Welcome to the next step in the “Mercenary Edition” progression. For years the engineers and musicians who work at Mercenary Audio have been working closely with boutique manufacturers to help them produce products that have been of great benefit to the recording community.
One of the first notable products we helped on was the Empirical Labs “distressor” [which we named the “EL-8” because after a couple of years of passing it back and forth between Empirical Labs and Mercenary… we were finally totally and completely “elated” with the product!!!].
After that a friend suggested that we start taking some credit for our contributions… which is exactly what we did when Drawmer Electronics approached us to help them with a new compressor / mic-pre to supplement their “1960” [which frankly… just doesn’t sound very good].
This new product was called the “1969” [either because that was the first year a man walked on the moon… or because that was the year the Mets won the World Series… or maybe it was a celebration of both Woodstock and Altamont… only we know for sure!!].
The 1969 featured a beautiful sounding compressor with a FET gain reduction cell and a tube based output section… and a couple of mic pre’s that are pretty clear sounding and not too boring for something that’s IC based. The most important feature was the “BIG” switch which added a 125Hz filter to the compressor’s detector signal path… meaning that when used over a stereo mix the vocals would modulate the compression… not the kik and bass!!
This led to the compressor only version called the 1968 which featured some other upgrades like the meter color changing when the output level crosses 0dbv and having the “BIG” switch available on each channel when the unit was being used in “dual mono” mode.
Great River Electronics came next with an idea for a mic pre, called the MP-2NV [short for “Mic Pre 2 eNVy”]. At Mercenary we had been in the “vintage” [also spelled “o-l-d”] gear business since 1989 so we had a lot of experience with things like Neve® mic pre’s. This experience found us wishing we had a pre-amp with Neve® character but something that was quieter, and could stack better in heavy multi-track situations [the old stuff was fine for doing 8 or 16 track work… but in today’s 75+ track DAW environment the old stuff built up this haze to the audio we found unacceptable].
This pre was followed by a companion equalizer, the EQ-2NV [same abbreviation]... which borrowed from the filter designs found in old “N-word” modules but added a plethora of modern function from being able to drop in on the insert point in the mic-pre to having half a dozen level variations on the input and a very high headroom [+32dbu] transformerless output section.
From there we started chatting with Greg down at Pendulum Audio. Pendulum had released their rather unique channel strip called the “Quartet” the year before. We asked if it could be built using a more extensive passive filter network for the EQ [which was based on the Western Electric drawings that made vintage Pultec EQ’s famous] with a twist. The twist was that you could jam the level into the filter network to create a bit of distortion and “mojo”… and thus the “Passive/Aggressive” equalizer was born. That was coupled with a mic pre that featured two distinctly different sounding input transformers, a “Delta-mu” compressor and a Peak Limiter whose element is switchable between a J-FET and a MOS-FET gain reduction cell and each section can be used individually.
The next year we contacted Jonathan Little at Littlelabs to see if he would build us a device where you could play an instrument [guitar, bass, whatever ya got] in the control and shoot the signal with no loss out into our recording space [at Mercenary, “amp world” is about 50-60 feet from the control room]. He said “no problem” and came back with the STD [Signal Transmission Device… get you mind out of the gutter… will ya!!].
Then came the last of the Mercenary Editions [to this point]; Crowley and Tripp’s “el diablo” microphone. This mic is the first ribbon mic on the planet to feel comfortable at very high decibel levels [so far it’s only been tested up to 146db SPL… but it still had room to move!!]. This ribbon mic features the new space age nano-fiber called “Roswellite™” which allows the ribbon element to take ridiculous amounts of level [like say from a kik drum… or a Howitzer] and not only not break, but return to it’s original shape and form for consistent performance no matter how hard you hit it!!
This brought us to the introduction of Mercenary Audio’s first product… the “KM-69”. For years we had all been jonesing for something that could handle acoustic instruments from Hi/Hat’s to piano with the style and grace of a Neumann® KM-84. There were mics that came close, but none really hit the nail on the head… so once again we called one of our friends who is a brilliant designer. What came out of that phone call is a microphone that is quieter than a KM-84, has a more open top end than a KM-84, a bit greater depth than a KM-84… but has the overall “silk” and “grace” of a KM-84.
The only miscalculation we made with the KM-69 was that we didn’t have a “partner manufacturer when we started the process. We “self funded” the research and development… put the proto-types through the same rigorous testing and development procedures as any other Mercenary Edition product… but forgot about the manufacturing and distribution element of the equation.
Ooops.
So… here we are… a small boutique audio dealer with it’s own accidental, yet exceptionally exciting product. This process has truly been over a decade in the making, and we’re all incredibly happy the day has arrived when our ideas have turned into our own brand of superior equipment… not to mention the fact that we will actually earn a couple of dollars from the experience [Mercenary takes no royalties for our input into Mercenary Edition equipment… hell, we didn’t even take a free unit!! … we paid for them like everyone else!!!]. Now all we have to do is recoup a few tens of thousands of dollars that went into “research & development”
We certainly won’t stop our passion for innovation at this mic… so be on the lookout for not only more “Mercenary Edition” products… but more products directly from the twisted minds of the crew at Mercenary Audio!!
