Why the World’s Top Music Professionals are Turning to Spirits
Following the resounding success of the Aston Origin when it was released in 2016, Aston Microphones followed up with the Spirit. Similar in construction – shared features include a wave-form spring head, built-in pop filter, direct to stand mounting and hard-wearing individually tumbled chassis – the Spirit added more sonic options and its own unique sound characteristics; detailed, transparent and harmonically rich.
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The Spirit is designed to deliver a beautifully open sound with sparkling harmonics. This highly accurate microphone gives a stunningly natural and transparent recording, capturing all the detail in the high range but without adding the harshness that some condenser microphones seem to.
“I ******* love these mics.” - Noel Gallagher
More and more professional engineers. producers and artists worldwide are counting the Aston Spirit as an essential part of their microphone collections, and yet this is not a microphone with the hefty price tag of the majority of pro go-to mics.
Out with the old…
Nominated for the prestigious NAMM TEC Award in 2017, the Aston Spirit was developed in conjunction with the Aston 33, a panel of top industry engineers and producers who help voice Aston microphones by means of blind listening tests. While this process has, to date, ensured all Aston products have excelled amongst similarly priced products, the Spirit has proved even more of a revelation, with more and more professionals starting to choose the Aston over far more expensive, ‘classic’ and vintage, mics.
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Renowned producer John Cornfield, who has worked with Robert Plant, Oasis and Muse relates the story of a side-by-side test during a recent session:
“We had a vintage AKG C12, a vintage valve Neumann 47 and 87 and the Spirit. We recorded takes of all of them and everyone unanimously decided on the Aston. Job done.”
Dave Pemberton, who has a similarly impressive client list including Kasabian, The Prodigy, Orbital and Groove Armada, turned to the Spirit mid-project:
“The vintage U47 started to pop and fizzle so I switched to a Spirit. The clients seemed unaware of the change... the Spirit had more presence than the U47 and it certainly kept the warmth.”
“I use my Spirits happily alongside classic microphones such as the Neumann 49b, U87 or AKG C414s and often choose the Astons.” Added another production legend, Chris Porter (David Bowie, Wham!, Thin Lizzy).
From Motown to Oasis
Some pretty heavyweight artists are in agreement; Soul legend and Jackson 5 member Tito Jackson recently chose the Spirit for tracking vocals on a recent solo projeet:
“I’ve got a lot of mics to choose from... tube, ribbon, condensers you name it, but I agreed to try something new. I have to say I was surprised and very impressed. I’m happy we tracked with the Spirit.”
Stevie Wonder simply said: “I LOVE these mics!” while Noel Gallagher went one step further: “I ******* love these mics.”
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And Jakko Jakszyk , lead singer and front man with prog-rock giants King Crimson, has now adopted the Aston Spirit over his previous go-to main vocal mic:
“When my favourite vintage vocal microphone broke, someone suggestion the Aston Spirit as a temporary replacement... I never got my vintage mic repaired.”
Both the Origin and the Spirit are being used in a range of applications, across all musical and spoken word applications, and many engineers will have both at their disposal; the simple, pure and smooth Origin, and the natural, harmonically rich and detailed Spirit, to cover pretty much any recording task. Preferences are, of course, subjective but there is no question that both mics are building their own fan bases among engineers, producer and performers.