Whilst being a ‘new’ company, Austrian Audio is steeped in a rich heritage that any other audio company would be envious of. With decades of experience in the industry working under a different guise, the Austrian Audio team (based in... Austria) ported all of their knowledge into the creation of their two debut products; the OC818 and OC18.
Sporting a completely new CKR12 Ceramic capsule and unique, digital control of its internal analogue circuitry, the OC818 offers impeccable sound quality with complete remote control of its polar patterns whilst the OC18 distilled all of the crucial tonal elements into a microphone that sounds far beyond what would be expected for its price.
After a release as high-profile as this, there was a huge influx of online tutorials, reviews, and demos to help advertise and show off the microphone’s unique feature set. In this blog, we decided to collate our top 5 from YouTube into one page for you to explore and enjoy! In no particular order, here they are!
If you’re an avid home engineer or producer, you’ve probably heard of Warren Huart and Glenn Fricker. Featuring two of the biggest YouTube communities and subscriber bases, these guys have a vast channel with bucket-loads of tutorial and review videos to help you make informed gear purchases as well as produce better-sounding music.
In this first video from Product Like A Pro, Warren takes the Oc818 for a spin by writing a full track using the single mic and then breaks down each of the tracks and the particular Polar Patterns he used with Austrian audio’s Polar Designer plugin. Warren calls it ‘the everything mic’ - we think he has a good point!
In this next video, Glenn from Spectre Sound studios kicks it up a notch by explaining how he used the OC818 and its Polar Designer plug in to achieve the “best metal tone of his career”. There’s a sound example of the Oc818 on a metal guitar cab within the first 10 seconds and it should be enough to knock you off your feet!
Want to get stuck straight into the sound samples? We don’t blame you! The videos below are straight up, audio examples of how the OC818/18 can capture your instruments in your studio.
Well, technically it is an ‘all talking’ video, but it’s all spoken word and is recorded using the OC818 exclusively. In this video, the presenter speaks into the mic using every polar pattern position whilst moving on and off axis so that you can hear how the mic behaves in a 3d space! He also goes through all the in accessories the box!
What better way to learn more about the company than hear it directly from the company itself? In these video, Martin Seidl from Austrian Audio sits down with Mitch Gallagher from Sweetwater and the guys at Funky Junk to talk about the history of Austrian Audio from its roots with AKG all the way to the new technology required to develop and produce such advanced mics such as the OC818 and OC18.
There’s a lot more to the OC818 than what might first meet the eye! With the OCR8 Bluetooth accessory, all of the Polar Patterns can be adjusted using Bluetooth and the dedicated Polar Pilot App. In these videos, the presenters delve into the OCR8 to demonstrate how easily you can adjust all of the OC818’s patterns remotely!
Another cool feature of the OC818 is that it can be combined with the Polar Designer VST plugin which allows you to adjust all of the polar patterns in post-production not only as a whole, but also for each frequency band. In this video, Austrian Audio themselves walk you through the Plug in and what it can do!
That just about rounds up some of our favourite OC18/OC818 YouTube videos! There are tons of other great videos out there comparing these mics against other popular designs, and so once you’ve given these a watch, search on YouTube yourself to find out more information!
This new blog is presented by the team at Sound Technology Ltd, a leading distributor of musical instruments and pro audio equipment in the UK and ROI.
