Recording - May 2017 - 24

Lauten Audio Eden LT-386
Singers

I used the Eden most on vocals-not
on purpose, but once I put it up on the
stand for vocal sessions, it just lived
there. It is similar to how I often leave
a pair of Atlantis mics up as my main
drum overheads. The voicing, pattern,
and highpass options make it just too
quick and convenient to dial in a sound
vs. switching out microphones!
On hard rock vocals I usually
favor the Forward setting; it's nice
and punchy, but not blunt or biting.
When I have vocal tracks that need to
lay back in the mix, or want something
more suited to an Adele-style female
pop track, I prefer the Neutral setting.
I also liked the mic in omni mode
and a Neutral or Forward setting for
backing vocal duties with the singers
back a few feet from the mic. Credit
where credit is due, I stole this tip from
Fabrice Dupont (interviewed below).
Thanks, Fab!

Drums and bass amp

I don't usually put large-diaphragm
tube mics on the kick drum... okay,

that's just a lie, since kick and floor tom
are two of my favored uses for the
original Lauten Horizon!
Having said that, since the Eden has
a kick-centric highpass setting, I tried it
on kick in Forward mode. It did a great
job on the kick, similar to how one would
use a Neumann U 47 fet or Mojave
MA-201fet on kick. This setting was also
killer on miked bass cabinet, with the
Eden on a vintage 1950s 4 x 10 Fender
Bassman amp.

Electric guitar

One of my favorite uses of the Eden
was again in Forward mode, this time
with the highpass engaged in Vocal position,
as a single mic on a guitar cabinet: the
exact same Fender Bassman, miked in
the same position as for bass tracking
(partially out of curiosity, partially laziness).
Switching to the Neutral setting was a
great way to do guitar layering with
the exact same setup.
As with my Atlantis review, Gentle
was the setting I gravitated to the
least, as it may sound a tad thick for
many applications until you engage

the highpass. That filter keeps the upper
end rounded, but removes the excessive
boom and weight.
Compared side by side with the
Atlantis at matching settings, Lauten did
a good job of giving the Eden its own
sound so as not to step on the Atlantis'
toes. Overall the Atlantis is the sharper
and tighter of the two, while the Eden is
more diffuse and rounded in comparison.

Conclusion

"Versatile" does not begin to
describe the Eden. Thanks to its patterns,
filters, and voicings, you can dial it in
for most anything and everything, all
with a depth and sound that holds its
own against many high dollar classics.
Another Lauten winner.

PRICE: $2499
MORE FROM: Lauten Audio,
www.lautenaudio.com; dist.
by Audio Plus Services,
www.audioplusservices.com

Interview with BRIAN LOUDENSLAGER and FAB DUPONT
Let's start with a
quick history of
Lauten?

Brian Loudenslager:
Prior to founding
Lauten Audio, I was
the rep for one of the
Brian Loudenslager largest contract [mic]
manufacturers in China, and over time I
just started seeing a lack of creativity. They
didn't want to design new products, they
just wanted factories to churn out more of
the same to add to their product lines.
So, I had a very good friend of mine,
Mike Terry, who was an engineer in LA
working with Foo Fighters, and he did
The Eagles' Long Road Out Of Eden in
2007. I said, "Hey, I'm interested in
designing my own microphone. I have the
resources to make the product, but I don't
have the ears or the experience." We literally holed ourselves up in Elliot Smith's
24

RECORDING May 2017

former studio, which is now New Monkey,
and we pieced together the new microphones, which became the Horizons.
He had a U67 and U47, but he was
like, "I want to take that kind of element
and I want to be able to stick it inside
of a kick drum, or stick it on top of a
snare, and things like that." That's why the
Horizon was designed in the way it was,
with the 20 dB pad, but it was still a tube
microphone with that kind of character
in there. So we went from the Horizon to
the Oceanus, the Clarion, and the Torch,
all in conjunction with each other.

And then came the Atlantis, which
Fab was involved in. How did that
happen? How did you guys hook up?

BL: Somebody said "Hey, you need
to meet Fab Dupont," and I tracked him
down at a trade show. He started telling
me some things that he would look for in

a microphone, and I said, "Hey, would
you mind if I make a rough prototype,
send it to you, and see what you think?"
And it just started from there.
Trying the first prototype, he said,
"Hm, it's all right, but can you do this,
this, this, and that?" And I sent version
2 and version 3, and at this point he's
like, "Hm, OK, can you make a mic
that sounds like all three?" The Atlantis
came out of that.

Was the Eden originally meant to
be a tube Atlantis?

BL: At first, but we built it and... it
didn't do it for me. Originally it wasn't
all that different, which I felt was kind
of silly, so we went back to the drawing
board. I looked at the U67 circuit, which
has a unique transformer with a double
winding, and I wanted that character
from that circuit in the mic. It ended up
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