Firstly, ALL the mics chosen for these sessions are very good examples of entry level mics from each brand. We did not make this easy for ourselves. We wanted the best so we could make our own mic as good as possible. As the sessions progressed it was clear that the voting got closer and more difficult for participants to rank in each successive round. This is something you see not only in the subjective comments, but in social media threads about the project. That’s a good thing, because as you get better and better quality and performance, it becomes more difficult to chose between products as the differences are much smaller… so we knew we were on the right track.
Another interesting proof of data is that it was very clear that different mics performed better or worse on different sources as you’d expect… in other words one mic does not fit all. For this reason, we always suggest, where possible, that it’s a great idea to have a couple of different mics in your cupboard to choose from if you have the budget. Our aim, with Element, is not to say “Element is the best mic” … that’s silly because these things are very subjective. No, our aim was to ensure that our entry level mic has the best possible sound, performance and quality and that it comes with the best accessories possible for people who only have the budget for one mic, or want to add a new, high performance mic to their collection, without having to spend a fortune.
The Element, in the final round, outperformed the other mics in the test on both male and female vocals… but was narrowly beaten by both the Neumann and AKG on guitar. The total vote count across all 3 sources showed Element as the clear winner, both in total votes, and in winning 2 out of the 3 source tests, vocals, of course, being the big one as they (on any non-instrumental track) are the most important element of the recording.
It is also important to state, at this point, that the full raw data for the summary information above has been peer reviewed by Music Tech Magazine and Sound on Sound magazine, two of the most influential and respected independent pro-audio publications in the world. We have also chosen not to name names when it comes to specific mic models as we have a great deal of respect for these brands and the quality of their microphone products. At no point do we wish to suggest that Aston is ‘better than another brand’… we have used key models from each competitor brand as a way to gauge the relative performance of our own mic, and although Element came top in the rankings after 3 rounds, there is a lot of love for each of the mics involved in our tests, both from us at Aston, and from the public voting in the sessions.
And the final word… none of this means that ‘Element is best’ – we would never suggest that because mic sound is a subjective choice. But it does mean that Element can consistently out-perform all other sub $500 brands in subjective choice tests (and some more expensive ones too!). Combine this with all the cool accessories and it’s got to be your No.1 choice as a first studio mic, or to add to your collection.