Andy Gray

ANDY GRAY

Composer / Producer / Mixer
(Big Brother, TT3D, Gary Numan, Hard-Fi)
"I'm using DM-1B on cab (amazing!) and on kick drum. When you get it in the right place it sounds as good as my U47! It's incredible how Sontronics get even their most affordable mics to sound like they should be ten times the price!"

"Quite a while back I read a cool write-up on Sontronics mics and I had to try them. I'd used their ribbon mics before and now I'm using their drum mics – DM-1B on kick and bass, DM-1S on snare, DM-1T on toms – plus DELTA and HALO on guitar cab, and they've featured on all my recent stuff: tracks co-written with Gary Numan, the soundtrack to US telelvision series Hunters and the music for movie TT3D, plus a sample library I'm recording for Spitfire Audio.

"My first try of the DM-1B was on bass cab and it was amazing. I'm now using it on kick drum and when you get it in the right place it sounds as good as my [Neumann] U47fet does outside the kick, which is amazing!

"The DM-1S is one of the best close snare mics I have ever used. It is working amazingly well. It gives you a real open snare sound, unlike the snap/crack you get with a 57. I've just started using the DM-1T on toms and again I found that even with close miking you get a nice open sound. It's great!

"Sontronics HALO is amazing on guitar – it gives you a real direct, in-yer-face sound. It can make your amp push through the mix like a DI guitar with a plug-in. I love it!

"I've now got Sontronics ARIA which is just stunning. I spent the first six months using it alongside my vintage Neumann M49, tracking everything on both mics, and pretty soon it was obvious that the ARIA was better on everything… I ended up putting some of my Neumanns on ebay because of it.

"It's just beautiful. I used it on everything from guitar to percussion to operatic vocals to double bass to overhead on bass drums… ARIA is a phenomenal mic and it's always set up ready to swing round and use on whatever I'm recording. I couldn't live without it.

"My daughter is now writing and recording her own tracks, and she's been using Sontronics mics at her college. She's got an STC-3X for her own set-up, and it's incredible how Sontronics get even their most affordable mics (STC-3X is about 250 quid, I think) to sound like they should be ten times the price. When she's not using it, I steal it for my own studio - it's a brilliant mic!"