US engineer and mixer Darrell Thorp recently acquired a pair of Lauten Audio multi-voicing microphones, the Atlantis FC-387 after he and Lauten Audio founder, Brian Loudenslager, became acquainted through a social media exchange.
I friended Darrell on Facebook; upon him accepting my request, he posted on my page stating, ‘Love your mics!’ I replied simply, ‘Love your ears,’ says Loudenslager, adding, ‘Of course I had to inquire and get more specifics as I wasn’t aware Darrell was using our microphones’.
With a challenging vocal session with a female singer Suzanne Santo from the band HoneyHoney ahead, Thorp talked the producer into getting a demo of the Atlantis microphone. ‘The producer wanted to try it on her vocal which was very powerful and dynamic,’ says Thorp. ‘We had tried other microphones without success. We put up the Atlantis and bam! What really surprised us was how much the mic was smoothing out the 3k bump that was part of her tone. It smoothed the vocal into a more manageable place that I could handle better on the mix. And she loved the Atlantis as well.’
He used the Neutral setting on the mic, the other settings being Gentle and Forward. Released in 2012, the Atlantis was a collaboration between engineer/producer Fab Dupont and Lauten Audio. Dupont wanted a modern vocal microphone, with multiple timbres that could tackle any vocal challenge, that idea became the Atlantis, model FC-387. On release of the Atlantis in 2012, Dupont said, ‘I need a microphone that can be custom tailored for recording female vocalists, so that when they start belting on a chorus – my eyes don’t hurt.’
Since that initial demo of the Atlantis, Thorp has added a pair to his own collection: ‘I’ve now used them on drums, vocals, background vocals, and guitars,’ he says. ‘I recently used Atlantis on snare; turned it to the Forward setting, holy crap, the snare was really snappy and bright – perfect for the song. I like it on background vocals in omni mode.’
In addition to having the multi-voicing switch, Atlantis also features cardioid, fig-of-eight, and omni polar patterns, as well as a +10 gain and -10dB pad.
‘It’s been great in the mix,’ Thorp told Loudenslager, ‘Man, I am a believer.’
More: www.lautenaudio.com
