The Noise Room caught up with MXL Microphones at the NAMM Show to look at their latest mics. At the booth, MXL showed off the CR89, a large-diaphragm condenser microphone wrapped in sharply contrasted black and chrome, the R144, a ribbon microphone with a Figure-8 polar pattern and 1.8-micron aluminum ribbon, and the CR20, which added a tube switch for shifting between solid state and tube-inspired tonality.
The CR89 is built for close-in work. Its low-noise circuitry and minimal proximity effect suit acoustic guitars, strings, pianos, and vocals without coloring the natural sound, and its body and grille design cut down on resonance and standing waves for a cleaner recording. It follows MXL’s habit of building mics for a specific job rather than one do-it-all design, an approach we also saw in their handheld MM-130, built specifically around stage and podium use rather than studio work.
The R144 takes the opposite approach, trading circuitry for the natural warmth of a 1.8-micron aluminum ribbon. Its Figure-8 pattern picks up front and back with equal sensitivity while rejecting sound from the sides, which suits it well to acoustic instruments, brass, and room ambience, and its high SPL handling lets it sit in front of louder sources like drums and horns without breaking up. The CR20 took a different approach again, its tube switch letting a single mic move between a crisp, detailed solid-state character and a warmer, rounder tone modeled on vintage tube designs, not unlike the flexibility MXL built into the CR30 a few years earlier.
Both the CR89 and R144 remain part of MXL’s current lineup. The CR20 has since been discontinued, though MXL continues to build tube-emulation options into other mics in its catalog. MXL, a division of Marshall Electronics, still designs and tests its microphones out of Torrance, California.
