The Aston Stealth is a revolutionary dynamic microphone for studio, stage and broadcast. Its four switchable voices allow you to change sounds in situ, without changing mics. And each voice has a discrete signal path, no modelling or EQ trickery, its just like having four world-class mics in one.
Stealth works in either passive or active mode, with a built-in Class A pre amp delivering 40dB clean boost no need for an additional costly gain lifter. The pre amp automatically activates when 48v phantom power is detected (a world-first). The chassis is designed to provide exceptional off-axis rejection, while ingenious internal shock absorption reduces handling and vibration noise. Add Astons legendary build-quality and you have a true beast of a microphone.
Stealth was developed in partnership with 92 top engineers, producers and artists (known as the Aston 33 after the founding members) who participated in a series of blind listening tests to decide the best possible sounds. The resulting four voice settings, Vocal 1, Vocal 2, Guitar and Dark, offer a range of superlative sounds to suit pretty much any application.
The Aston 33 (so named after the original members) is now a panel of more than 120 top producers, engineers and artists who work with Aston on new product development to ensure every mic is best in class before it is released to the market.
They perform blind listening tests on a range of possible versions of each new mic, plus industry standard models from key manufacturers and vote on performance on a variety of sources (vocals, guitars and so on). In tests the panel do not know which mics they are listening to, so the resultant votes cant be affected by brand reputation, or an expectation of how a certain microphone should sound.
Some surprising results arose from the Stealth project testing. For example the prototype Stealth voicing that consistently came top in the voting for female vocal takes came off worst for male vocals and vice versa,regardless of the pitch of the singer!Furthermore a different voicing came top for ALL guitar sources, from finger picked acoustic through to micd distorted guitar cabs.
These discoveries, derived from more than 9000 data samples, were the catalyst for the Aston team to set about reimagining the microphone from the ground up. Stealth truly excels at capturing professional quality audio in almost every situation, and masters them all.