Those who have seen the film The King's Speech will recall the circular, very cool looking microphones used by the royal family for issuing important radio broadcasts, speeches, and so forth. Although those mics are still reserved only for royal speakers, Waves has made the virtual versions available to us commoners via the new effect plugin, The King's Microphones.

Now available, The King’s Microphones is a microphone simulation effect plugin (Mac / Win) featuring three specially made mic simulations based on the microphones actually used by King George V, King George VI, and Queen Elizabeth.

Each of these three priceless microphones dating back to the 1920s and 1930s was tailored and tuned especially for its specific user (King George V, King George VI -- Colin Firth to those familiar with the film --, and Queen Elizabeth). Decorated with gold, silver, and chrome adornments bearing the royal coats of arms, each microphone is truly one-of-a-kind with its own distinctive look and sound. The one shown below is the mic tuned for King George VI. The King’s Microphones plugin offers accurate recreations of the originals mics' unique frequency responses, with three proximity settings for each.

Discovered within the vaults of EMI outside London by Peter Cobbin, senior recording engineer at Abbey Road Studios, the original microphones were used to record music and dialogue for the film -- the first time they had been used by anyone outside the royal family.

Cobbin, who worked closely with Waves on the development of the plugin, said, "It was exciting to know we had the very microphone used by King George VI, the central character of this film, and I thought how appropriate and inspiring it would be to have the microphones present at our recording sessions. The royal microphones are works of highly-skilled craftsmanship."

The new Waves effect plugin, The King’s Microphones, is now available for Windows and Mac (Native formats) for $99. For more information, visit waves.com.