When those of us who love popular music and film think of great music, we tend to think of the period in history that produced such acts as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin, and perhaps the California sound and the Motown sound of the era, which is why it is often referred to as the Golden Age of Music. During that period, the technologies used to record music evolved tremendously, such that from 1960 to 1980— consoles, outboard gear, and even analog multi-track machines grew in both scope and capability. But, during that period, one aspect of music recording remained a constant, the use of the U67 to record the greatest music of the period. Even today, more than fifty years after the last U67 was handcrafted in a small Neumann factory and long before the microphone was re-issued with painstaking attention to detail, those of us who were educated to work in sound for music and film production, were often taught to use as a benchmark that what sounds ideal from a recording session comes almost straight from that thin slice in musical history from 1960-1975. This formative period gave us the ideal drum sound, the ideal acoustic guitar sound, the ideal sound of a grand piano, the ideal sound of a guitar cabinet, and of course— vocals and background harmonies from this era are among the most revered recordings to be taught and for even the general public, to be listened to and enjoyed.

The standard for musical greatness was fashioned from the recordings which came from this era. But, it was an era in which console technology was— at best— compared to the desks that were produced after 1975, quite primitive. In fact, the first great large-scale consoles such as the Trident A-Range did not make an appearance until the final U67 was produced in 1971. The venerable Neve 8068 console did not appear in recording studios until 1976. Although outboard gear and processing would eventually come from the early Neve, Trident, Helios, and custom-made consoles of the era— and those made by companies like API, for example— for the most part, the ability for engineers to carry around racks of fantastic sounding outboard gear did not appear until the 1980s. For an engineer working on a recording session in 1968 for example, outboard gear did exist, such as the venerable Fairchild 660 and 670 units and those compressor/limiter models such as the LA-2A that was built by Teletronix— known today as Universal Audio. But— dynamics processing, equalization, and reverb- each of which, engineers in recording studios that now have access to plug-in software technologies which can virtually emulate any piece of vintage gear or microphones from the period— were all very primitive in 1968. By 1968, for the first time, eight-track analog recording machines were in existence, but, even the Beatles, to record the classic hit-song, “Hey Jude,” had to go to Trident Recording Studios in London, because it was the only recording studio facility at the time which was in close proximity that possessed one. If each of the technologies that we take for granted in recording studio facilities today were in their infancy in 1968, then what was the technology that made the recordings from the greatest and most definitive era in music recording possible? It was the microphone technology and at its heart was the Neumann U67.

The Neumann U67 defined for us the ideal sound that we try to achieve in recording musical sources to this very day, even in the era in which we find ourselves in at the present time. When we listen to great music, we expect to hear 1968. We expect to hear an acoustic guitar which sounds as if it were played by Glen Campbell, a piano or bass guitar as played by Paul McCartney, an electric guitar sound as if it came from the amplifier of George Harrison, or the sound of a drum kit as played by Ringo Starr, or the late Charlie Watts, or later, in the early 1970s— John Bonham. We revel in hearing the soul of a singer such as David Ruffin, or the beautiful blended harmonies of the Temptations. As we hear the natural sounding vocal of a storyteller, such as Elliot Lurie of Looking Glass in the hit-song, “Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl),” we naturally believe as connoisseurs of popular culture that this is how every lead vocal on every song should sound to us.  What we believe to be great music and how it should sound, therefore, came to be defined by the sounds of the era which gave them to us. And the microphone that reproduced those sounds of great music for all of us to listen to for generations to come and to enjoy— was none other than the Neumann U67.