Townsend Sphere L22 Mic Modeling System
 
Before you scoff, the preliminary reviews have been promising, and the people behind this project are industry veterans such as the former CEO of Summit Audio and one of the guys who did Avid's Eleven rack.
 
Not only do they promise accurate emulations of classic mics, but also the ability to modify polar patterns and other positioning effects after tracking. Take that, Slate VMS!  :-)
 
Pricing has not yet been announced.

Cheers,
Eddie
 

James at Pro Tools Expert has just posted a very interesting video review of this thing:
 
Review of Townsend Sphere at Pro Tools Expert
 
Cheers,
Eddie
 

After doing a bit of research of this mic modeling system and the technology and industry people behind it, I decided to participate in the Indiegogo fund me project and get a nice intro price at the same time. I am really stoked about this truly innovative mic modeling system. Even though it is a bit more expensive than the Slate VMS, I find it to be a more realistic representation (not just on axis, but 360 degrees with true proximity effect), can record stereo with a single mic (via it's dual mic capsule) plus the fact you can change the mic model and it's characteristics after the fact is truly amazing to me. Being an Apollo user, being able to use it as a realtime UAD plug-in (in addition to native plug-in formats (VST,AU, etc) made the decision quite easy for me.

Anyway the main reason for my post, as an early contributor to the success of the Sphere L22 Mic System, I was given early access and an exclusive preview of the Sphere plug-in along with source audio wave files that were recorded with the Sphere Mic to test out in our own DAW systems. The actual TL Microphones are due to be shipped out in December. I just wanted to point out that the VST plug-in is working great in SPlat! I had just installed the latest 2016.08 update and the two x64 plug-ins were quickly picked up, scanned and conveniently placed in the "Spatial" category thanks to the new plug-in browser features in this latest Splat update. There are two VST plug-ins for use with the mic modeling system. A TL Sphere (for mono) and a TL Sphere 180 (for stereo recording). I've attached a screen cap of the Sphere x64 VST plug-in being actively used in a SONAR project.
 
Cheers,
 
Billy Buck
 
 

A demo version of the Townsend plugin has been released, along with some audio files to run through it. I must say, it's very fun to play with. See the link posted above for the downloads.
 
Cheers,
Eddie
 

This Sphere Mic Modeling System is fun to play with and the amount of tonal options/variations pre/post mix is crazy good. Lets see, I think I'll track/monitor with a U47 with a cardiod pattern and I'll reduce the proximity effect cause that is how the vocalist likes it. Then during the mix, we find that the U47 just isn't cutting it, so we find changing to a C12 with a sub-cardiod pattern and slightly off-axis gives the track just what it needed. This is with never having to actually commit to anything during the whole process until the actual render. Imagine a mic closet of the most sought after and expensive microphones to pick and choose from compliments of a single affordable mic modeling system. Mind blowing I tell ya!
 
Cheers,
 
Billy Buck

Well the month long go fund me campaign was a smashing success. Townsend Labs had set a goal of $40,000 and ended up raising over $317,000! As a reward for those of us that got on board and supported that success, TL will be adding (2) additional mic models to the existing collection. The classic Telefunken 251 (classic 60's) and Sony C800G! Woohoo! 
 
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sphere-precision-microphone-modeling-system--2/x/14721300#/
 
http://townsendlabs.com/thank-people-got-us-300k/

Cheers,
 
Billy Buck

I don't think anyone should get confused thinking this is a stereo mic.  It is a dual diaphragm mono mic and requires two for stereo, though the plugin supports operation with two microphones.  There are many microphones similar to this system, such as the Sennheiser MKH800 TWIN,  Josephson 7 Series, including an actual stereo microphone, as does Gefell.   The concept is not new, just the addition of modeling software with the individual capsule output is.   
 
I usually don't like gimmicky products, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone who is intrigued by it.  I'm sure it yields usable results.  

rumleymusic
I usually don't like gimmicky products, but I wouldn't begrudge anyone who is intrigued by it.  I'm sure it yields usable results. 

Yup, that was my initial reaction as well. But I was curious enough to download their example files and plug-in, and I'm starting to appreciate that this is no gimmick.

First, the modeling is well done, the U-67 and U-87 models sound like my idea of an idealized version of them. The SM57 is a little but weak in the upper most octave, but maybe that's accurate, and my 57s are damaged?

Then there are all the post-processing tricks, and that's where the magic really starts. You can tune and tweak to your heart's content, and almost all the sounds are useful (almost, you can also get a really annoying, buzzy, tin-horn sound, which maybe could be useful, but not last night!)
 
But most important - based on their demo tracks - it's a really good sounding microphone.

I'll wait till they hit the streets, but I'm going to keep an eye on them.

Eddie TX
Townsend Sphere L22 Mic Modeling System
 
Before you scoff, the preliminary reviews have been promising, and the people behind this project are industry veterans such as the former CEO of Summit Audio and one of the guys who did Avid's Eleven rack.
 
Not only do they promise accurate emulations of classic mics, but also the ability to modify polar patterns and other positioning effects after tracking. Take that, Slate VMS!  :-)
 
Pricing has not yet been announced.

Cheers,
Eddie
 

After watching the video, if I was studio owner/operator for hire I'd certainly consider this to be a must have investment and the "stereo" ability certainly beats out Slate's offering even though it's ~$400 more.