Martin Mitchell’s Music For 3 Saucepan Lids and Spatula ! Recorded by the Gaumont-Kalee Type 492. 😊

Inspired by washing up! I did this recording for a bit of amusement on a cold rainy Saturday morning (crazy sound engineer’s idea of having fun!) ……… but I really love the way this beautiful old ribbon mic reproduces the ring and detail of these sounds. I suspect that the 492 would also make a great drum overhead. Anyhow, enjoy!

Gaumont-Kalee Type 492 Ribbon Microphone (Circa 1950) A rare piece of British cinema history.

I bought this microphone out of curiosity! It caught my attention because I had never seen or heard of it before (shock, horror!).  It came in its original felt lined wooden box, of the kind normally reserved for valuable scientific instruments. The name Gaumont I recalled from the old UK cinema chain but beyond that I knew nothing.

Researching this microphone has proved to be a challenging task.

It would appear that the Gaumont-Kalee Type 492 was never on sale to the general public. It was marketed along with other Gaumont-Kalee equipment purely within the cinema industry. So far the only contemporary references I have found have been in trade journals such as British Kinematography and Cine Technician.

It was manufactured by British Acoustic Films Ltd (B.A.F.), which by 1947, along with Gaumont-Kalee, was one of the many companies which made up The Rank Organisation.

Specifically designed as a boom mounted microphone, the Gaumont-Kalee Type 492 was most likely used to record dialogue and music for the classic British movies made at The Rank Organisation’s studios in the 1950’s. By this time The Rank Organisation in Britain had become one of the biggest film companies in the world. They owned 5 major studios including Pinewood and Ealing and Denham. Rank also owned and controlled distribution for several hundred UK cinemas.

B.A.F., under the Gaumont-Kalee brand, produced a number of sound recorders for the cinema industry, both optical and magnetic. Below is an advert from Cine Technician March-April 1953. My assumption based on this is that the Type 492 ribbon mic (and the Type 493 condenser not covered here) were designed for use with these machines. A 1947 BBC technical report on The G-K Sound on Film Recorder also makes passing mention of 2 microphones being supplied with the machine.

The Gaumont-Kalee Portable Recording Equipment pictured here features 35mm or 17.5mm sprocketed magnetic film which could be run in sync with a professional movie camera. In post-production this enabled easy editing and transfer.

These days when we talk about portable sound recording equipment we are maybe thinking of something the size of a mobile phone. The ‘portable’ equipment described above would have filled the boot of a car and required fairly muscular crew to carry it! However, its mobility nevertheless extended the possibilities of location recording both for TV and film production. (Also worth mentioning that magnetic film made a considerable improvement to the available frequency response.)

From this advert it can be noted that other users included BBC Television, Universal, a number of Newsreel companies, San Angel Inn (Mexico) and Dear Film (Rome).

 

Technical Information on the Gaumont-Kalee Type 492

In the absence of any detailed manufacturer’s literature, below I have made some observations and speculation about the design of this mic.

Noise has always been the enemy of the motion picture sound recordist, whether it be camera and equipment noise, on-set noise, tape hiss, or electrical interference generated by lighting. Trying to obtain clarity, especially in dialogue, has always been something of a challenge. This was particularly true in the age before shotgun mics.

• In common with all figure of eight microphones the dead zones at the sides of the Type 492 could be directed to minimise unwanted mechanical noise from cameras and other equipment.
• The yellow wiring around the ribbon is cunningly arranged to form a humbucking loop, helping to reject electromagnetically induced–noise. This is very useful when operating in the vicinity of lighting equipment and large mains transformers radiating strong magnetic fields.
• In addition, the interior of the grill is lined with ultra-fine wire mesh which not only provides a certain amount of blast protection and back pressure for the ribbon but also creates an effective Faraday Cage.
• The interesting-looking baffle arrangement on either side of the ribbon has the effect of producing a boost to the high end frequency response. This may provide greater clarity to dialogue, especially when recording at a distance (in order to keep the boom mounted 492 out of the camera shot). It was also common practice at this time to boost signals going to magnetic tape at around 4kHz on the way in and cut by the same amount on playback. This returned the desired signal to flat and reduced unwanted tape hiss by several db.

• The connector pictured above is a Reslo. This mic came with a 3 pin Amphenol. When I took the mic apart it became clear that this was a modification as it was chipped and had been filed to fit! Stewart Tavener at Xaudia informed me that the two 492s he had previously repaired had Reslo connectors. The Reslo fitted perfectly. Thanks Stewart!
• Unlike many of the ribbon microphones of the period which have impedances of 50 ohms or less, this Gaumont-Kalee Type 492 has an impedance of 300 ohms with a strong output signal which requires considerably less amplification than many of its contemporaries.

So what does the Gaumont-Kalee Type 492 sound like? CLICK HERE.

 In Conclusion.

Having emailed academic institutions, museums, collectors and fellow sound engineers all over the world, so far I have only tracked down a handful people who have come across the Type 492. The serial number on mine is 132 and I assume from the complete dearth of information that only a limited number were made. Sadly, much of the recording equipment from that period has long since gone in the bin along with company records, technical literature and drawings. Trying to unearth information about the Gaumont-Kalee Type 492 has highlighted to me the growing problem of vanishing history in the field of audio technology. Living links to the past are dying out and records are being lost. It is therefore important to preserve what we can before it is too late!

NEWS FLASH UPDATE  12 Nov.2019  

   have kindly unearthed this single page ad for the Gaumont- Kalee Type 492 and Type 493  in a May 1951 GB-Kalee product catalogue ‘Everything for the Cinema and Theatre’.  GB Kalee Type 492 Advert 1951

UPDATE 28th Nov.

Stroke of luck! Have just purchased this GB-Kalee Catalogue for 1950 on ebay and here on page 4 are the frequency response graphs for the Type 492 and 493!

Gaumont British-Kalee proudly projects it’s brand across the world! The British Empire is marked in pink. Within a couple of decades the Empire was gone along with GB-Kalee and most of British industry!  (N.B. Even by 1950 the map above was out of date. India got rid of us in 1947 !)

 

Useful Links.

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/an-engineer-works-on-a-laboratory-set-up-to-develop-news-photo/90777079?adppopup=true   Taken at B.A.F. factory at Mitcheldean in Gloucestershire in 1953, on the workbench is a Gaumont-Kalee Type 492. The zeppelin shaped mic up in the air is the Type 493 condenser.

http://xaudiaelektrik.blogspot.com/2014/02/motm-gaumont-kalee-type-1492-ribbon-mic.html  It is interesting to note that the microphone featured here has a 1 inserted in front of the 492. Apart from having an impedance of 50 ohms, what the difference was I have no idea.