Recording - February 2021 - 49

Elemental travels

As a people's mic, we decided it
would be fun to put the Element into
the hands of three different reviewers.
I tested it out in my studio in Wisconsin. Reviewer and drummer David
Blascoe gave it a whirl on drums in
his room in Nashville. Finally, Associate Editor Alex Hawley tried it out in
Boulder, CO. Each of us wrote our impressions independently-no spoilers
with each other.

The editor thinks

My first use of the Element was as
a voiceover mic for our inaugural
RECORDING Podcast, which features
an in-depth interview with James
Young of Aston, offering even deeper details about Element design and
development; you can check it out at
recordingmag.com and subscribe on
one of the popular streaming services.
I was impressed by the mic's bold
proximity effect, rich midrange presence, and its clarity on speech. It
gave me my first taste of how wide

the pickup pattern of the Element is.
While essentially a cardioid mic, The
Element has a very generous sweet
spot, making it an excellent choice
for vocalists and instrumentalists
who move and sway while tracking.
The proximity effect yields an instant
radio voice up on the capsule, but as
you move away and the proximity effect chills out, the mic never becomes
thin or anemic.
I compared the Element both up
close and at a distance with a Shure
SM7B and an AKG C414 XLS. Its
presence is closer to the SM7B, but
with greater clarity and a slight upper
midrange thrust. It has a thicker, meatier sound than the C414. However, I
was impressed that the top end of the
two was similar-clear and detailed,
but never bright or piercing. I also
compared it to a Roswell Mini K47,
a mic in the classic U-style FET tradition, and found the Mini K 47 to be
the brighter of the two (on its own, I
rarely perceive the Mini K 47 to be a
bright mic).

Around the studio

I found the Element to be a solid
all-rounder in the studio, and especially
nice on percussion. Thanks to its generous pickup pattern, it worked well
as a single mono mic placed between
two congas, as well as a pair of tabla
drums. It might be weird to call this mic
a great shaker mic, but it did capture
shakers and maracas with evenness,
despite the player swaying and moving
around in front of the capsule.
On strummed string instruments such
as acoustic guitar, ukulele, mandolin
and mountain dulcimer, it captured
a full, rich tone with smooth, non-biting clarity. Here I found the Element
worked best with a touch of distance
to back down the proximity effect and
offer a wide-focus capture of the body
and the strumming.
On vocals, the Element offers the
best of both worlds: up close, it can be
worked for a deep, rich, intimate performance, showing off its dynamic/ribbon
tendencies. Or, take a step back and
belt it out.-PV

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Recording - February 2021

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