Do you know what a CC54 is?

As many people suspect, at heart sales people are lazy. Although we rarely get them, we like things nice and simple. That’s the foremost reason why I signed up to Google alerts for “Calrec”.

What caught my eye this morning was not the “POLY WINS CIF DIVISION ONE VOLLEYBALL TITLE!‎” story, although I am sure it is a great read and there is indeed a reference to Cal Rec. Instead it was the reference to a Calrec microphone for sale on Ebay. I was quite intrigued as I hadn’t seen one in a while and so dived onto Ebay to have a look. I did a quick search and discovered a world of Calrec history.

There was an RQP3200 mic, eq and compressor unit that we still occasionally get asked to build and a few modules from older analog desks boxed for standalone use. More interestingly there was an original Minimixer (which I have still never seen in the flesh), the forerunner of the cunningly named M2 and M3.

However, all that paled into insignificance next to the microphones and vinyl records that popped up.

The first one that caught my eye was this, a recording of Wienawski Violin showpieces Ricci Calrec Soundfield.

At lot of people have forgotten about our mics and that Soundfield started life as a Calrec product line that was sold many moons ago. We at Calrec have not forgotten as we are still great friends and fans of their products. But, I had never seen a vinyl recording that specifically mentions one of our original Soundfield mics and to be honest, if I still owned a vinyl record player, I’d snap it up! (Also check out Cowboy Junkies’ first two albums which were both recorded on a single Soundfield mic, found in one of the band’s family garage!)

Next up was a selection of Calrec condenser microphones; a beautiful pair of CM654 with the PSU, a CB7c microphone body and two capsules (CC54 and CC754).

We haven’t made microphones for more than 20 years and yet they are still in circulation and fetching a fair price.

Of course, being a sales guy for Calrec I know about the microphone history; there are even some in our little museum back at Nutclough Mill and a whole slide in our presentation, but I had forgotten just how good they were and in what esteem they are still held.

Please leave a comment if you have or still regularly use our mics, I’d love to have something to tell in my next presentation.

I’ll leave you with the final vinyl record that I spotted; LORD CALREC by Alexanders Dark Band AKA Depth Charge. Rock On!