
Recording Magazines Alex Hawley dives into the details of our 2028 handheld mic.
"The DPA 2028 sounds incredibly transparent. In the time I spent with it on both male and female vocals, the resulting tracks fell naturally into place with minimal effort. Where some microphones would need a bit of EQ to help with presence and intelligibility, I found the 2028 to have a very open and natural top end, with a sheen that helps it to speak in the mix.
(...) The midrange is both smooth and polite, and I found myself adding a slight bump at around 1kHz-2kHz for rock applications to add some teeth when appropriate. The low midrange at around 250Hz to 500Hz, sounds very evenly balanced and true to the source.
With many instruments competing for space in this range, it's important to make sure that there aren't any honks or frequencies building up; in my experience with the 2028, there was no problem. The response is clean and clear.
(...) For most voices, the 2028 low end is just right and translates into the mix beautifully.
One of the most impressive aspects of the DPA 2028 is its off-axis rejection. Sources that are slightly off-axis stay truly balanced, making it far more forgiving when vocalists venture slightly off-mic. Sure, the volume attenuates a bit, but the overall shape of the sound remains true to the source. The rejection to the sides and rear is fantastic. I would bring this on a loud stage with the utmost confidence in its performance against feedback, and it seems to perform better than other handhelds I have tried in its class.
The three-stage pop filter performs very well. I had a few run-ins with plosives sneaking through, but that could be chalked up to the placement and technique of the vocalist. Positioned 3-4 from the singer (DPA recommends 4.7 ), the plosives were minimal.
The 2028 is exactly what you would expect from a DPA microphone; transparent, uncolored, musical, and reliable. The vocalists I put it in front of were all ready to take it on the road with them! Male vocalists with deeper voices might desire slightly more low end response. Still, with the excellent proximity effect, off-axis performance, and realistic sound, the 2028 is a very well-rounded and road-ready vocal microphone."
Read the full review...
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