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Owners Handbook
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Thank you!
On behalf of the whole team at Aston Microphones I’d like to
thank you for investing in your Aston microphone.
Aston microphones are designed and created in the UK to the
most exacting standards. Each Aston microphone 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.
Our microphones have been voiced and tuned following
extensive blind listening tests by a panel of 33 of the biggest
names in British music recording and production. Only when
an overwhelming consensus put one particular combination
of capsule and circuitry way out in front, of both competitor
microphones and our other prototypes, did we approve the nal
designs. We hope you enjoy what we’ve created, and welcome
your feedback.
James Young
Aston Microphones
Hitchin, UK
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Aston Owners Club
Please register your product to extend your 2 year limited
replacement warranty to 3 years, free of charge. You’ll be
automatically given membership to our exclusive Aston Owners
Club once you’ve registered here:
www.astonmics.com/ownersclub
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Features:
• Wave-form mesh head – this unique design provides shock
absorption to protect the capsule, with elastic mesh memory
• Built-in pop lter using the latest stainless steel mesh-knit
technology
• Direct to stand microphone mounting
• 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 & components
• Eco-friendly packaging. No unnecessary frills, just
well-designed, re-usable and recyclable packaging
Weights & Measures
Product Length
Product Width
Product Weight
100% Recyclable
and Biodegradable
Card Box
(84% recycled bre)
100% Recyclable
and Biodegradable
Card Sleeve
100% Recycleable
non cross-linked
Ethafoam 150 PE25
Insert
Aston Origin Aston Spirit
125mm 4.92in 175mm 6.89in
54mm 2.13in 54mm 2.13in
450g 0.99lb 625g 1.38lb
72g 0.16lb 72g 0.16lb
22g 0.05lb 22g 0.05lb
40g 0.09lb 37g 0.08lb
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Aston Origin
The Aston Origin is a high-performance cardioid condenser
microphone utilising a one inch (1”) gold evaporated capsule.
It is versatile enough to use with most instruments and excels
on acoustic guitar and vocals. Its hand-selected capsule is
teamed with high-end transformer-less circuitry using only the
highest quality components.
The Origin is designed to deliver direct, smooth and intimate
sound… for a natural and transparent recording.
Specications:
Transducer Type: Condenser
Acoustic Operating Principle: Pressure Gradient
Directional Polar Pattern: Cardioid
Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz (+/- 3dB)
Equivalent Noise Level: 18dB A-Weighted
Sensitivity at 1kHz into 1kohm: 23mV/Pa
Maximum SPL for THD 0.5%: 127dB
Pad Switch: -10dB/0dB
Low-Cut Filter: 80Hz
48 Volt Phantom power (+/- 4 Volts) is required for operation
Frequency Response
Polar Pattern
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Cardioid Condenser
0dB
Origin
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Aston Spirit
The Aston Spirit is a high-performance, switchable pattern,
microphone utilising a one inch (1”) gold evaporated capsule.
A switch on the mic body selects from Omni, Cardioid or
gure-of-eight polar patterns. It is versatile enough to use with
most instruments and excels on acoustic guitar and vocals.
Its hand-selected capsule is teamed with high-end transformer
balanced circuitry using only the highest quality components.
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.
Specications:
Transducer Type: Condenser
Acoustic Operating Principle: Pressure Gradient
Frequency Response: 20Hz – 20kHz (+/-3dB)
Equivalent Noise Level: 14dB A-Weighted
Sensitivity at 1kHz into 1kohm: 23.7mV/Pa
Maximum SPL for THD 0.5%: 138dB
Polar pattern: Omni/Cardioid/Figure-of-Eight
Pad Switches: -20dB/-10dB/0dB
Low-Cut Filter: 80Hz
48 Volt Phantom power (+/- 4 Volts) is required for operation
Frequency Response
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Multi-Pattern Condenser
-10dB
0dB
Spirit
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Polar Patterns
Figure-of-Eight
Cardioid
Omni-Directional
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Using Your Aston Microphone
If you are an experienced audio practitioner, then you’ll need
little instruction to using Aston microphones — just apply
standard 48 Volt Phantom power to our condenser models and
you’re in business. The Aston badge always denotes the front
of the microphone when using cardioid pattern for main vocals,
guitars etc. If you’re still ghting your way up the learning curve,
the following section will help get you up to speed.
Recording Vocals
Vocals are most often recorded using a side-address, large
diaphragm, cardioid-pattern condenser microphone.
It is important that the space in which vocals are recorded is free
from unwanted room reections, something best achieved by
using an Aston Halo reection lter behind the microphone.
Using adequate absorption is particularly important if using
omni or gure-of-eight patterns where the sides of an omni mic
also need more screening.
Reflection Filter
Microphone
200-300mm
Vocalist
The mic is usually placed at a distance of 200 to 300mm from
the mouth. The built in knitted mesh pop lter will minimise
plosives, and switching in the low-cut lter can also help.
