Aiming for the stars - the Aston Starlight
Aston’s first two mics, the large diaphragm Origin and Spirit condensers, set precedents for innovative, ground-up design and for outperforming far more costly microphones. Hard acts to follow, for sure, but when our design team started contemplating the third part of the Aston story, the Starlight, they did their usual thing; they re-examined every element of traditional microphone design - and discarded most of it.
The result is a microphone which, despite its modest price tag, has already established itself as indispensable to many of the world’s leading sound engineers and producers.
Romesh Dodangoda, who has produced Motorhead, Bring Me The Horizon, Funeral For A Friend, Lower Than Atlantis, Twin Atlantic and many more, told us:
“I use the Starlights in almost every session I do now, they are that good!”
Click here to read all Starlight reviews
The world’s audio trade and media have also lavished praise, and awards, on the Starlight, including ‘Gear of the Year’ (Music Tech), 5 Stars (Gearslutz), ‘Best in Show’ (NAMM – companies to watch) and a nomination in the prestigious 33rd NAMM Tech awards.
Until the Starlight, small diaphragm condenser ‘pencil’ mics were generally considered functional tools for a job; all rather similar in terms of looks and performance, and altogether a bit dull. Like the Origin and Spirit before it, the Starlight has stirred things up considerably, setting new industry benchmarks for features, versatility and, most importantly, sonic performance.
Most noticeably, Starlight is the world’s first microphone with a built-in switchable Class 2 laser. This allows precise targeting (especially useful for overhead applications where sightlines are guesswork) and quick recall of mic positioning, a feature which is already leaving touring sound engineers wondering how they managed before. There is, of course, the additional benefit of being able to indulge in Star Wars horseplay during soundcheck breaks…
Lasers alone would not have got the mic onto the equipment lists of so many professionals; Starlight had to sound exceptional and offer unprecedented versatility. The first part was achieved with the help of rigorous testing by the Aston 33 panel of top audio professionals (see separate article here), the second by ripping up the rule book and creating not one, but three outstanding sounds.
Read more about the Aston Sound
The Starlight offers three modes of operation, Vintage, Modern and Hybrid to quickly find the optimal tonal response whatever the instrument or sound source. Critically these distinct voicings are achieved with proprietary front-end filtering between the capsule and PCB, NOT by using preset EQ (a trick found on some mics for instant flattery but actually a destructive process which makes professional post EQ practically impossible). The three voicings are in fact entirely separate signal paths, each carefully voiced to offer superlative yet distinct character. Truly three mics for the price of one!
Producers and engineers like Adrian Hall (Depeche Mode, Goldfrapp, Anna Calvi, All Saints, Simply Red) have found themselves zoning in on their favourite settings for given applications:
"I'm loving the "vintage" mode on the Starlights. All of the detail with no added "fizz". Sounds absolutely amazing!" Adrian explained.
The Starlight control panel also includes a three-way pad switch and a choice of 80Hz and 140Hz low-cut filters which, combined with the three voicings makes this by far the most versatile – and best sounding - mic in its class.
Win a stereo pair of Aston Starlights here
Visit the Aston Starlight product page here:
https://www.astonmics.com/EN/product/Mics/Starlight
Find your nearest Aston Microphones dealer here:
https://www.astonmics.com/EN/dealers