Aston Starlight Small Diaphragm Condenser Microphone

Get The Best Sound Possible With Repeatable Setups Thanks To Laser Guidance With The Aston Starlight Small Diaphragm Condenser Microphone

The Aston Starlight is the first ever laser targeting pencil condenser microphone. Its unique addition of a class 2 laser allows for recall of mic position in the studio and incredibly quick and easy setup in live applicaitons. The Starlight also features Aston's unique voice switching for sound contouring and incredibly robust construction including the now signature tumbled stainless steel chassis. The Starlight has a 20mm cardioid capsule that was hand-picked by over 50- top producers in a blind listening test conducted in 2016.

LASER

The addition of a Class 2 laser to the Starlight SDC, with on/off switch, allows the user to recall mic positions in the studio so set up can be easily replicated. It also means, for touring bands, that mic positions can be marked off on drums etc, and set-up becomes a breeze. It’s a world’s first and a big leap in helping to get a consistent sound whatever the situation.

SINTERED METAL HEAD

Sintering is not new to the mic world, however it was seldom used before Aston took the technology further than ever before.  They tested many thicknesses of sintered head, as well as the average size of the sinter spheres, and combined that with nickel plate which is controlled to only a few nanometres thickness to achieve near perfect acoustic porosity. In addition the head is virtually indestructible, so like all Aston mics, it can take any amount of studio or even live use and will never let you down.

VOICE SWITCHING

Most SDC mics have a pad and a roll of and that's it.  Aston included 3 modes of operation, courtesy of some very fancy front-end filtering between the capsule and PCB. You can chose between Vintage, Modern and Hybrid settings to get the perfect tone response for your application… guitar cab, drums, strings, even vocals… whatever the application you’ll get a perfect fit for your music, and each setting has been carefully tuned to give superb top-flight performance, way beyond Starlight’s price point.

DISCRETE MIC AMP CIRCUIT (PCB)

Starlight employs an extremely fine-tuned discrete mic amp circuit with high-spec components, to achieve an extremely sensitive, low noise design with loads of headroom. This allows the Starlight to handle quiet or very loud sources without compromising noise or tonal performance. Crucially, the higher output level of the Starlight’s output stage allows microphone preamps to operate with lower gain, where their distortion performance is at its best. The final result is a beautifully clean and detailed sound. The Starlight’s voicing control employs inductive active filters at the front-end of the microphone circuit to alter the response of the capsule without adding any noise to the circuit. The benefit of this means that the voicing switch is effectively the equivalent of changing the capsule to achieve different tonal characteristics and frequency response.

ECO-FRIENDLY PACKAGING

Aston continues their unique approach to manufacturing by packaging the Starlight into a simple, protective, re-usable, environmentally sensible housing.

• Laser-alignment sight for placement accuracy and recording recall
• Sintered metal head - unique & innovative design protects capsule and provides excellent acoustic properties
• Gold-sputtered 20mm capsule, chosen in blind tests by a panel of 50 top producers
• PCB - market-leading electronic design
• 1.5mm, solid stainless steel, laser-cut and etched chassis
• 3-position voicing switch: Vintage, Modern and hybrid settings
• Pad switch: -20dB/ -10dB/ 0dB
• 3-position Low-Cut Filter
• Eco-friendly packaging - well-designed, re-usable and recyclable

We are Chuck Levin's Washington Music Center

Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC's legendary music shop. Family-owned and operated since 1958. Buy gear the way it was meant to be bought, from a store that's been there through it all and has the vibe to prove it. We're staffed with musicians and industry experts, people that live and breathe music gear. Our mission is to help you find the right gear for your project, that thing that will bring you the most joy out of what you do. We're an authorized dealer for almost every brand, we stock items the other stores don't, so you can try before you buy. Stop by our Wheaton, MD showroom and see for yourself.

Contact us if you have questions about one of our listings or if you need help finding the right piece of gear.