Retro Thing

1960s Calrad DM-12 Microphone Got Back

In my line of work, I end up using a lot of microphones. Overwhelmingly these days, a mic is a fairly utilitarian cylinder (with occasional exceptions, of course). However when you cast an ear over microphones of the past, not only do you experience microphones with many different aural characteristics, you also get a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

We all recognize the Shure "Elvis" microphone, the classic RCA capsule shaped mic (and its innumerable knockoffs), and I still get email from people wanting to buy the "Bob Barker" microphone I wrote about years ago. I do remember seeing the curvy Calrad DM-12 around years ago, probably at the local Czech polka hall. The mic is unusually... um... sensual for a microphone. I imagine that the DM-12 was designed to be seen as well as heard - though I don't have the proper cord to tell you whether it sounds as good as it looks.

In poking around online, I couldn't find anyone speaking too much about the actual sound of the microphone, just its looks. Several studios I found will rent these mics to you to capture that "vintage sound", but it doesn't take long to figure out that just because a mic is old, that doesn't mean you're going to get any special results out of it. Several of the vintage mics I have around my office look awesome, but make it sound like I've been gargling chain-saws.

When I record a voice-over, I'm usually alone in a room recording into a stubby gun-metal condenser mic. It does a great job, but there's little pizazz. Maybe a swingin' design like the DM-12 is what I need to give those long recording session a little kick. or maybe I should remember that I just referred to a microphone as "sensual", and call it a day. 

Classic Buck Rogers Rocket Sculptures

In the early days of Retro Thing, we wrote about Cool Rockets, model maker Jeff Brewer's series of superlative rocket powered sculptures. Originally inspired by the 50s, Jeff has gone back further in the past to bring us farther into the future. His newest models are from the world of Buck Rogers, that wild 1920s comic strip that helped give birth to science fiction.

I got to see the Buck Rogers battle cruiser and the Asterite craft recently, and they continue the tradition of high quality coming from Brewer's spacedock. Hand-finished and poised for liftoff, each ship is fueled up and ready to go on those post-depression adventures of the funny pages. While his prior Cool Rockets were imbued with a spark of attitude (several of the designs looked ready to flex and spring into action), the Buck Rogers ships play it straight, serving as a tribute to those designs that launched so many imaginations so long ago.These Buck Rogers rocket sculptures are limited to a thousand pieces, so they won't be in our orbit for long. You can click below to find one on Amazon, and you'll be helping out Retro Thing along the way.

Add Buck Rogers' Battle Cruiser to your fleet

Rare Commodore 65 Hits eBay, Bidding Mayhem Ensues. Again.

Selling to a good (and wealthy) home: One fairly rare working prototype Commodore home computer.

It's not even fully functional because the company never finished the software, deeming the machine too expensive to sell well in the early 1990s. The price? Already an astounding € 5,686 with five days to go in the auction. This will be a fun one to watch.

Retro Thing's Bohus had a chance to play with a C-65 several years ago, here's what he had to say:

After the spectacular success of the Commodore 64, the company barely knew what to do with themselves. They created the Commodore 128 that combined C64 functionality with unique high powered modes of its own, but it didn't really work out. Of course there was the mighty series of Amiga computers from the mid 80's onwards, but Commodore was convinced they could still make good use of the popular C64 technology.

Enter the Commodore 65; in many ways like a C64 that went to "11". It featured a sleek new design, two SID audio chips, a built in 3.5" floppy drive, better graphics abilities, expansion to 8 megs of RAM, and a flat bit to rest your coffee on. Some working prototypes were made in 1990-91, and when Commodore was liquidated after their bankruptcy in '94, some of these machines got out. No one knows exactly how many are out there; estimates range from 50 to several hundred.

This particular unit is owned by Jason Compton, well known Amiga fan, editor of Amiga Report (a hyperlinked online magazine pre-HTML... wow!), and all around super talent. After speaking with Jason about the C65 it seems clear that while the machine had a lot of things going for it, it was simply too late to market. By 1991 Nintendo & the PC were leading gaming and computing away from the standards that the original C64 had set. 

With millions of Commodore 64's sold in the world, it seems like there could have been interest in an improved version like the 65. The C65 went unreleased not because ol' "chicken lips" (the unfortunate nickname for Commodore's logo) was too chicken to offer new products, but because the C65 simply would not have sold in the early 90's. Especially not at the $300-400 projected price. Sadly the evolutionary C65 will go down in computing history as another unfortunate casualty of Commodore's legendary lack of insight.

Want to find out how much it sells for? You can watch the auction here [eBay].

Roland SH-101: A Keytar Ready To Hit The Slopes

I got my first keytar a while back, and pretty much everyone thought (thinks) I was (am) the biggest dork. Even other keyboard guys. I'm not saying that I haven't earned that title many times over (this existence of Retro Thing is testimony of that!), but over a keytar? When I got mine, it was a decidedly out thing... and it didn't help my case any that the instrument was large (full size keys, go figure.), blazing white, and had "Casio" written on it in a huge font.

We seem to be in a place now where there are new models of keytar every week. So when I wanted to hot dog on some blazin' keyboard solos I was weird, but when some smug ironic hipster straps into a keytar he's "totally meta"? Sorry dude - you're just a dork with moustache wax.

Maybe it's the wanna-be guitar shape of most keytars that cemented their role in the annals of music history as a peculiarity. Except for showboating, there's little real need for a keytar. You can only play one handed with your left mitt just swinging around whatever passes for a guitar-style neck. I'll bet the synth history books would tell a different story if we were all rocking the Roland SH-101.

First of all, you're talking about an excellent analog synth. Monophonic, I grant you... but that's perfect for soloing. All the knobs and tweaks are right there. It's small and square, so no phallic posturing here. An SH-101 player is clearly comfortable with himself as a person. Available in cheerful read, blue and silver. You can even bolt on a tiny guitar-ish handle for pitch & mod wheels, or just to more fully bring the rock. And of course it's the 80s you can be dressed like you're ready to go skiing at pretty much any time.

The first time I saw one of these in action was on a TV interview with John Tesh. The internet was there and remembered to put a tape in the VCR.

Tesh was struggling to get out from under the stone of his mid-afternoon Hollywood gossip show to prove that he was a serious musician too. True, his albums were mostly of the New Age variety, but on an appearance with Dweezil & Ahmet Zappa he produced his SH-101 and wowed the crowd with Black Sabbath's rock classic "The Wizard" (the harmonica sure can get kinda dark). Ahmet did his incomprehensible dance, Tesh nearly lost his specs (right at 1:42), and I was out of my chair! I was dancing along with John Tesh! I was jammin' along with Ahmet Zappa! And the Roland SH-101!

Oh wait. I'm a dork again.