Author Archive: royerlabs

Ukrainian Radio and Television Orchestra

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Full Orchestra – SF-12 Stereo Ribbon

Engineer/Producer: Russell Dawkins
Recorded at the studios of the Ukrainian Radio/Television Orchestra, Kiev.

Recording chain: One SF-12 stereo ribbon microphone with 35-feet of Monster cable connected to a Studio Technologies mic pre, then 6-feet of Monster cable to an Apogee A/D converter, to coaxial cable to the digital ‘in’ on a portable DAT machine. No compression or reverb used.

This exceptional recording of a full orchestra was made on one SF-12 stereo ribbon microphone, positioned over the conductor’s head, at a distance that achieved a nice balance of the orchestra and hall ambience. We use this recording regularly in seminars, as it’s a wonderful example of the amazingly natural reproduction a high-quality ribbon microphone is capable of delivering. The off-axis response is perfect, transients are natural with no overshoot or ringing, and the flat frequency response captures the full range of the orchestra with no peaks or dips anywhere throughout the frequency range.

Sergei Prokofiev – “Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2”

 

 
Sergei Prokofiev – “Romeo and Juliet, Suite No. 2” excerpt 2

Ann Labounsky & David Craighead

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Pipe Organ – SF-12

Recorded by Dr. Fred Bashour
Recorded at The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Denver, CO

Recording chain: One SF-12, 35 feet high, 30 feet back from the pipes, to a Millennia Media HV-3C preamp/ADC, and recorded directly to a Sony TCD-D10 PRO DAT machine.

This track was Dr. Fred’s first use of an SF-12 and was made while he was reviewing the microphone for Pro Audio Review. The final take utilized over 12 mics, but Dr. Fred provided this isolated SF-12 track to Royer Labs for demonstration purposes.

Performed by Ann Labounsky & David Craighead.

Jean Langlais, Mosaique, Vol. 3: (6) Double Fantaisie for Two Organists

Steve Albini

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Microphone Comparisons

Saxophone – R-121, Coles 4038
Trumpet – R-121, Neumann U-67, RCA 77DX
Acoustic Guitars (Steel String, Nylon String, 12-String) – R-121, Schoeps 221B
Electric Guitar – R-121, SM-57, Coles 4038 (being overstressed)
Drums – R-121

Recorded by Steve Albini
Recorded at Electrical Audio, Chicago, IL.

In Royer’s early days, when many people didn’t understand ribbon microphones, Steve Albini was kind enough to make a number of educational recordings for us which we included on our first demonstration CD. Steve is a well-known, well-respected engineer who has plenty of experience with ribbon mics and thousands of engineers and producers have learned from these comparison recordings over the years.

Tape Op Magazine reviewed our Demo CD #1 and said this about Steve’s recordings:
“The ‘something special’ though is the Microphone Comparisons with Steve Albini at the end of the CD. Steve goes through and compares the R-121 to other mics (Coles 4038, SM57, etc.) and provides us with his wonderful dry commentary. We love ya Steve! Truly one of our favorite CDs at the studio these days.” -LC

All of Steve’s comparison tracks are here, along with his original commentary.

Saxophone (Coles 4038, R-121, close R-121, distant R-121)


 

Trumpet (Neuman U-67, R-121, RCA 77DX)


 

Acoustic Guitar (Steel string – Schoeps 221B, R-121 / Nylon string – Schoeps
221B, R-121 / 12-string – tube condenser, R-121, condenser and R-121 blended)


 

Electric Guitar (SM-57, R-121 / Coles 4038 being overstressed)


 

Drums


Adam Del Monte

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Classical Guitar – R-122V

Produced and Engineered by Adam Del Monte

From the Adam del Monte Performance Series.
Guitar built by Francisco Manuel Diaz, Granada.

Recording Chain: Audio on all videos recorded with one R-122V into a Millennia Media TD1 Half Rack Recording Channel, light EQ applied, into a Lexicon reverb.

Capricho Arabe by Francisco Tarrega

adam1

 

Cordoba by Isaac Albeniz

adam2

 

Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tarrega

adam3

 

Granada by Isaac Albeni

adam4

 

Foghorn Stringband

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Bluegrass Band – SF-24
Acoustic Guitar – SF-24
Fiddle – SF-24
Mandolin – SF-24
Standup Bass – SF-24

Recording Engineer: Stephen Schauer

Recording Chain: See Recording Notes below

Foghorn Stringband playing live at Old Style Guitar Shop, presented by The Bluegrass Situation. Great performance of the old Stanley Brothers tune We’re Going to Paint the Town and Kennesaw Mountain Rag. Caleb Klauder on mandolin, Sammy Lind on fiddle, Nadine Landry on bass, and Reeb Willms on guitar.

 

foghorn-strings

Recording Notes from engineer Stephen Schauer:

I had a wonderful opportunity to shoot and record a little video of Foghorn Stringband for Ed Helm’s traditional music website, The Bluegrass Situation (www.thebluegrasssituation.com). This kind of music is close to my heart, so it was a blast to get this time with such an amazing and talented group of folks.

We had an hour with the band and a crew of just 3, so I had to operate a camera AND run sound. The audio setup had to be fast and simple with great fidelity AND not clutter the frame. Using a Royer SF-24 in the center of the band allowed them to play in a traditional way – gathered around a single mic as was done for the last hundred years. It allowed them to huddle up close, and a great performance that you can only get when the band can really hear themselves and play off each other’s energy. The sonic character of the mic was a great complement to voices and the strings.

