Tierra Audio New Twenties

This handmade mic offers vibe in abundance.

Madrid‑based Tierra Audio have always done things differently, and since their first release back in 2018 they have built up a range of original, handmade studio outboard products including preamps, compressors and summing mixers. Tierra also take their environmental impact seriously, and their website lists a number of eco‑friendly decisions, such as the use of sustainable bamboo for the panels on their outboard units and an emphasis on sourcing parts locally wherever possible.

In April 2022 (www.soundonsound.com/reviews/tierra-audio-flavours) I reviewed their range of inline mic preamps, which have culinary names such as Chilli and Mint and offer ‘flavoursome’ ways of boosting microphone signals. In this review, we have the Spanish company’s first capacitor microphone (they’ve previously launched a range of active and passive ribbon models), and in keeping with their previous releases, the New Twenties is not your average mic.

The Roaring ’20s

Tierra have chosen a retro visual theme for their new capacitor mic, which aims to offer distinctive looks (important in the ‘content’ age that we live in) along with some innovative technology to achieve a high‑quality but characterful sound. The mic is not intended to directly reference the sound of microphone technology available 100 years ago; rather, as Tierra explain, when developing the mic during the Covid lockdowns, they felt inspired by “the tireless spirit that the women and men of the 1920s showed when coming out of the aftermath of World War 1”. With a stylistic nod to the elegance and glamour of an era known as the Roaring ’20s, this mic is very conscious of its looks, and can even be fitted with custom‑engraved ‘ridges’, for you to add your studio, social media channel or podcast name and logo to. This is not a cheap or gimmicky microphone, however, so I was very intrigued to see if it sounded as good as it looks.

The mic ships with ‘ridges’, which Tierra can custom‑engrave with your studio’s logo as a cost option.

Features

The New Twenties is a cardioid‑only, large‑diaphragm, electret‑capsule microphone, and without providing any further details, Tierra explain that they sourced a USA‑built capsule that uses only “the highest‑quality materials”. The body is primarily a solid piece of stainless steel, which, as well giving a substantial look and feel, protects the internal electronics from electrical interference. High‑quality, low‑noise FETs are used to raise the signal level from the capsule before it reaches the Lundahl output transformer — which is apparently a key part of how the mic achieves its distinctive sonic characteristics. Tierra have also developed their own method of internal shock protection for the capsule, which sees them incorporate precision ‘micro‑springs’ — of the type typically used by watchmakers — to suspend the capsule in the mic’s body.

Great Expectations

The New Twenties comes in a neat, custom‑made box made from sustainable bamboo, with the mic secured inside using magnets. This approach is also used for the excellent onboard pop filter, which has been nicely incorporated into the mic and can be quickly attached or removed from the small but powerful N52 neodymium magnets that hold it. The mic doesn’t require any additional mounting, but the down side of this is that it’s slightly tricky to get it into any angled position without a mic stand that doesn’t have a second boom stage. My first use for the New Twenties was, appropriately enough, capturing a singer‑songwriter playing an early 20th Century‑inspired song that I thought would be a great first test of this unusual‑looking mic. I was keen to capture the artist singing and playing her acoustic guitar with one mic, and after finding a nice spot where it captured a good balance of voice and guitar, it produced a natural reproduction of how the artist sounded in the room, and required very little additional mix processing.

It’s hard not to approach a new microphone without some preconceptions, and having seen how Tierra describe the New Twenties on their website, I was expecting something quite different from what I was hearing from the speakers. One of the things I noticed straight away was how lean this mic is in the bottom end: the low end roll‑off begins gradually around 100Hz before falling away steeply below 50Hz. This is not a criticism at all and suits many situations perfectly, but I didn’t find a single application in my studio in which I would describe this as a full‑bodied, ‘warm’ sounding mic! A great example was when I used it to record my studio’s in‑house acoustic guitar alongside my more conventional choice of an AKG C414. It was striking how different the low‑end responses were, and while this is often an area that you would carve out in a mix, it didn’t suggest to me that this mic would suit every job in the studio.

The Moment It Clicked

I’m going to admit that after my first few goes with this mic — especially bearing in mind the price — I thought it was turning out to be a textbook case of style over substance. That was before I tried the New Twenties as a vocal mic on two recording sessions, in which it absolutely excelled. The first was recording a male vocalist singing a soulful falsetto‑style vocal, and it was here that I first began to hear coloration clearly being imparted by the mic’s transformer. With no outboard in the recording chain other than a neutral‑sounding preamp, the vocal immediately had an authentic, vintage‑style vibe, with a rolled‑off low end and a midrange presence that was just on the edge of becoming saturated.

The New Twenties worked superbly, providing a vibe‑heavy vocal sound that suited the style...

The next session I tried it on was a jazz/soul‑style band playing live together in the room. The band wanted to cut the vocals in the same room as the drums, and the key to this working was for the mic to sound good both on the vocal and, because of the inevitable spill, as a drum room/ambience mic. The New Twenties worked superbly, providing a vibe‑heavy vocal sound that suited the style, combined with a flattering drum room sound that was complimentary to the mix. At least two members of the band asked me “What’s that mic?” after listening to the playback, and as the session was also being filmed, the combination of looks and sound was perfect.

I also got great results using the mic on an electric guitar cab; in fact, on any louder source that suited a mid‑forward, saturated sound it seemed to work really well. As well as attenuating low frequencies, the New Twenties also rolls off very high frequencies, in a similar way to a modern ribbon mic, and this seems to be another subtle factor in how this mic works so well on certain sources.

Another observation worth mentioning, and which I noticed especially when talking into the mic, is how the low‑frequency roll‑off almost completely negates any proximity effect you would typically get from using a capacitor mic up close. This means it can work well on spoken word, but I would be wary about using it in typical voiceover sessions where clients tend to look for a more full‑range sound. For a content provider who wants a cool‑looking mic with a bit of a ‘sound,’ this could be a great option, however.

Summing Up

The strength of the New Twenties seems to be in bringing forward a little of the midrange excitement of a source whilst adding subtle saturation. This, combined with its low‑end roll‑off, can produce a vibe that is very pleasing indeed. The same qualities can make it a little fussy, however, and I would often have to tuck in a certain frequency with EQ to get it to really work — though this nearly always felt straightforward.

If there’s a drawback, it’s that the New Twenties arguably sits a little above its natural price point, given that it might not work equally well on everything. I think serious content creators and studios looking for a vibe mic are happy to pay a decent amount for a product that is well‑made and looks the part, but in the $1000£1000 category, you have the choice of a lot of well‑known mics with additional features. That said, part of the reason for the price is Tierra Audio’s commitment to their environmental ethics: like many things in our society the right choices are not always the cheapest, and you can only applaud a company trying to make these kinds of decisions work.

In any case, this is a great‑looking, handmade mic that, on the right voice or instrument, absolutely delivers the goods sound‑wise. Once I understood what its vibe was I found this to be a super addition to my more conventional mics, and with the caveat that you should try it out first, this could be a great option for a visual content‑based setup.