Waves Abbey Road King’s Microphones

Waves Abbey Road King’s Microphones - Plugin | Recreating the Legendary Sound of Royalty and Cinema

Waves Abbey Road King’s Microphones is more than just an effects plugin; it's the rebirth of a long-lost piece of audio history. This plugin meticulously recreates the custom-made microphones specially built by EMI in the 1920s and 30s for the British Royal Family—King George V, King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth. These precious microphones lay dormant in the EMI archives for decades until they were brought back to light for the production of the Oscar-winning film *The King's Speech*, allowing their unique sound to be heard by the world once again.

After meticulous restoration by Abbey Road Studios engineers, these microphones were not only used to record the film's orchestral score but also, through the innovative "Re-amping" technique, infused the film's dialogue with unparalleled period authenticity. This plugin perfectly captures the essence of the original hardware, allowing you to effortlessly add a unique vintage texture to vocals and instruments. Whether you're pursuing historical authenticity or exploring unprecedented sonic textures, Abbey Road King’s Microphones is your indispensable secret weapon. It's not just a vintage microphone emulation plugin, but also a powerful creative sound design tool, especially when processing vocal effects and guitar tones, it can produce stunning filtered and gritty textures.

Core Advantages & Applications

Unparalleled Royal Pedigree
Experience the unique sound of microphones used by the British Royal Family. The plugin faithfully emulates three extremely rare carbon and moving-coil microphones, each with its own unique frequency response and saturation characteristics, adding a distinguished and inimitable sense of history to your tracks.

Cinema-Grade Audio Authenticity
The sonic core of this plugin originates from the Oscar-winning film *The King's Speech*. Whether adding a period feel to vocals or imparting a warm, filmic texture to strings and brass, King’s Microphones delivers cinematic-level sonic realism and emotional depth.

A Creative Tool that Breaks the Mold
Abbey Road engineers discovered that by "Re-amping" signals from guitars, synths, and even drums through these microphones, they could create highly characterful, filtered, and crunchy sounds. This plugin perfectly recreates this capability, allowing you to easily break the boundaries of sound design and create unique lo-fi textures and saturation effects.

Three Distinct Microphone Tones
The plugin includes three meticulously modeled microphones: The King's, The Queen's, and The Prince's. Each represents the sonic characteristics of a different era, from warm and thick to crisp and bright, providing a rich and diverse palette for your mix.

Intuitive Tone Shaping
In addition to microphone selection, the plugin offers a three-band EQ control (Treble, Bass, Presence) derived from the EMI RS106 filter and a unique "Movement" knob that simulates the frequency changes produced by the physical rotation of the microphone, allowing you to quickly and intuitively dial in your desired sonic character.

Tech Specs

• Sample Rate Support: 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz, 88.2 kHz, 96 kHz, 176.4 kHz, 192 kHz
• Channel Processing: Mono, Stereo
• Latency: 0 samples @ 96kHz
• Plugin Formats:
  • VST2
  • VST3
  • Audio Units (AU)
  • AAX Native
  • AudioSuite
• Mac System Requirements:
  • Operating System: macOS Catalina 10.15, Big Sur 11, Monterey 12, Ventura 13, Sonoma 14
  • Processor: Intel Core i7 / Apple M1, M2, M3
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM minimum (16 GB recommended)
  • Hard Drive Space: 16 GB free space
  • Screen Resolution: 1024x768 minimum (1280x1024 / 1600x1024 recommended)
• Windows System Requirements:
  • Operating System: Windows 10 64 bit (22H2), Windows 11 (22H2)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 / AMD Quad-Core
  • Memory: 8 GB RAM minimum (16 GB recommended)
  • Hard Drive Space: 16 GB free space
  • Screen Resolution: 1024x768 minimum (1280x1024 / 1600x1024 recommended)