EDMONTON, KY – Black Stone Cherry uses beyerdynamic mics at the ramshackle wooden farmhouse that serves as the band members' studio, and also on the road. Drummer John Fred Young is the son of Kentucky Headhunters' Richard Young, whose grandmother first let him use the farmhouse for rehearsals.
"We tried a few beyerdynamic mics out on the road, and they just sounded so much better – especially the vocal mics," said the band's bassist, Jon Lawhon. "All of a sudden, people started complimenting us on the backing vocals, and the only change we had made was the [M69 hypercardioid dynamic] mics. Until then, nobody ever said anything about our vocals. We knew we hadn't changed, so it had to be the mics."
Lead vocalist Chris Robertson now uses the Beyer TG-X 930-NI, a cardioid condenser with a nickel finish. "The reason we use the condenser on Chris is because his voice is kind of unique, very gravelly, and sometimes it's hard to get it on top of the mix, especially on some of our heavier songs. But that TG-X 930 is so responsive, all his lower-register vocals really started coming out. And the mic has a nice, tight pattern, so we also lost a lot of the cymbal bleed that we had been fighting. It's the perfect mic for him." (In the studio, Robertson uses both the TX-G 930 and the Beyer M99, a large-diaphragm dynamic mic, depending on the material.)
"The house has a pretty amazing history. We use it for rehearsing and writing," Lawhon said. "It's out in the country, and doesn't look like anything special on the outside. But once you walk through its spray-paint frosted door, it's like walking into a museum of music. The walls are plastered with album covers ranging from early blues to classic rock greats. The house has a great vibe, and we love getting together there. But the big magic about the house sonically is that it's all wood, both the walls and the floors. So it literally has its own sound, and that has naturally become part of the Black Stone Cherry sound."
One of the workhorse mics for the band, both on stage and in the studio, is the M201, an end-firing dynamic mic used on John Fred Young's snare and Ben Wells' guitar rig. "It's like a classic dynamic mic with a wider range of response. When we put that on John Fred's snare, suddenly you could actually hear all the ghost notes he plays between the beats, even when it's gated," said Lawhon. "It really lets the crowd feel the groove he's laying down."
For his own bass rig, Lawhon uses a straightforward setup in live performance, miked with an Opus 99 dynamic in combination with a DI box, and a more complex setup when recording.
For more information, please visit http://north-america.beyerdynamic.com.
