“I own two pairs of Aston Spirits and a Halo reflection filter. I remember the first time I put the Spirits up on the grand piano at the Crypt, being really impressed by how ‘there’ the sound was - just really balanced, with a good amount of presence and weight. I think at the time I was mic’ing up the piano with 4038s a lot, as I didn’t really have a stereo pair of LDCs that I liked, so it was great to hear a more modern sound that wasn’t overly bright (which was my main complaint with the 4400s I occasionally used). I’ve also taken them out with me on location a lot - they are reassuringly well built, and I feel like I can really rely on them performing every time.
I was really impressed by the reflection filter this one time a film crew had to do an impromptu voiceover in the live room. We only had a really small window of time to do it in, so I just threw it up (as our vocal booth was full of camera kit) and had the talent talk into it but was so impressed by how dry and direct the resulting VO came out.
I’ve been using my Spirits quite regularly in their omni pattern as ambience mics on sessions at the Crypt. I used them for the strings on Clean Bandit’s ‘Rockbye’, on the drums for Haken’s ‘Affinity’ and ‘Vector’ albums, piano room ambience for the forthcoming Bear’s Den album, and they were also the main piano mics for Gavin James’ album ‘Only Ticket Home’ (engineered by my friend and colleague, George Perks I’ve also taken them out with me on location recordings for Freya Ridings at the Hackney Round Chapel, Union Chapel and Shepherd’s Bush Empire, as well for new Manchester band, Larkins.
I like how the Spirits are quite understated - they just quietly and confidently do their job!”