I have been working as a sound engineer for over forty years, primarily for live music. Over all those years, I have dealt with all kinds of musical styles, such as rock, reggae, world music, jazz, classical music, and musicals. I have been fortunate enough to work with many good and well-known domestic and international artists. Sometimes sound engineers accompanied the artists, other times they didn’t, but I have always learned a great deal from it.

Some thirty-five years ago, I started collecting microphones: I had become interested in them through my work. As a design enthusiast, I am concerned with their appearance; as a technician, I am concerned with their performance and sound.

I am amazed that many old microphones still work and are still used daily by professionals, in a time when many developments are moving fast and today’s technology is often obsolete tomorrow.

The development and history of the microphone are very poorly documented and difficult to trace, I did a lot of research and uncovered a great deal, including information about their usability for contemporary purposes, such as for recordings with a vintage character.

At Vintage Microphone World, information on almost everything related to vintage microphones has been available since 2013. The site will continue to grow.

The site is intended for people interested in the history and development of microphones, and for musicians who want to record with old microphones themselves.

Here you can read about which types and kinds were used for recordings in the past, as well as information on buying or selling.

For those who want to know even more about microphones, there is my book Witnesses of Words, the only book on vintage microphones worldwide. A second microphone book is in preparation, which I hope to publish in the summer of 2026.

I also do lectures about vintage microphones and make historical recordings, a.o. on location.

Marco C. van der Hoeven

Links to interesting microphone sites: