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24 l November 2012


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studionews AUSTRIA Look out for Lewitt


In just two short years, microphone manufacturer Lewitt Audio has amassed an impressive line-up of official endorsees. Erica Basnicki has an ear to the ground to find out why…


THE CHALLENGE facing a new microphone manufacturer to not only break into the market, but also into that favoured position within an engineer or artists’ mic locker, is a daunting one. A quick Google search for microphone manufacturers returns a number somewhere between 40 to more than 100 companies, each with at least half a dozen mics on offer. Yet somehow Lewitt Audio has defied the odds, earning itself an impressive line-up of professional endorsees – including David Crosby, drummer Derrick Wright


Is the company charmed? Was


Derrick Wright is just one high-profile endorsee of Lewitt products


(Adele) and producers Stereotypes (Far East Movement, Justin Bieber) – in just under two years


it voodoo? No, says Steffen Grachegg, Lewitt Audio’s head of marketing: “We met the right guys, and we have the right products. It really is that simple.” It sounds too easy, and yet making things easy was the concept that spawned Lewitt Audio back in 2008, two years before it officially launched its first microphones at Winter NAMM 2010. CEO Roman Perschon


previously worked as project manager at ‘another very famous Austrian microphone company’ where, according to the official Lewitt Audio history, “he knew it


Lewitt’s LCT 840 tube mic


was good to inspire and organise people and bring a network to life that ensures smooth processing of ideas from the manufacturing stage to the user. And he knew that the anonymity and bureaucracy of corporations that often swallow up the best ideas wasn’t good.” So Perschon left, did some


travelling, and ended up meeting with Ken Yang, owner of one of the largest microphone manufacturing bases in Asia, and now Lewitt Audio’s president. Within a few days, the two had outlined what would become Lewitt Audio, and went for it. Together with Grachegg, who has been in touch with Perschon from the beginning, the company set about producing prototypes of their microphones. “When we first went to


NAMM in 2010, we met Edwin Oliver III, who is our vice president of artist relations. He was formerly a talent scout with his own record company – very deep in the music business – and he was impressed with our microphones. He showed them to


his artists and friends, and then it was the classic snowball effect; people talk,” said Grachegg. Lewitt launched its entire


product line-up of LCT (minus the recently-introduced LCT 840 tube mic and LCT 940 tube/FET mic), MTP, DTP, and LTS mics. They include technical features such as illuminated LED displays, automatic attenuation with clip detection and history, and a plethora of adjustable settings, with an active R&D centre in Austria aiming to churn out even more. “One of our goals is to create one innovative product with one never-before-seen feature a year,” says Grachegg. More important than LEDs


and switches is that, if Lewitt’s endorsees are to be believed, the microphones sound good. “We are not dreamers,” says


Grachegg. “We know no one is waiting for another microphone company. Of course, we think we have our place in the market, and we are definitely ready to defend our position.”n www.lewitt-audio.com


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