Yuchain Wang, musicial and producer from New Taipei City in Taiwan, shared this cover version of Joni Mitchell’s ‘A case of you‘.
The vocals were recorded using an upgraded Lustraphone VR53 ribbon microphone. I fitted the microphone with new ribbon and magnets. The Lustraphones are a bit notorious for having a weak output signal and a very dark tone, but the changes make a big improvement to their usability.
You can read more about the magnet upgrades in a previous post.
It’s always great to see and hear how our customers use the microphones we send out.
Joe Montague was kind enough to share these recordings and video of our Reslo Beebs in action. The microphones were set up as a stereo pair in front of the kit.
The recording in the video/sound clips is just the Beebs, no other mics at all, and just a touch of EQ and compression. It is an impressive result from just two microphones. Of course, you need a good kit as well as good microphones, and being a great drummer helps too!
Here are some further sound clips from Joe.
Drum groove 1
Drum groove 2
Drum groove 3
Drum groove 4
Drum groove 5
Thanks to Saro Tribastone for sharing his band Cordasicula‘s new album Aria ca Spira.
Cordasicula come from south-east Sicily and are inspired by the traditional music of their own island, as well as the southern Italian regions of Calabria, Campania and Puglia.
Saro explained to me that “all these styles, mainly defined by their rhythm, are coming from those areas where 2500 years ago we had Greek people living there, globally known as Magna Grecia (Big Greece).” Their songs are a mixture of original compositions with some traditional tunes, and collectively they have a beautiful, haunting and slightly melancholic quality.
Many of the instruments were recorded with one of our customised Reslo ‘Beeb’ ribbon microphones. The Beeb was used to record the Greek Tzouras, violin, cello, double bass and Battente guitar for the album. For those who like technical details, they were tracked through a DAV BG1 preamp and Mytek Stereo 192 ADC converter. It is nice to hear the Beeb working so well with these traditional acoustic instruments. Here is a photo of the Pier Paolo Alberghini playing double bass, with the Beeb microphone up close to the sound hole.
Marilena Fede’s voice was recorded with an AKG C414B, again using a DAV BG1 preamplifier.
Saro has kindly allowed us to share the Spotify playlist for the album, which should appear below.
I have said many times before that we have fantastic, creative customers, and it is always nice when someone takes the time to share what they are doing. Sometimes their stories are amazing!
Here’s a video clip of James playing his drums and skins, recorded using two of our Reslo ‘Beeb’ microphones as top & side mics in a Glyn Johns arrangement, along with a CAD M179 in cardioid in front of the kick drum.
I think these really do sound fantastic, with a classic yet contemporary tone. I could imagine these sliding very easily into a mix without need for much processing.
Here’s a new video of our friend Jose Estragos from Spain, using his Reslo RVs in his song ‘Buscandote’.
Enjoy!
Here are the Beebs in action as drum overheads, and for recording a string section…
He was using them to record the French band Watine at a country house in Sussex, working out of this amazing airstream mobile studio supplied by Yellow Fish.
We will link to the music as soon as it is published.
I am lucky to have many great customers, and some are kind enough to take the time to share their music and other projects. It is always gratifying to see how these mics are used once they go back out into the ‘wild’.
Hewdie is a long-standing customer who was kind enough to send in a copy of his excellent new album. I have serviced many of his ribbon mics over the years and these feature extensively on the recordings – including a B&O BM3, RCA 74B, Lustraphone VR53 and a couple of Beeb Reslos. The album is well worth a listen.
Andy Wright used his Beeb Reslos to record The Kimpton Players in their radio play production of Noel Coward’s “Brief Encounter”. Here is a photo of the Beebs in action…
And here’s how the drums sounded in the final track Stay by Free Manhattan
Have a great Christmas & New year – and good luck with all of your holiday projects.
Stewart
Xaudia
We have just shipped this rather lovely set of Reslo microphones to Thomas at Le Lupanar Studios in Belgium. He will be recording a brass section with two of our ‘Beeb’ Reslos, and a pair of upgraded cardioid Reslo CR mics on goosenecks.
His studio is still under construction but Thomas has been making a photo diary of the project – from the pictures so far it will be an amazing facility in a great location! How’s this for soundproofing…
Good luck with the building, and we will watch with interest as it all comes together.
🙂
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| Reslos at St Peter and St Paul Church, Kimpton |
Organ recording with Beeb Reslos – Andy Wright.
The recording was made with the mics plugged straight into a Tascam DR100 mk 2 and recorded in wav mode, then compressed to mp3 in Soundforge.
In the eighties and early nineties Hyperion Records used the organ to record classical music, including string quartets, piano solo and the Kings Consort doing The Four Seasons. Eventually Luton Airport, about 8 miles away, got too busy!
The Reslo RB mics are perhaps most famous for being used by the Beatles in their Cavern Club days. As a young photographer, Andy was assigned to one of their early gigs, and here are some of those photos at the Daily Mail website.
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| One of Andy’s photos of the Beatles |
Carrying on from my previous post….
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| 3 channel guitar switch box |
It’s a very simple custom 3 channel foot-switch box, which lets him control each of the bass, treble and rhythm channels separately. I was pleased with how it came out. Hammertone paint always gives things a 1950s industrial look.
I recently installed one of our hexaphonic pickup systems into a a guitar for Matt Shaw, who is one half of Bobby and Jemima.
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| Bobby and Jemima… AKA Charlese and Matt (not sure who is who!) |
Matt provides a large chunk of the music for the act, playing guitar and drums – often at the same time – and he wanted to be able to send bass runs on the lower strings to a bass amp whilst simultaneously playing the melody and lead from the top strings out through a guitar amp. No problem at all!
I fitted a hexapup to the bridge position, wired out to a pair of output jacks, and an additional toggle switch gave the option of sending the G-string to either the bass or treble output. And we put one of our new P90 pickups in the neck position, with its own output for a third amplifier. Now Matt can make a lot of noise with one guitar!
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| Lots of mess during the pickup transplant. |
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| All stripped down and ready for the new pickups |
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| Xaudia’s Meteor coil winder, and lots of wire! |
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| Some fine tuning of the setup |
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| All done! |
Pete Gardiner is a singer/songwriter and acoustic guitar player based in Newtownards, Northern Ireland and his new album ‘Songs at Sunset’ was produced by Paul Steen, who used a Reslo mic on the vocals alongside a Shure SM7b.
Paul bought one of our Xaudia upgrade transformers for his Reslo RB ribbon microphone, to give the mic an output of around 250 ohms. Paul fitted the transformer himself and used Ward Beck preamps for the recording. Paul said….
“I recorded with the reslo and an sm7b but the final edit ending up being 99% reslo. The sm7b is heavily compressed and dialled in on occasion for choruses etc.”
Ronnie at Diesel Studios in Italy sent in a pair of T-bone RB500 ribbon mics for service and upgrade. Ronnie asked for some photos of the process, and I thought they would make a nice photo-blog.
Here is one of the mics on arrival…
Inside the body, there is further screening to protect the ribbon, and the transformer sits in a metal can.
One of the old ribbons.
This one is not so great!
New 1.8 micrometer ribbons….
The old transformer has primary DC resistance of 90 milliohms, and 30 ohms for the secondary. Those laminations are not very well packed.
Winding new transformers for the mics.
Potting the transformers in the wax bath keeps the coils and laminations from vibrating….
The finished transformers. We may as well re-use the metal can for some extra screening.
Back together again
