Sontronics 5th ANNIVERSARY & 5 NEW PRODUCTS FOR NAMM 2010

The 2010 NAMM Show saw the fifth anniversary of British microphone brand Sontronics, who released five new products as well as plenty of positive news.

Sontronics are distributed by Sonic8 in Benelux where their popularity is growing and growing.

"It's been a great year for Sontronics," says Sontronics founder, designer and MD Trevor Coley, "and we've seen fantastic growth, The brand is getting more recognition all round the world thanks to great support from our worldwide distributors and from the MI press."

After five years of success, Sontronics continues to grow with the release of 5 new products:

• SATURN multi-pattern condenser,
• STC-10 pencil condenser,
• STC-20 large-diaphragm condenser,
• STC-2X omni/cardioid condenser
• ST-PAD/PHASE inline switch

Like all of Sontronics' microphones, they have been designed and developed in the UK and, unlike many NAMM announcements, they'll all be in the shops within a couple of months.

"SATURN is the big news and it certainly turned plenty of heads at the NAMM Show," says Trevor. "It's inspired by the classic vocal mics of the 1940s and 50s, and while I originally designed it for vocals, it actually gives brilliant results on anything you put it in front of. It's been road-tested over the last year by various artists, producers and educators including Flood and Alan Moulder, and everyone's said it's an incredible all-rounder."

The other new mics are inspired by two Sontronics best-sellers, the STC-1 pencil condenser and STC-2 large-diaphragm condenser. "These continue to be popular," begins Trevor, "but we wanted to create something even more affordable. The STC-10 and STC-20 give users the first-class sound reproduction and top-quality build they associate with Sontronics products combined with a realistic price they can afford.
"At the same time I also wanted to push the potential of STC-2 so we've created the STC-2X featuring cardioid AND omnidirectional polar patterns plus a two-stage pad (-10/-20dB) and a two-stage filter (75/150Hz)." Available in silver or black, the STC-2X comes with a shockmount in an aluminium flightcase.

Sontronics has also released a four-pack of its most popular mic, the STC-80 dynamic. "We found that many users were buying four or five STC-80s to use for vocals and guitar amps on stage and in the studio," explains Trevor, "so to save people carrying four flightcases around, we now do a set of four STC-80s in a single flightcase with an extra saving on the full price."

Finally, Sontronics has launched the ST-PAD/PHASE switch. "We know some people using our ribbon mics have needed an attentuation control when miking very loud sound sources, especially if they don't have the feature on a desk or audio interface. The ST-PAD/PHASE is an inline switch with two -10dB attenuation/pad controls (giving a total of -20dB) plus a 180° phase invert control, useful for dual-miking snare drums.

Five years of success and five new products (with more to come later in the year) all add up to being a fantastic year for the British mic brand that everyone's talking about!