Townsend Sphere - One Mic to Rule Them All?

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 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
 
 

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

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.  

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.