Exploring Life & Business with Andrew Monheim of Monheim Microphones

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Monheim.

Hi Andrew, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I began cutting my audio teeth in a homemade studio in my friend’s basement in Philly. That evolved into sound design and production/live mixing for Off-Broadway and live performances on the East coast. Feeling a glass ceiling approaching, I went back to school for audio engineering. I left the East Coast, Philly, for CRAS (Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences) to hone my skills. After the Conservatory, I took on a number of live sound/mixing roles for some well-known tours, including Beyonce, Keith Urban, The Police, etc.

After an extended live stint, I left Arizona for LA and headed back into the recording studio before transitioning to work at BLUE Microphones where I quickly climbed the ladder to running International service/support and production. I moved on after Blue Microphones to start my own private recording studio and began working for another company called Manley Labs. My private studio, AndromiDen Recordings, continued to grow while running the entire production and factory for Manley. After improving a number of their products and their production quality, I left and began designing my own products. The goal in starting Monheim Microphones was to improve on problems I’d seen over the years with other companies while keeping things affordable for the user,

Eventually, AndromiDen Recordings and Monheim Microphones began to grow and eventually everything transitioned into the studio/showroom in Hollywood at Sunset and Highland. The studio/showroom now serves as the testbed for all of the Monheim microphone designs and products, as well as servicing local and international artists and Producing exciting new projects.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It was the first production run of the first Monheim product I designed, the Omni. There were a hundred of these carefully machined bodies out at our powder coater, where they were going to finish the bodies. One of their employees ended up dropping a giant 2 ton pallet of heavy machinery on top of this tiny box of microphone bodies, utterly destroying every body. It was the worst way to start a company, but I never let it shake me. The company paid for all the damages and we made a new run of parts and went somewhere else for the powder coating 😉

There have been tons of obstacles along the way, but the mindset has always been to stay close to the vision and goal of the company and not lose sight of the big picture.

The main challenges now are to develop new ideas and bring them to life quickly while keeping up with demand on the existing microphones and preamps.

I also challenge myself to constantly stay in touch with artists and producer’s suggestions for new designs and ideas so nothing gets too comfortable or stagnant. Every day we should be getting better at what we do.

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Monheim Microphones?
Monheim Microphones is based in Hollywood, CA, where we design and manufacture some of the most impressive studio microphones and audio gear in the world.

“High-end audio tools made by hand without compromise for the best price possible.” Consistently, our hand-built products outperform other brands 2-4 times their price.

Unlike many companies, our users can request product demos with our sales engineers who will walk them through techniques that they can use in their own work. We’ll explain how and why the product was designed and then let them try it in their workflow.

Technology and recording is always evolving, so we stay very close with all of our clients as they give us valuable feedback for improvements and future designs to improve their everyday studio workflow.

As a recording engineer and music producer myself, I have a unique and close relationship to what the customer needs and what makes sense for their space and budget.

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I was actually born deaf and fully recovered my hearing later as a kid. It shaped and informed the way I hear the world and I never take things for granted.

A lot of our customers never know that the engineer designing and tuning their audio tools began life without hearing anything at all.

Pricing:

• $1500 Crème Tube Condenser Microphone
• $799 FET Condenser Microphone
• $999 Thump Condenser Microphone
• $750 Omni SPL Microphones – Matched Pair
• $2500 The Channel Strip – All tube microphone preamp and EQ

Contact Info:

• Email: monheimmics@gmail.com
• Website: https://www.monheimmicrophones.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/monheimmics/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/monheimmics/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/monheimmics
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOfw0b3Sv90nb8Cs2DIDbSQ