Royer Labs Ribbon Microphones

The New Orleans based group reinvents Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On.

New Orleans' renowned Dirty Dozen Brass Band weathered Hurricane Katrina but paid the price - a number of the band's members lost their homes and possessions. The band recently decided to remake Marvin Gaye's masterwork What's Going On and have earmarked a percentage of the record's sales for the Tipitina's Foundation, an organization benefiting the New Orleans music community (www.tipitinasfoundation.org).

Producers Anthony Marinelli and Shawn Amos took on the project with engineer Clint Bennett at the board. The album mostly consists of instrumental versions of Marvin's songs, with a few vocal renditions in Dirty Dozen's unique style.

The record was tracked at Westlake Studios in Los Angeles, CA and Bismeaux Studio in Austin, TX. Clint used R-121's and R-122's on all of the horns, an SF-12 on drum overheads and an SF-24 for brass section room miking and group vocals. The sonic quality of this record is astonishing - a nice example of what ribbon mics can do for you!

For more pictures and MP3s check out

Room Miking The Band

The Dirty Dozen at Bismeaux in Austin. BACKROW from left - Kevin Harris (tenor sax), Kirk Joseph (sousaphone), Clint Bennett (engineer) , Revert Andrews (trombone), Terence Higgins (drums), Anthony Marinelli (producer & arranger), Efrem Towns (trumpet, flugelhorn). FRONT from left: Shawn Amos (co-producer & A&R), Roger Lewis (baritone sax), William Vanden Dries (2nd assistant engineer and some of the Austin session photographs).
Not present in photo: Gregory Davis (trumpet) & Jamie McLean (guitar)

= MP3 sample

ENLARGE		1. Kevin Harris on tenor sax miked with an R-121.
		“Flyin’ High” (1.9 MB)


ENLARGE		2. Efrem Towns’ trumpet miked with an R-121.
		“Save the Children” (1 MB)


ENLARGE		3. On the backup vocals, Clint used one SF-24 to capture a circle of singers. The SF-24's dual figure-8 pattern captures sounds from the front and rear sides equally well, so singers and instrumentalists can perform anywhere around the mic. This method gives a nice, natural stereo image.
		“God is Love” (1.2 MB)



ENLARGE		4. All of the great bass lines you hear on this CD were played on the tuba. Here’s a shot of Kirk Joseph’s tuba miked with an R-122. A ribbon mic is perfect for capturing the instrument's extreme low register.
		“Wholy Holy” (1.4 MB)

ENLARGE

ENLARGE ENLARGE		5. An R-122 on Revert Andrews’ trombone.
		“Right On” (1.5 MB)


ENLARGE ENLARGE	6. Roger Lewis on baritone sax playing into an R-122.
	“Mercy, Mercy Me” (568 Kb)


ENLARGE	7. On Terence Higgins’ drums, Clint used an SF-12 as the overall pickup mic, with various other dynamics and condensers used for close miking.
	“What’s Goin On” (1.7 MB)

More drum pictures (Click on picture to enlarge)

ENLARGE	8. Efrem Towns soloing on the toy trumpet that he picked up on tour in Japan. The mic is an R-121.

ENLARGE	9. Clint and Anthony on the Protools rig in Austin.

ENLARGE	10. Clint at the board with guitarist Jamie Mclean. Clint used on R-121 on the guitar cabinet.