How to
On the stage
Royer ribbons have been on tour since 2001, when Aerosmith took six R-121s on the road. They’re showing up in performance venues around the world.
Royer microphones for the stage
Royer R-10
The Royer R-10 is a passive mono ribbon microphone designed for use in the studio and on live stages. Hand-built in our Burbank, California factory, the R-10’s sound and performance are all-Royer and it handles SPLs of up to 160 dB @ 1 kHz. The R-10’s compact size and mounting system allow for flexible, unobtrusive positioning.
Royer R-121
The studio R-121 is tough and has been used on live performances for years. Aerosmith toured six of them for eight years; the story is below.
A bit of history: how Aerosmith came to ribbons on the road
While Aerosmith was rehearsing the Just Push Play tour in 2001, they were looking for a way to replicate their studio guitar sounds (recorded with their new R-121s) and control on-stage microphone bleed. An engineer suggested trying R-121s: they were studio ribbons but they were tough, the figure-8 patterns would control the bleed, and Joe Perry already liked the sound. It was the first time Royers had been tried live (that we know of). The rehearsal tests went great and Aerosmith ended up taking six R-121s on the road for the tour (five for cabinets and one for standby).
Those six R-121s stayed on Joe’s and Brad’s live guitar cabinets until 2009. In eight years on the road they stretched only one ribbon.
Ribbons on the road
According to Jim Ebdon, front-of-house engineer for Aerosmith, Matchbox Twenty and Maroon 5, “Joe Perry from Aerosmith had been using Royer R-121s in his studio and decided to take them on the road. We used a mixture of the Royers, [Shure] 57s and [Audio-Technica] AT4050s.” Read the full article at Mix.
The Brian Setzer Orchestra live: FOH engineer Jimbo Neal using Royers
Front of house engineer Jimbo Neal takes us behind the scenes with the Brian Setzer Orchestra, showing how he uses Royer and Mojave Audio microphones.