Introducing Aston Element – the world’s first ‘People’s Microphone’
Who decides which microphone sounds the best? YOU!
We are excited to introduce a world first! Aston Element will be the first ever microphone to have a sound crafted by you, the musicians, engineers and producers who will be using the final version to make your musical magic.
All our mics so far have been developed with the Aston 33, our team (now of more than 600) top audio and music professionals who took part in blind listening tests of each new mic’s prototypes alongside a selection of competitors’ products. The concept has ensured each mic we’ve released stands up to or outperforms those costing far, far more.
Now it’s your turn! Here’s your chance to become an Aston Family Developer team member and have your say in how the Aston Element will sound when released later this year.
Read more on Project Element
Sign up to vote now
How the voting system works
Quoted in MusicTech Magazine, Aston CEO James Young explained the process: “It’s a very simple voting system – there will always be five microphones, but the listener won’t know exactly what they’re listening to, sometimes there’ll be competitor mics in there and sometimes there’ll be five versions of the new microphone with tweaks to the electronics to make it sound different”.
“The first thing people need to do is to go and register to vote and input a bit of info about their current music-making setup (ie, what they’re going be listening to the tests through) so we can iron out any potential biasing. Once the participants have registered, they’ll be able to download the first session WAV files which include five different takes of acoustic guitar, five takes of male vocals and five takes of female vocals, labelled simply. They’re uncompressed and able to be inserted into whichever DAW the participant is using. The participant can then audition them, decide which ones you like best and then, on the voting page on the website, we have exactly the same filenames in a cluster at the bottom of the page, so you can then click on them and simply drag them into the position you feel they should be in with one being the best and five being the worst.”
“The voting mechanic will remain open for the user to change until that round of voting closes. Aston will then analyse the results, make any modifications to the mic indicated by the test results and then begin the new test session with a new group of microphones until a consensus is reached on the mic’s tonal qualities. At each stage, Aston will email all registered voters to let them know voting for that round has opened and send reminders until voting closes. Each round should last 2-3 weeks.”
Read more on Project Element
Sign up now to be a part of musical and microphone history!
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