First Professional Studio-Quality USB Microphone

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sE Electronics is to start distributing the USB2200a mic in early January 2007 at a retail price of around £222 including VAT.

The USB2200a mic is based on the studio standard sE2200a capsule. It records CD quality audio (record path16 bit 48K, output 24 bit 48K) via USB directly to a DAW (digital audio workstation - a system designed to record, edit and play back digital audio).

The USB2200a mic features ultra-low latency headphone monitoring of less than 1ms. It includes mix control which enables a user to set playback versus record path levels to monitor live takes. It also features a 10dB pad, Bass cut and an analogue switch to allow the mic to be used via an XLR connector with 48v phantom power where required. This feature means that the mic is flexible to use and even if there are changes to digital recording technology in the future, it can still be used in analogue mode.

The USB2200a includes proprietary chips developed by sE Electronics International. One chip helps with transforming the 5v power supplied via the USB cable to power the capsule, by removing ‘noise’ and undesirable spikes from the current. This ‘noise’ would normally be amplified, which is why USB mics have previously been largely too noisy to use in a professional environment. The USB2200a is the only mic on the market to offer this specification.

The second proprietary chip has all the appropriate software drivers embedded for use with any DAW. This makes the device ready to simply ‘plug in and play’, as it automatically configures to the host as it is connected.