The audio examples available on this page accompany my review of the Saturn 2 multi-pattern Large Diaphragm Condenser microphone by Sontronics.
www.soundonsound.com/reviews/sontronics-saturn-2
I’ve provided a few examples of how I enjoyed this distinctive-looking mic during the review period, coupled with a few notes along the way. With the exception of example 07, all examples were recorded using the preamps on my Audient ASP24 with no additional processing on the way in.
01_Saturn 2 GTR
For my first two examples, singer-songwriter Naomi Randall was kind enough to record two takes of a song — playing and singing at the same time. In this first example, the Saturn 2 was used on her acoustic guitar in the Figure of 8 polar pattern — with the patterns inherent nulls directed towards her voice. The vocal mic on this take was my trusty vintage U87 — also in Figure of 8. The recordings feature no processing other than a touch of reverb.
02_Saturn 2 Vox
In this example the mics roles are reversed: The Saturn 2 is on Naomi’s voice with the U87 on the guitar.
03_Drum Overhead
This is how the Saturn 2 sounded positioned over the middle of my Rogers drum kit at a height of around 3-4 feet from the snare. In this example, the mic was in its hyper-cardioid polar pattern.
04_Drum Room
The Saturn 2 worked superbly as a mono room mic in my live room and in this example, the mic was in its omnidirectional polar pattern at a distance of around 10-12 feet from the kit.
05_Mono Piano
It would have been great to have a pair to try out on piano but I was still able to get a sense of how the Saturn 2 sounded when positioned close to the exposed strings on my studio's upright piano.
06_Voiceover
Spoken word is a great test of a mic's personality and in this example, I’m reading a short extract from the mic's manual. I purposely positioned myself very close to the mic and think it did a pretty good job of capturing my naturally nasal tones!
07_Male Vocal
Tony from Cambridge band ‘The New Fools’ was kind enough to record a short example from the lead vocal of a recent single of theirs. His voice has a lot of energy around 8