Blog
True love for great sound unites us.
![LEWITT MTP 740 CM at Walrus Audio "Songs at the Shop" with Walk the Moon [Photo © Amy Nickerson]](https://d2pucgucjvdva3.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/styles/max_1300x1300/public/news/2018-11/lewitt_mtp940cm_walkthemoon_bywalrusaudio_songsattheshop_2560x1024_v02.jpg)
Philip Hunsicker has a college degree in Mass Communication and a Minor in Music and Interpersonal Communication. He studied at the Academy of contemporary music for a year doing production, and he was in a touring band for 5 years – called the Harp and Lyre – where he played Keyboard.
Currently, Philip is the Artist Relations Director at Oklahoma based boutique pedal manufacturer Walrus Audio.
[LEWITT] Please tell us a bit about what you do as Artist Relations Director at Walrus Audio?
[Philip Hunsicker] What I do here in artist relations is making connections with a bunch of different artists that are currently using our pedals, that we might not already have a relationship with, and I’m also bringing on bigger artists that are influencers in the pedal and the guitar world. I have a number of ways finding artists and reaching out and building a relationship. That’s the main reason why I’m here. I also oversee the sales and everything here at Walrus Audio, so that takes a lot of time as well. I don’t get to spend as much time as I would like to do artist relations, but I found that every job nowadays can take on multiple tasks.
[LEWITT] How do microphones come into the game with what you do?
[Philip Hunsicker] Three years ago, we started up a series called “Songs at the Shop” and we bring in some of the artists that we work with. Whenever they tour through Oklahoma City, we would just have them perform a song or two. Having the people hear our pedals, and to hear a band using those, that’s a great way to market them. At the end of the day, it’s about the music. It’s not about the pedals. And you know, we started around three years ago, and we just focused on how we could get a better sound through this process. If you go from the first “Songs at the Shop” we did - it sounds great, but it’s not nearly as good as what we have today. We researched different mics, different guitars, different amps, and we’ve found out about LEWITT microphones when we talked with their content manager Valerie at Musikmesse in 2017. I mean, I have never heard about LEWITT at that time, but we talked a bit, and around four months later my friend Nathan Holliday was using some LEWITT mics and brought them to a session, and we were all blown away by their clarity and by having this studio sound in a live setting, which is what we were going for with “Songs at the Shop”. We all were like: “Oh my goodness, we have to get more of these!”
Songs At The Shop with Walk The Moon
[LEWITT] Which microphones are you using, and for what application?
[Philip Hunsicker] We’re using the DTP BEAT KIT PRO 7 on drums, and my favourite microphone out of all these mics is the MTP 740 CM. That mic just kind of blew my mind for the clarity you can get on vocals, in a live situation. I also play at church, and I steal the mic from Walrus Audio pretty much every week and take it out there (laughs). It’s just crazy how clear it is and how well it works on male and female vocals. A lot of times you find a microphone that sounds good on one voice, and then you give it to somebody else and say: “Check out this microphone, it sounds incredible!” And then you end up saying: “Well it doesn’t sound incredible on your voice, but believe me, it sounds incredible on mine”. With the MTP 740, I really haven’t found anybody, that it has not sounded great on - it’s a pretty versatile and pretty amazing mic. So, the MTP 740 CM is my favourite mic, and after that one I would say the DTP 340 TT. I think it’s intended for toms, but the folks from LEWITT told me to use it on guitar and we tried out miking up the cab with it and we will never mic up the cab with something else. It’s punchy, it’s clear, it’s just everything you want in a mic for a cab. So those two are my favourite mics by far, and then probably right after that would be the DTP 640 REX, which is the kick mic, but a lot of the time we use it on bass as well. The ability to blend the dynamic and the condenser capsule in that mic makes it really versatile, and it sounds incredible. Whenever I’m engineering or mixing, for me it’s one of the hardest things to get a good initial sound from the kick drum. But every time when we use the DTP 640 REX, the capability of having the condenser and the dynamic capsule in it and being able to blend those two without any phasing issues, it’s just that I get that clear, punchy, ‘in-your-face' kick sound that I’m always looking for in a kick. And on the snare, we’re using the MTP 440 DM. It sounds beautiful!
Songs at the Shop with Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes
[LEWITT] Have you got comments on the mics so far?
[Philip Hunsicker] Yes. A lot of time the people are asking about the vocal mic because it is so clear, and you have this whole band playing behind it in this small room. You can check the YouTube comments on “Songs at the Shop”. And everybody is loving the sound of the guitar because the people are obviously coming to watch a guitar video. And most of the time when our artists come to perform and sing into it, they’re asking: “What in the world is this?”
Songs At The Shop with The New Respects
[LEWITT] Are there any final comments?
[Philip Hunsicker] I think I did not talk about the LCT 340 – the pencil condenser. Those have been incredible on overheads. It’s so warm, yet still in-your-face, not too bright and not too brittle. We were miking up an upright piano, and WOW!!! I just keep trying to find a band that I can bring here for “Songs at the Shop”, that could use an upright piano, so we could mic it up and get some amazing sounds from it. I mean, as a piano player that’s always something you’re trying to find. I got a piano in my house, and I can never capture the sound of it that way, since I use ribbon mics, typically. It’s the best I can get, it sounds great, but the LCT 340 sounds just magical on piano!
- Related stories
- Nathan Holliday interview
![]()
