® ASTON MICROPHONES Owners Handbook 1
Thank you! On behalf of the whole team at Aston Microphones I’d like to thank you for investing in your Aston product. Our microphones are designed and built in the UK to the most exacting standards. Every Aston product is individually tested at each key stage during manufacture to ensure reliable and consistent performance, and the most musical sound capture possible, so we’re sure that your new baby will provide you with many years of perfect service.
Contents Aston Origin & Spirit ................................................ 5 Aston Starlight & Starlight Stereo Pair .................. 12 Aston Halo & Halo Shadow ..................................... 18 Using Your Aston Microphone ............................... 21 Microphone Terminology & General Care ............ 26 Aston Owners Club Please register your product to extend your 2 year limited replacement warranty to 3 years, free of charge.
Aston Origin & Spirit Features: • Wave-form mesh head - this unique design provides shock absorption to protect the capsule, with elastic mesh memory. • Built-in pop filter using the latest stainless steel mesh-knit technology. • Direct to stand microphone mounting option. • 2mm, solid stainless steel, laser-cut and etched chassis. • Capsule - The Aston Sound - developed by professional artists, engineers and producers. (www.astonmics.com/the-aston-sound) • Hi-Spec PCB and electronic components.
Aston Origin The Aston Origin is a high-performance cardioid pattern capacitor microphone utilising a one inch capsule with a gold evaporated Mylar diaphragm. It is versatile enough to use with most instruments, excelling on both acoustic guitar and vocals. Its hand-selected capsule is teamed with high-end transformer-less circuitry using only the highest quality selected components.
Cardioid Condenser 0dB Origin 7
Aston Spirit The Aston Spirit is a high-performance, switchable pattern, microphone utilising a one inch, dual diaphragm, gold evaporated capsule. A switch on the mic body selects from Omni, Cardioid or figure-of-eight polar patterns. It is versatile enough to use with most instruments in addition to main and backing vocals. Its hand-selected capsule is teamed with high-end transformer balanced circuitry using only the highest quality electronic components.
Multi-Pattern Condenser 0dB -10dB Spirit 9
Polar Patterns Figure-of-Eight Cardioid Omni-Directional 10
Aston Starlight & Starlight Stereo Pair Features: • Laser-alignment sight for placement accuracy and recording recall • Sintered metal head - unique & innovative design protects capsule and provides excellent acoustic properties • Gold-sputtered 20mm capsule, chosen in blind tests by a panel of 50 top producers • PCB - market-leading electronic design • 1.
dB -20 0 -10 Cut Voice Laser dB Cut Voice Laser ight -20 0 -10 Small Diaphragm Cardioid Condenser Starlight 13
Aston Starlight The Starlight is a small diaphragm, end fire condenser microphone featuring a sintered metal head which combines extreme durability with extraordinary audio transparency. The addition of a laser not only makes precise alignment easy, it also helps achieve consistency when re-establishing the microphone position after de-rigging. The 20mm gold sputtered capsule feeds into custom designed transformerless electronics, with low noise and ultra-low distortion as priorities.
Polar Pattern 0° 30° 330° 0 -5 300° 60° -10 -15 -20 270° 90° dB 240° 120° 210° 150° 180° 125Hz 250Hz 500Hz 1KHz 2KHz 4KHz 8KHz 16KHz Starlight Laser The Aston Starlight is equipped with a Class 2 Laser driven by 48V phantom power provided via the XLR cable from a mixing console/mic preamp. It does not require any batteries. The Starlight’s laser is emitted through the laser aperture located on the top front of the microphone.
LASER 2 Complies with IEC / BS EN 60825-1 (2014) and 21 CFR 1040.10 and 1040.11 except for deviations pursuant to Laser Notice No. 50, dated June 24, 2007 Wavelength: 655nm Max Average Power: 0.
Aston Halo & Halo Shadow Features • Hi Tech construction with patented PET felt • Radically improves isolation • Double curved form improves isolation top and bottom as well as at the sides • Much bigger surface area and depth of acoustic material • Better diffusion, for both direct source and primary reflections to the rear of the filter • Lightweight • Proprietary ‘easy-mount’ hardware also accommodates your microphone mounting hardware Weights & Measures Aston Halo Aston Halo Shadow Product depth 302
Ultimate Reflection Filter 19
Aston Halo & Halo Shadow The Aston Halo/ Halo Shadow microphone screen is designed to address the shortcomings of other ‘reflection filter’ style products combining low weight with minimal audio colouration. Designed, engineered and tested in the UK, the Halo combines modern advances in material technology and production, cutting edge patented manufacturing processes and rigorous acoustic testing to bring you the ultimate in portable acoustic devices.
Using Your Aston Microphone If you are an experienced audio practitioner, then you’ll need little instruction in using Aston microphones - just apply standard 48 Volt Phantom power to our capacitor models and you’re in business. For the Spirit and Origin models, the Aston badge denotes the front of the microphone when using cardioid pattern for main vocals, guitars and so on. When using the Spirit in figure-of-eight mode, the logo denotes the ‘positive’ side of the microphone.
sound is too bright, the tonality can be adjusted by rotating the microphone a few degrees to the side so that the vocalist is singing slightly off axis. The further off-axis, the more the high end will be softened. When using cardioid or figure-of-eight patterns, the proximity effect will cause the sound to become more bass-heavy the closer the microphone is to the mouth.
pseudo stereo by having one mic on the body and one aimed somewhere along the neck, the stereo image will tend to shift if the player moves around, even slightly. For pop work, a mono recording with artificial stereo ambience added later may be a more appropriate option. Stereo recording is more useful when miking from a greater distance to capture both the sound of the instrument and the contribution of the room acoustics - for example when recording a classical guitar recital in a hall.
Drums Drums are usually mic’d using one close-up cardioid pattern mic for each drum plus a pair of overhead mics to capture the cymbals and overall kit sound. A separate hi-hat mic can be used if the hi-hat isn’t loud enough. Capacitor mics are the usual choice for overheads though ribbon mics are sometimes chosen in this role. Any of the Aston models will work well as drum overheads. The close mics can be either dynamic or capacitor but must be small enough not to get in the drummer’s way.
the front head, try mic’ing the drum from behind at a distance of 100 to 200mm. Just make sure it doesn’t pick up any pedal squeak. You can also try a large diaphragm capacitor mic such as the Origin or Spirit set up maybe 300mm in front of the kick drum. The overhead mics are very important, and also the most problematic in small studios. Ideally drums should be recorded in a high room with the overhead mics 1 to 1.5 metres above the cymbals and spaced apart by around the same amount.
then stand the mics one to two metres from the piano aimed at the centre of the inside of the open lid. The lid acts as a reflector to project the sound of the strings and soundboard. There are many other mic’ing variations for piano, including getting closer to the strings for a more pop-style sound, so as always, experimentation is the only way to get the best sound but pay particular attention to getting an even level balance across the strings.
are recording. When recording vocals a low-cut filter will reduce rumble from traffic noise or from vibrations passing up the mic stand from the floor and will also compensate for the bass lift that occurs naturally when a cardioid pattern mic is used close to the mouth. It can also help reduce the effect of ‘popping’ when enunciating M, P and B sounds, though a separate pop screen is to be recommended where the singer works close to the microphone.
® ASTON MICROPHONES BUILT IN BRITAIN 3 Hunting Gate, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG4 0TJ, United Kingdom Tel. +44 (0)845 500 2 500 www.astonmics.
