Calrec had made the decision to concentrate on the development of its mixing console business leaving a gap in the market, which Ming sought to fill. Under a licensing agreement with Calrec he continued to build the microphones as Hebden Sound.
Sadly he passed away in 2000 and the company became available to interested parties and was ultimately taken over by the former head of microphones at Calrec Audio, David Anderson, an acoustic consultant with a wealth of experience and a long standing reputation for his meticulous approach. He decided to further develop Hebden Sound by re-working the package significantly.
Anderson left Calrec in the mid 80s to pursue a career as an acoustic consultant. With a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Chartered Engineer he had previously carried out post-graduate acoustic research into microphone manufacturing at Salford University.
He takes up the story; "In 1982, I was Calrec Audio's head of microphones and standard products department and Keith Ming worked for me at that time as a test engineer. Whilst at Calrec Audio, I worked on the Mk IV Soundfield Mic, industrializing the design. I designed several special project microphones and wrote many of the test procedures for the SoundField and other microphones."
Anderson was with Calrec for two years before starting his company Bridge Microphones. Bridge Microphones manufactures specialist microphones and installs speech reinforcement systems. The company expanded into acoustic consultancy, which also continues today.
It was apparent to David that, from the time he left Calrec until he took over Hebden Sound, there had been little or no development of the microphone range, which had begun in the 1960's. The goal now for the company is to become a successful UK microphone company that is small enough to care for the individual customer but large enough to make developments in the industry and produce state-of-the-art microphones. It has, and will continue to have, an emphasis on high quality, hand built and individually tested products.
The traditional Calrec microphones and those of Ming's Hebden Sound were no different. The new HS3000 builds on the tradition, keeping the highly acclaimed sound, but bringing the manufacturing processes up to date. The entire production process of every Hebden Sound microphone, from R&D through to the construction and testing, is carried out at the company's Sheffield base under David's direct control.
The HS3000 series is a highly versatile, detachable and fully interchangeable capsule system. It consists of four microphones with Omni (HS3010), Cardioid (HS3020), Hyper-Cardioid (HS3030) and Sub-Cardioid (HS3040) directivity options available singly or as matched stereo pairs.
Each microphone comes with a standard 23mm clip and an anti-vibration mount in a lockable studio case. All four polar pattern options can be built around a single pre-amplifier unit and all capsules give a wide frequency range and low noise figures for the discerning audio professional.
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
