Neumann mic brings out warmth in Meghan Markle’s voice

A microphone enthusiast has put in the hard yards to identify the device used by Meghan Markle for her Archetypes podcast for Spotify.

In a story for Forbes, Mark Sparrow explained that as soon as he heard the warmth and nuance in the Duchess of Sussex’s voice, he had to find out which microphone had been used.

Sparrow looked at some promotional photos of the podcast recording sessions and emailed Spotify – but to no avail. After an exhaustive trawl through Google, looking at images of every podcasting microphone he could find online, Sparrow finally identified the model as the dynamic Neumann BCM 705.

After investing almost $20m in the series of podcasts, the streaming giant was duty-bound to ensure Markle sounded great – and the BCM 705 excels at conveying emotion and extracting the warmth from a speaker’s voice, according to Sparrow.

Dynamic microphones are far better at rejecting room noise, which is essential for recording on location rather than in a sound-proofed recording studio. The BCM 705 is described as an ideal microphone for local radio stations, smaller studios and high-end streaming and podcasting.