Recording - January 2012 - 27

Guitar and banjo In my comparisons with the Telefunken and the Peluso, each mic had its strengths on acoustic guitar; the AR-51 made it sound the most natural and unassuming, the 2247 was more mid-forward and aggressive, while the MA-300 was the most imposing in a warm and pleasant way. This makes the MA-300 a perfect choice for the current trend of gritty and thick Americana-folk style music, the likes of Ray LaMontagne and T-Bone Burnett. This is an awesome banjo mic—seriously. Banjos have a very thin, metallic, ringy sound to them and the MA-300 is a great mic to help those tones gel into a mix nicely. Percussion and drum kit Although it lacked the openness of the AR51, I liked how the MA-300 highlighted the punch of the conga-like Tubano tone and gave it a nice weight in the mix. It is also a good choice for taming tambourines and shakers. I don’t normally use large-diaphragm mics for hi-hat, but the MA-300 was fantastic here, highlighting the chuff, lessening the bite and gelling it warmly into the mix. This of course is a matter of taste and may not be the best choice if you want a natural or brighter tone for your metallic percussion needs—then an uncolored FET mic or the AR-51 would be the way to go. Listening to the MA-300 on drum overheads, my feelings are similar to how the mic

tad darker and more even, the MA-300 was too blunt and I chose a mic with more top-end air and upper mid push. As a voiceover mic my experience was similar—on the right voice it was instant radio announcer, but if the talent has an even, deep or monotone voice, you may want a mic with a touch of hype, and that word is not one that describes the MA-300. Conclusions The MA-300 is neither typically dark, or bright, or even “neutral”. It achieves its smoothness through balance. It somehow manages to be big in the low mids and full in the high end at the same time. If this were a wine I would describe it as robust and fullbodied with a smooth finish and slightly smoky signature. What I enjoyed the most about the MA300 is that somehow it manages to have a sound unlike most anything else on today’s really crowded microphone market, especially in this price range. While I often complain about modern mics that try too hard to sound “vintage” and dark, the MA-300 manages to avoid that trap, and yet it squarely conveys the sound that most of us mean when we use the word “tube” as a descriptive. Price: $1295 More from: Mojave Audio, www.mojaveaudio.com

fared on percussion. As an overhead mic it nicely tames harsh cymbal play, but may not be crisp enough as an overhead mic for many modern music styles. It does well as a mono front-of-kit mic, and while I only had one for review, I can make the educated guess that these would make great mics for the vintage Glyn Johns style drum set discussed elsewhere in this issue, especially if you want a warm, meaty coherent kit sound. Voice Like most mics, this mic is a mixed bag for voice. On the song I tracked there were two male vocalists, both tenors. One voice was a tad brighter and a touch nasal, and the MA-300 was hands down awesome giving said voice a solid heft in the mix without sounding dull or rolled off. On the other vocalist’s voice, a

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Recording - January 2012

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