Perfect Christmas gifts for the musician in your life

Here are some ideas for safe-bet Christmas presents that will bring a grin to anyone who has the recording bug.

At just £219/€249/$299 the Aston Halo reflection filter is a must-have for anyone who records outside of all but the top studios. While the top professional facilities have purpose-built, acoustically treated vocal booths, the rest of us are usually faced with less-than-ideal acoustic spaces in which to create our music or audio. Most rooms are full of parallel ceilings, floor and facing walls which generate ‘standing waves’ (over-emphasised frequencies) which cause recordings to sound boxy and unnatural.

Halo’s unique combination of reflection and absorption provides a smooth, natural vocal sound even in the most unforgiving rooms. And its 360° coverage tames the floor and ceiling reflections missed by the many horizontal-only filters on the market. Halo is incredibly lightweight, easy to set-up and eco-friendly, manufactured from a patented 70% recycled PET felt.

Available in Aston Purple (Halo) or blend-in black (Halo Shadow) this is an invaluable addition to pretty much any recording set up. It looks fabulous too! Here’s what the press say:

“The best reflection filter in its class on the market right now.” Studio Magazine.

“Sets a new bar for personal vocal booths.” Paul White, Sound On Sound Magazine.

“The best sounding microphone reflection filter I’ve ever used.” Ask Audio.

Another problem when recording vocals is controlling ‘plosives’, the unpleasant noises created by unwanted, fast moving air hitting the microphone capsule, mostly from hard consonant syllables like ‘P’ and ‘K’. Even the best vocalists and speakers can have a great take ruined by these audio-gremlins. This is where Aston’s Swiftshield and Shield GN come to the rescue!

Shield GN is a premium quality goose-neck pop filter which gives you a perfect fit on any mic stand in seconds. The Shield features a unique wrap-round design which gives the vocalist greater freedom of movement than other pop filters.

Swiftshield combines the same shield design with Aston’s Swift, an ingenious quick-release shock mount which fits a host of popular mics from 40mm – 60mm in diameter.

If you REALLY want to impress, then remember, a singer, musician, podcaster or streamer who makes recordings can NEVER have too many mics! Aston microphones are used by the great and good of the music and audio industries but start at only £249/€285/$299, with the versatile Aston Origin condenser mic. Or buy the ultimate in microphone tech, Aston’s ground-breaking, 4 voice, active/passive Stealth (£299/€339/$379), the mic which prompted Taoe Op magazine’s reviewer to say: “If I was stuck on a desert island with one microphone, this might be it.”

Check out the whole Aston mics range here.

Find your nearest Aston retailer here.

Happy Christmas from everyone at Aston mics!