pair of 260s on the dobro using the cardioid capsule and I was just stunned," VornDick continues. "I have been using my pair of vintage Neumann U-67s for years but these new mics easily did the job better than ever before."

The new Telefunken | USA Ela M260 system includes a wooden microphone box, 10-meter Gotham Audio cable, shock mount, mic clip, owner's manual, and a fully transferable 10-year warranty.

"The 260s have a nice smooth texture," VornDick explains, "so if your are working with an instrument that is a little harsh or too bright, it gently smoothes it out. Here's another example: if you're not careful when recording a mandolin, you get undesirable overtones between the bridge and the tailpiece that have nothing to do with the tempered scale. But I put the 260 about six inches away and got a perfect sound. I'm looking forward to using these mics on a hammered dulcimer, which in my opinion is the hardest instrument to record."

The new Ela M 260 from Telefunken | USA is an exceptionally versatile microphone which exhibits the same sought after qualities found in its historic namesake, including a frequency response that accommodates an extremely wide range of applications. As drum overheads and on acoustic instruments of all types, the Ela M260 responds exceedingly well, providing especially life-like results.

ABOUT TELEFUNKEN ELEKTROAKUSTIK

TELEFUNKEN | USA acquired the TELEFUNKEN Trademark for North America in 2001, and in 2009 the company was named the Elektroakustik (translation: Electrical Acoustics) arm of TELEFUNKEN and awarded the exclusive rights to manufacture a wide variety of professional audio products and vacuum tubes bearing the TELEFUNKEN name, in over 27 countries worldwide. Recreating the classic TELEFUNKEN microphones has been a labor of love for the company CEO, Toni Fishman and the pursuit of that dream has culminated in the manufacture of what we at TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik believe are the finest microphones currently available in the world today.

Along with meticulously manufacturing historic replicas of classic microphones by hand in the USA, TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik is now marketing the R-F-T series of microphones that take advantage of the globalization of technology, in order to offer recording microphones with professional sonic performance at reasonable prices.

Our latest additions to the TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik product line include a revolutionary new capsule design based on Alloy 2213™, an exceptional dynamic microphone [the M80], and a vacuum tube replacement for the original TELEFUNKEN VF14 which offers comparable performance in our U47 and new U48 microphones.

TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik continues to expand, and research and development of new products is an ongoing process. Although based firmly on classic designs, TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik is continuously looking forward. Important changes in our company and further expansion of our product line are slated for the immediate future.

For more information about TELEFUNKEN Elektroakustik, call 860.882.5919 or e-mail info@t-funk.com.