Two Romito Engineering prototype SPK Active Ribbon mics were put to use at The Tractor Tavern in Seattle for three nights of recording Pedro The Lion.
Esteemed front of house and mastering engineer Chris Colbert was manning the console for all three nights. He’s a long time advocate for using ribbon mics in a live setting and he’s known for following his ear. For these dates we used a Romito SPK prototype in the kick over position on the drum kit to catch the shell of both the kick and snare as well as a fair amount of the full kit. Given the small stage and close proximity to a nearby hazer fan we decided to wrap the mic in a dead cat windscreen to eliminate the possibility of having the ribbon blown around.
As the shows were being tracked for a later audio release as well as an upcoming video documentary, Chris asked to hang a second Romito Engineering SPK prototype as an ambient approx. 25ft from the stage angled down a bit to catch both the stage and the crowd.
After having had a chance to listen to the tracks recorded with these two mics, Chris had this to say about them:
“As I mixed these shows I was pleasantly surprised by the results. I’ve been using ribbon microphones in live sound for years and the Romito Engineering prototypes really set themselves apart.
The detail and depth of the mic over the kick drum was very impressive. It had that elusive “knock” from the bass drum that is usually difficult to capture, and the high end detail from the bottom of the snare and the cymbals was well defined and clear, even while the drummer was bashing away. This mic ended up being about 75% of my drum mic blend.
As an ambient mic at a loud rock show the Romito gave me a very accurate recording of what it really sounded like in the venue. The Romito prototype was getting blasted by the P.A. and did not distort, get mushy, or “bottom out” in spite of the extreme SPL.”