Regarding the technical side, we kept it simple so I didn’t need to do much fancy footwork in the edit and mix. I had the SF-24 front and center and tried to contain the performers within the front lobes of the figure 8. The room was tiny, but thankfully it was trapezoidal so there were fewer standing resonant tones in the room. The SF-24 is 9-% of what you hear in the recordings.

I panned out the Royer 60% left and right until the soundstage felt like it matched the visual, I put a little notch in the EQ around the lead singer’s voice to help bring it forward, and rolled off the bass of the SF-24 with a mellow high pass curve set at around 70hz (to clean up the room tone and leave space for a close mic I had on the bass, which was panned to match her position).

I had an AKG 451EB on the floor close to the bass, with a low pass filter set for 700 Hz, and a Beyerdynamic MC834 in the adjacent guitar showroom for nice real room ambience that I could mix in later if needed, rather than relying on reverb plug-ins. The MC834 had a high pass filter set at 500 Hz, and the mic was mixed back about 5 dB.

On the master, I pushed up the 300-1200hz about 1 dB, used a little preset compression that sounded good, added a tiny bit of reverb, and used a limiter with about 2db threshold to get the overall levels up for the video.

I recorded directly into a Tascam HS-p82 with no outboard preamps and mixed it all in Reaper with the stock plug-ins, on my laptop.

-Stephen Schauer

 

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Randy Kohrs

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Dobro – R-122
Banjo – R-122

Recorded by Randy Kohrs
Dobro and Banjo recorded into ProTools.

In these two videos, Grammy winning engineer/producer/musician Randy Kohrs shows us his techniques for recording Dobro and Banjo. It’s a great here’s-how-to-do-it for each instrument from an outstanding musician and engineer.

Randy Kohrs on recording Dobro
randy

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Randy Kohrs on recording Banjo
banjo-randy-tn

Ray Charles and Norah Jones with Billy Preston

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B-3 – R-122
Piano – SF-12
Electric Guitar – R-121

Engineers: Terry Howard, Al Schmitt (mix)

This extraordinary session was held in Ray Charles’ Los Angeles studio in November 2003. I was privileged to attend and was given permission to take photographs with a small pocket camera. The musicianship was incredible, with most parts of the song being done in one or two takes.
-John Jennings, Royer Labs

B-3: Billy Preston’s Leslie cabinet was miked with two R-122’s, one positioned on the top horn and one on the bottom.

Piano: An SF-12 was positioned inside Ray’s piano alongside a couple of condenser mics. The SF-12 was the main mic used in the final mix.

Electric Guitar: The electric guitar amp was miked with an SM-57 up close and an R-122 further back, blended in the mix.

ray-norah

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Ben Sollee

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Vocals – R-122
Cello – R-122

Recorded by Stephen Schauer
Recorded at Deep End Ranch, Santa Paula, CA.

Recording chain: All mics recorded straight into a Tascam HS-p82, at 96/24.

Recording notes:
One R-122 off the front of the cello, tipped up to bring the vocal into the mix.
For ambience, a spaced pair of Mojave Audio MA-101fets were positioned 5 feet back from the cello and above the frame of the A cam, set for omni and mixed back 6-7db, panned hard left and right.

Producer: Stephen Schauer
Camera: Jonathan Saunders, Lane Stroud, Stephen Schauer
Audio: Stephen Schauer

Letting Go (Ben Sollee)

Ben

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Marshall Ruffin

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Vocals – R-122
Acoustic Guitar – R-122

Recorded by Stephen Schauer
Recorded at Deep End Ranch, Santa Paula, CA.

Recording chain: R-122 and MA-101fet’s recorded straight into a Tascam HS-p82 portable multi track recorder at 96/24.

Recording Notes:
One R-122 off the front of the acoustic guitar, positioned to balance the guitar and vocal.
For ambience, a spaced pair of Mojave Audio MA-101fets were positioned 5 feet back from the guitar, set for omni and mixed back 6-7db, panned hard left and right.

My Son (Marshall Ruffin)

MarshallPlay video

Producer: Stephen Schauer
Camera: Jonathan Saunders, Lane Stroud, Stephen Schauer
Audio: Stephen Schauer

Marshall Ruffin and Ben Sollee

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Vocals – R-122
Cello – R-122
Acoustic Guitar – R-122

Recorded by Stephen Schauer
Recorded at Deep End Ranch, Santa Paula, CA.

Cellist Ben Sollee and guitarist Marshall Ruffin perform an impromptu duet during their visit to Deep End Ranch, Santa Paula, CA.

Recording chain: R-122 and MA-101fet’s recorded straight into a Tascam HS-p82 portable multi track recorder at 96/24.

Recording Notes:
The R122 is a great, rich, versatile mic. It’s the main pickup, positioned between Ben and Marshall. I used a pair of Mojave Audio MA-101fets in omni as a spaced pair just out of frame, mixed back 7 or 8db to give a sense of space. The room sounded a bit boxy, so I did everything I could by positioning the 122 so as to not wrestle with the room.
-Stephen Schauer

Marchall-and-Ben

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Producer: Stephen Schauer
Camera: Jonathan Saunders, Lane Stroud, Stephen Schauer
Audio: Stephen Schauer