BURBANK, CA – FOH engineer Jimbo Neal relies on an assortment of Royer Labs microphones to capture Brian Setzer's guitar – as well as the bass and drums – whether Setzer is fronting an 18-piece orchestra or the three-piece rockabilly band, the Stray Cats.
Neal, who also serves as FOH engineer for the Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics fame), uses Royer's Live Series microphones-the R-121 Live and R-122 Live-as well as the Royer SF-24 Stereo Active Ribbon Microphone for their natural sound, ability to handle high SPLs and reliability on the road.
"With his signature Gretsch hollow body guitar, Brian Setzer plays through a Fender Bassman amplifier. This is a unique combination of instruments to mic," Jimbo said. "The Fender Bassman can get a little edgy, and the R-121 Live does a terrific job of keeping the sound really smooth and true. There's a lot of SPL coming off that amp cabinet and, with its ability to handle those levels, the R-121 keeps the sound warm and smooth.
"I've had countless musicians come up to me a say, ‘How does that guitar sound so good?'" Jimbo added. "Whenever that happens, I'll give them the headphones so they can listen to the Royer mic's impact on the sound and then they just smile and say ‘OK, I get it'. The R-121 makes a huge difference to the sound."
Jimbo said that for this application, he typically positions the R-121 Live roughly a half inch from the grill cloth and rotated at a 45-degree angle-pointed directly at the dome of the loudspeaker. From there, the guitar sound is fed through the sound reinforcement system.
Bassist John "Spaz" Hatton, who plays an upright bass specially outfitted with two pickups, has his amp cabinet miked with the Royer R-122 Live. "John's bass has two pickups that feed direct boxes," said Jimbo, "and the R-122 Live complements the sound from the direct boxes. Without the Royer, there's a hole in the bass sound. The R-122 really completes the sound and, to be perfectly honest, more often than not, I tend to lean on the R-122 more than I do the direct boxes. This mic brings an element of the overall bass sound that the direct boxes alone don't deliver."
For Hatton's bass amp, Jimbo places the R-122 Live horizontally onto a 10-inch speaker. He typically positions the mic 2.5 – 3 inches away from the grill cloth, rotated 45-degrees and slightly tilted downward. "By setting the mic this way," Jimbo explained, "I get better rejection from the drummer's cymbals, which are very close by. I find the R-122's figure-8 pattern and its nulls (points of minimum signal reception) work really well in terms of helping to isolate the bass from the surrounding cymbals and toms."
Jimbo also said he's become very fond of his Royer SF 24 Stereo Active Ribbon Microphone, which he uses for drum overheads with drummer Tony Pia. "I typically position the SF-24 about four feet directly over the rack toms in the center of the drum kit," Jimbo says. "Make no mistake; I will never handle a live drummer again without this mic. It's that good.
"Royer Labs is a great company that really understands and supports its customers," Jimbo continued. "Dave Royer's passion for sound quality reinforces the fact that with Royer, I know I'm working with a quality microphone. Everyone at the company has a real passion for what they do and it shows in the quality of the microphone's performance. I've taken these mics around the world twice and, in all that touring, I've yet to experience a problem. These mics are built really well.
"On these shows, every input has to sound great," Jimbo added, "and the Royer mics really help me with that. The bass and guitar are such important parts of the show that they have to really sound exceptional. When we're working with the larger orchestra, my Royer mics help me with imaging-placing the sound exactly where it needs to be while maintaining the definition of each individual player. If I could figure out how to put my Royers on every source that needed to miked, I would."
For more information, please visit www.royerlabs.com.
