Muse engineer/producer Marc “MC” Carolan is utilizing Royer Labs R-122 live active ribbon microphone for lead vocalist-guitarist-keyboard virtuoso Matthew Bellamy’s guitar cabinet.
Originally introduced to Royer Labs microphones during one of his various studio endeavors, Carolan reports the R-122 Live is a robust performer that can handle high SPL sources without the acoustic anomalies served up by some microphones.
As for mic’ing Matthew Bellamy’s guitar cabinet, Carolan reports, “Between myself, Adam Taylor (monitor engineer) and Jason Baskin (guitar tech), we came up with an optimum placement of about 4 inches from the cone and about 2 inches off center. While his cabinet produces extreme SPL, it also delivers a wide range of tones and feels.
“The Royer R-122 Live is the only mic that can handle all of this. I like the fact that there’s no artificial high end boost as is found with other manufacturer’s microphones. The R-122 Live remains true to delivering the tonality Matt is trying to achieve.”
Presently, Carolan has two R-122 Live ribbon microphones, with one mic dedicated to Bellamy’s guitar sound and the other as a backup.
When he’s not on tour, Carolan usually finds himself entrenched in a variety of studio projects and, here too, he considers his Royer ribbons essential tools of the trade. When using the R-122 Live in the studio, Carolan says, “I find myself experimenting with a variety of microphone positions. The figure 8 polar pattern and the nulls that are an integral part of the mic’s sonic signature provide tremendous flexibility. The amount of isolation from other sound sources that these mics can achieve with careful positioning is really impressive.”
“Obviously, its sound is the most important aspect of the microphone,” Carolan continues. “The R-122 LIve doesn’t try to impose a character of its own on the source. Rather, the mic reproduces the source in a very satisfying manner—especially when things get loud. Its response means the ear is not assaulted with any hi-end nastiness.”
In addition to his use of the Royer R-122 Live, Carolan recently began working with a pair of Royer Labs’ R-101 passive ribbon microphones. I’m still experimenting with them,” he says, “but so far, they have proven to be very versatile microphones. I see a lot of possibilities for the R-101.”
