(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

I bought the Aston Spirit because I was working on an album with a reggae band and my normal go to vocal mic took a crap on me. I needed a new vocal mic and fast. First I ordered the slate VMS mic because I had heard many good things about it but the problem was it was on back order for weeks and I didn't have time to wait, so I went on zZounds and found the Aston spirit. Now I'm not one to buy before I try but since the mic was only 399 and zZounds has a great return policy I decided what the heck, I mean every review I had read up to that point only had good things to say about the mic. The Aston arrived 2 days later and I had our first vocal session that night so I threw it up and plugged it into my Warm Audio TB12 and WOW! The Aston has a sound of its own but its a very beautiful sound. I have used it on low male vocals, high male vocals and acoustic guitar so far. For Vocals it has a nice bright sound but not overly sibilant. I had to do almost no post processing on my vocals because they sounded good straight though the Warm audio TB12 and a distressor. I did add a de esser but very subtle. I haven't compared this mic with any others yet but I can tell you with certainty that the Aston is a great sounding mic and if some one didn't tell you before that it was only 400 dollars you would think you're holding a 3000$ mic. The mic feels like a quality mic, its got weight to it, not a light plastic feel, and the brushed steel finish with the custom steel mesh around the capsule makes it easy on the eyes. Once I get my u87 fixed I am going to do a shoot out between the aston, slate vms, u87. and shure sm7b and see how they compare!

Musical Background:

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

This is an excellent microphone, and I don't just mean in the usual "this is excellent for the money" sort of way. It's very natural sounding, but with something of a lift in the top end. I've found that, because of this, some of my usual go-to mic'ing methods don't work as well (it's pretty easy for this mic to make certain sources sound harsh if you aren't careful), but anything that forces you to do things differently is a win in my book. I'm loving getting to experiment again, and I have the Aston Sprit to thank for that! One small caveat for me is the lack of a tiltable microphone mount. Aston have been very clever with the way they integrated the stand mount into the baseplate of the microphone, and that works for some scenarios, but I'm not really excited about having to buy their $120 shockmount just so I can tilt the mic (the Sprit has a built-in shockmount, so an external one isn't totally necessary). I believe OnStage makes a mic-tilt attachment that's something in the neighborhood of $10. I'll be buying that for sure. Skill-wise, I'm somewhere between an amateur and an intermediate level engineer, so my opinions should be taken with a grain of salt. I haven't had the opportunity to compare this mic to many others in its class, so I really can't speak to where it falls on the spectrum of sub-$500 microphones. What I will say, though, is that I did my research before I pulled the trigger, and I felt confident that this was what I wanted. So far, I'm not disappointed.

Musical Background:

Musical Style:

(see rating details)

Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

When I ordered this microphone I had already done extensive research and did the whole youtube reviews, blogs, different company websites. I use this Aston for vocals which fit the character in sound I was looking for, for nylon string guitar and for drums. With that said it has performed beyond expectations so that is my review, its pretty sweet.

Musical Background:

Musical Style: