The Vintage 11 is a large diaphragm FET condenser microphone and is part of JZ Microphone’s “Vintage” series that includes the Vintage 67 [Tape Op #133] and Vintage 12 [#147]. The Vintage 11 has discrete Class-A electronics, JZ’s Gold Drop™ capsule technology, and is hand-built in Latvia. Its flat, rounded body is similar to its cousin, the JZ Vintage 67, but sports an all-black body and grill, with an included heavy-duty shock mount attachment. The mic has a fixed cardioid pattern, with a claimed frequency response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz and a max SPL rating of 134 dB. Unlike the Vintage 67 and 12 models, the Vintage 11 is not meant to specifically recreate the sound or vibe of a classic microphone but was designed to have some desired tonal characteristics of a multitude of classics. It’s an excellent-sounding mic and useful in a variety of recording scenarios.
I first used the Vintage 11 on some acoustic guitar tracking. It sounded very smooth and natural, with a polished tone. With proper placement, users may not need much EQ if an acoustic guitar were the only featured instrument; however, I put it in a denser mix, so I compressed and EQ’d it slightly to make it fit in the track. The Vintage 11 takes EQ well and shines through without sounding hyped, sizzly, or processed. I also thought the mic performed well for both lead and layered background vocal duties, and again, took EQ adjustments quite well when needed. For drums, I first used a spaced stereo pair of the Vintage 11s as overheads in a Glyn Johns [Tape Op #109] type setup, then tried one as a mono overhead, with a second over the drummer’s left shoulder (along with kick and snare mics from the Earthworks DK6 [#165] package). In all instances, I thought the Vintage 11 pair performed well, capturing a lifelike representation of the kit, and I liked the sound of the smooth top end on the cymbals.