When using cardioid or gure-of-eight patterns, the proximity
eect will cause the sound to become more bass-heavy the
closer the microphone is to the mouth. A skilled vocalist can
sometimes exploit the proximity eect to control the voice
timbre while recording but less-experienced vocalists are safest
keeping a xed distance from the mic.
Acoustic Guitar
Setting up to record acoustic guitars is a much more complex
exercise than recording single vocals. Acoustic guitar can be
recorded using either large diaphragm microphones or small
diaphragm models depending on what you have to hand.
As with vocals you can try dierent polar patterns though many
users stick with cardioid so as to minimise spill. If you do use
gure-of-eight or omni patterns, you’ll pick up more room
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ambience so use screens if the sound of the room isn’t
Microphone
Guitar
Amplifier
Spirit
-10dB
0dB
sympathetic to the instrument.
Every guitar is dierent and its interaction with the room will
also aect the sound to a degree. A hard oor helps maintain a
lively tone so if you have carpet in your recording area, try
placing a sheet of hardboard, ply-wood or MDF on the oor
under the instrument.
200-300mm
-10dB
0dB
Spirit
Microphone
The key to a great sound is experimentation, but a good starting
point is to have your microphone about 200 to 300mm from the
body of your guitar (aimed at the point where the guitar neck
joins the main body), and to listen to the sound you get on good
isolating headphones while moving the body of the guitar in
relation to the mic until you get a sound you like. Isolating
headphones are crucial to this process to eliminate the sound of
the guitar in the room from what you’re hearing.
Electric Guitar
There are many ways to record the electric guitar but the classic
approach is to use a cardioid pattern microphone fairly close
to the amplier’s speaker grille. Some engineers like the mic
to be almost touching the grille while others may back it o by
150mm or more so make a few test recordings and see what
sounds right to you. If there’s too much signal level, use the pad
switch to attenuate the microphone output. The tonality will
also be aected by whether the mic is aimed at the centre of the
speaker or towards the edges, so again experimentation is the key.
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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. Condenser mics are the
usual choice for overheads though ribbon mics are sometimes
chosen in this role. The close mics can be either dynamic or
condenser but must be small enough not to get in the drummer’s way.
A high SPL handling is necessary because the mics are so close
to the drums so use the pad switch on your Aston microphone.
The Spirit is particularly useful for drums as it has both 10 and
20dB pads. Use a condenser mic for the hi-hat if you need a
separate hi-hat mic.
The Art of Performance
The Art of Performance
The Art of Performance
If you don’t have enough mics or fancy trying a simpler
approach, use a mic on the kick drum, a pair of overheads to
pick up the rest of the kit and perhaps a separate snare mic.
You might also want to try bringing the overheads forward so
they are a metre or so in front of the kit. The trick is to nd the
place that gives the best balance of drums and cymbals.
The close drum mics are set up typically 30 to 60mm from the
drum heads, usually ‘looking’ over the rim and aimed down
towards the centre of the head. Just make sure that they are
placed where the drummer isn’t likely to hit them!
You can mic the hi-hat from the side at a distance of 150mm or
so, but place the mic above or below the plane of the cymbals
to avoid it receiving a blast of air when the hi-hats are closed
suddenly. Also try to aim it where it will pick up the least spill
from the other drums.
For the kick drum, using a front head with a hole cut into it is
very common as this allows the mic to be positioned just inside
the drum shell, 100 to 150mm from the inside of the shell and
aimed towards the beater impact point. Most engineers choose
a moving coil microphone with an extended bass response,
though you can try pretty much any condenser microphone that
can tolerate SPLs of 135dB or more. If there’s no hole in 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.
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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.
In smaller studios, ceiling reections and wall reections can
aect the sound of the overhead mics making the kit sound
boxy so use your blankets, duvets and foam panels to ‘dry up’
the area around the overhead mics. Absorbers placed between
the mics and the ceiling can help enormously.
Another approach is to actually have the overhead mics almost
touching the ceiling as that allows them to behave as boundary
mics insomuch as reections from the ceiling, other than
directly behind the mics, can’t reach them.
A useful tip is to place the two overhead mics equal distances
from the snare drum centre so that there will be no phase
errors if the recording is played back in mono. The snare sound
is the most adversely aected by phase errors because of its
high frequency content.
When mixing, ensure that the close mics are panned to match
the stereo image captured by the overhead mics.
Piano
Pianos are usually recorded in stereo where you can use a pair
of spaced microphones (omni or cardioid spaced 1 to 1.5
metres apart) or a coincident pair of cardioid mics set at an
angle of 90 to 120 degrees. Condenser mics are the best choice
as they have the widest frequency range. For upright pianos,
remove the upper casework and position the mics around one
metre above the piano. For grand pianos, put the lid on its prop
and then stand the mics one to two metres from the piano
aimed at the centre of the inside of the open lid. 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.
The Art of Performance
The Art of Performance
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CREATED IN THE UK
3 Hunting Gate, Hitchin, Hertfordshire, SG4 0TJ, United Kingdom
Tel. +44 (0)845 500 2 500
www.astonmics.com
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