Royer Labs Ribbon Microphones

In July of 2003, Wayne Shorter performed in Los Angeles with his world-traveled jazz band and some noteworthy musical guests. Wayne's band included Brian Blade on drums, John Patitucci on stand-up bass, and Vanilo Perez on piano. His guests for the evening included Herbie Hancock, Carlos Santana, Savion Glover and a full orchestra. Front of House engineer Rob Griffin has been traveling with Wayne for years, multi-track recording most shows and putting Wayne's music across beautifully. Rob leans heavily on ribbon mics on-stage.

Wayne Shorter Main Page
Session Photos Main Page

ENLARGE	1. Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and John Patitucci hanging during an afternoon sound check.

ENLARGE	2. The microphones on Wayne's sax are an R-122 in the lower position and a Soundeluxe U-99 on the bell of the sax.

ENLARGE	3. Another angle on Wayne's saxophone mics.

ENLARGE	4. John Patitucci and Brian Blade looking over music during sound check.

ENLARGE	5. Brian Blade's drum set. Rob miked the kit with two R-122's on overheads, an R-121 on the high-hat and an R-122 on the kick.

ENLARGE	6. Close-up of a R-121 on high-hat. Because this was an outdoor gig, all mics have foam wind filters placed on them to protect the ribbon elements.

ENLARGE	7. Rob places the kick mic a couple of feet in front of the kick. Leaning the microphone forward at 45 degrees provides good kick drum isolation (the top of the microphone has excellent rejection) and it helps protect the ribbon element. (For a more immediate kick sound you can place an R-121 or R-122 as close as 8 inches from the drum, as long as it's leaned forward at 45 degrees and kept away from any holes in the front head).

ENLARGE	8. Rob Griffin (left) with one of his favorite engineers, Grammy Award winning Moogie Canazio. Rob always references with Moogie's recordings when he's getting sounds.

ENLARGE	9. Left to right: John Patitucci (bass), Brian Blade (drums), unidentified monitor mixer, Danilo Perez (piano), Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter

ENLARGE	10. Rob works the board at sound check.

ENLARGE	11. Carlos Santana walking across the stage to check out his rig.

ENLARGE	12. Santana's stereo guitar amplifier rig, miked with two R-121's.

ENLARGE	13. A side angle of Santana's amps show that the R-121's are placed approximately 6 inches from the grill cloth.

ENLARGE	14. Okay, we didn't have the best camera for nighttime photography. But here are a couple of shots of the show.

ENLARGE	15.

ENLARGE		16. After the concert, a surprise backstage birthday party for Wayne!

ENLARGE		17. Wayne's b-day cake. Worth the price of admission itself...

ENLARGE		18.

ENLARGE		19. Wayne playing sax in 2002. At this time Rob was using two R-121's on Wayne's sax. You can hear how that sounded on Wayne's "Footprints Live!" album.