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DPA Ultimate Recording Kit

Microphone Collection By Neil Rogers
Published April 2023

DPA Ultimate Recording Kit

DPA’s new flagship mic bundle offers quality and quantity in abundance. We put it to work in a busy studio...

Danish company DPA Microphones have a reputation for producing high‑quality capacitor microphones, and I think it’s fair to say that these are most visible in live, classical, theatre and broadcast environments. As an engineer who works almost entirely in the recording studio, I haven’t always considered them an option when assessing new microphone purchases. Nor have I often come across DPA mics in other studios that I’ve used over the years. My lack of exposure to their mics ended in spectacular fashion with this review, however, as I got to take a look at their Ultimate Recording Kit mic collection. Spread over three immaculately organised tiers in a large Pelican‑style flightcase, the collection contains more than 30 microphones alongside several modular capsule options, numerous attachment clips, mounting hardware, stereo bars and most other tools you could possibly require for close/spot‑miking duties as well as stereo capture of large ensembles.

We’ve reviewed many of these mics before, so I’m not going to attempt to cover the entire collection in detail. Instead, this review will be more of a whistle‑stop tour, with a focus on the mics that I found especially useful in my studio.

From The Top

The first layer of the collection is focused around DPA’s 4099 instrument microphones — 10 of them, in fact. These are full‑range, miniature capacitor mics attached to flexible gooseneck arms. The 4099s are designed for close‑miking instruments without the need for cumbersome stands, cables or mounting, and the collection includes a selection of clamps and clips catering for a wide range of instruments such as drums, cello, acoustic guitars, piano and brass. Featuring a supercardioid polar pattern, the standard 4099 has an SPL rating of 142dB, and this collection includes four of those, plus six of the ‘extreme’ option which can cope with a whopping 153dB SPL.

The top layer includes no fewer than 10 of DPA’s celebrated 4099 mics, plus mounting hardware for a variety of string, woodwind and brass instruments.The top layer includes no fewer than 10 of DPA’s celebrated 4099 mics, plus mounting hardware for a variety of string, woodwind and brass instruments.

It takes a while to get used to handling the mics, and the miniature cabling in particular can be a little challenging for fatter fingers! Once you have your desired mount figured out, however, the 4099s offer a highly convenient way of getting a getting a quality mic not only close to but also attached to an instrument. I had great success using them for acoustic guitar on a live video session I was doing at the studio, and quickly got very used to using them on toms when recording drums. I didn’t get a chance try every mount, but I liked the double bass option (for positioning on the strings between the bridge and the tailpiece), and generally the whole system seems very well thought‑out. Given the convenience of these small mics, it’s not hard to see what they are so popular with live and theatre engineers, but I found them very...

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