The IRPA MD53 is a truly rare and incredible sounding dual-diaphragm multi-pattern moving coil dynamic microphone from the Soviet Union, produced in very small quantities in the late 60s and early 70s. We only discovered that this microphone even existed about five years ago by finding a photo of one while digging deep on a post from 2006 on an abandoned Ukranian music forum, and have been hoping to across one ever since. And then we came across two in the same month (and have yet to ever see another), and this is one of them.
You might say that it’s the Russian equivalent of an AKG D36, both in form (when it’s windscreen is on) and in function. The microphone originally connected a polar pattern switch box with a multipin cable, but this one didn't have the switch box so we wired two separate outputs for each capsule, which can be recorded separately and combined to make any polar pattern when mixing.
The MD53 is a fantastic sounding dynamic microphone and is currently our go-to microphone for bass amps with excellent low frequency response and a meaty midrange that sits perfectly in a mix. We are looking forward to trying it on our next vocal session, I presume it was designed for this task. You can see one of Soviet Russia’s most beloved vocalists, Edyta Pinkha, singing into an MD53 without the windscreen on in the last photo.
