Aston Project Element: Anybody else participating in the voting?

[joeyluck]

For those who don't know about it, Aston is releasing a new mic, engineered based on the preferences of those who participate in the voting.

Aston Microphones leveraged the ears of over 2,000 musicians, engineers, and producers to fine-tune the sound of the Element active moving-coil microphone. This large sample size generated over 36,000 data points that Aston used to create a microphone that stands out even among legendary studio mics. Aston even built its innovative mic capsule from the ground up, distinct from condenser, dynamic, and ribbon microphone elements, and the result is a full, wide-ranging response with impeccable transient detail. The people spoke, Aston Microphones listened — the Element active moving-coil microphone is the sonically proficient result.

The Element Project is the first of its kind — let musicians, engineers, and producers, fine-tune a microphone's voicing until the majority is impressed. Visit the Aston Microphones site and cast your vote for which voicing of Element you think is the best. Aston is putting up sound samples recorded with the Element in various stages of prototype along with other well-known mics. Listen to the sound samples and choose your favorite — this feedback will be used by Aston Microphones to determine the final voicing of the next Element microphone. And as a special bonus, this special limited-edition version of the Element is only available to the voters who shaped the sound.

I've been voting. I just completed voting in round 2. I have found it to be a bit difficult to judge because each of the session recordings is a different performance. So sometimes when placing them in order of best to worst, some of that could be attributed to the performance itself, the location of the performer to the mic, etc. You vote on male vocal, female vocal, and acoustic guitar. For each round, there are five recordings for each that you place in order of best to worst and then you are able to offer some notes at the end.

I believe round 2 will wrap soon and round 3 will begin July 1.

Only those who vote will get official ‘Aston Microphones Developer’ status, as well as having the opportunity to pre-order a highly collectable ‘Limited Edition Voter's Element’ at 25% off list price (limited to one mic per customer).