In our post last week we discussed the iconic D12 and the reliable D112. Next up is an unusual kick drum mic, the Shure SM91. Its flat design points to its original purpose as a conference mic. This mic is a directional boundary microphone which is different to every other mic we’ve covered. A small......
Hello again and welcome to our weekly look at Astra’s microphone list. I think its fair to say that after the vocals, the next most important part of a band mix is the kick drum. Theres something ever so satisfying about feeling that thump in your chest. Also, it gives a solid base to build......
Since we started these posts we have only featured dynamic mics. This week is the turn of our first condenser mic, pulled at random, the AKG C535 EB. This is an unusual post to write as this is not a mic we use very often. However with our industry on hold for nearly a year......
Welcome everyone to another Friday and a delve into the Astra mic collection. This week, a mic that we should use more often, the Beyerdynamic M88. Although it looks similar to a Sure sm58 this is very different. A hypercardiod polar response pattern makes it very directional and very good at rejecting feedback. As any......
Whats your favourite song? Lets face it, everyone has either asked or been asked this question. For some the answer is probably on repeat as the sound track to your life. For others this can lead to an existential crisis as you attempt to narrow down the entire history of music, cross reference this with......
After telling you that last week the Sennheiser 421 is the “go to” mic for toms in the studio, perhaps its time for our “go to” live option; the Sennheiser e604. We actually have a mixture of 604 and 504s. The subtle difference being a silver or black grill and a different clip but essentially......
This week on “what mics has Astra got” we come to two more special mics; the Sennheiser 441 and 421. It would be easy to get bogged down with raving about how good these mics are, the 441 is probably the finest dynamic mic ever made. Having spent the first week telling you fine people......
Hopefully you are all now fully aware of how this works. Each week we will be featuring another of the mics in our collection and giving you a little information along with our opinions on them. Since its release the SM57 was the standard mic for guitar cabs in studio and live work. With the......
Next on our list of microphones follows on nicely from our previous post and are the Sure Beta58 and Sure Beta57. First off, Beta DOES NOT MEAN BETTER! This is such a common discussion but it shows a complete misunderstanding. The first fundamental difference between an SM58 and Beta58 is the polar response pattern. Simply......
2021 is upon us and as part of the new year, we at Astra will be outputting some new, original content to hopefully inform and entertain all of you as we head into a new decade. During lockdown we have completed work on our new office which we will use as an excuse to sort......
