Aston Microphones HALO Purple Reflection Filter and Portable Vocal Booth

Product Information

The Halo is more expensive than many similar products, so it does need to trade on quality over value for money. Both the Halo and the sE work well to absorb sound – i.e. both practice what they preach. However with that being said, we personally think the Aston Halo makes the most noticeable difference in sound. While the eyeball is effective at diffusing sound, the Aston Halo just does it better. Record the same lines into both these mic shields and you’ll soon see the difference.

I tested the Halo for a vocal recording session (there’s no reason it can’t be used for other sources) and found it easy to set up and easy to adjust. It proved very effective in screening out room ‘live-ness’ but, as with all other such devices, if you are working in a seriously bad room, then you should also put a further large absorber behind the vocalist — a foam panel or a polyester duvet would do the job. This is to intercept reflections from the wall behind that might otherwise find their way into the open side of the screen, and onto the hot side of the mic. My own studio is fitted with basic acoustic treatment, so I used the Halo on its own. The subjective results were perfectly clean; I could discern no audible coloration. Everything from first design to final assembly is done in this country; handmade by a team of some of the finest engineers and craftsmen in Britain. Each mic has been meticulously developed by a team of British Engineers with the help and advice from over 30 UK Music industry professionals.Instead of just recreating a similar design to the tried and tested model seen on many of the mics today. Aston dare togo against the norm,pushing the boundaries of technology and designto create something completely new from theground up. Halo’s unique design is much bigger than other portable booths, and wraps around top and bottom to a maximum rear depth of almost 100mm to improve room isolation and absorption without dominating the room sound. Its textured and wave-formed surface also helps diffuse direct sound.Our market research also revealed that many people have a hard time with getting a good performance when using other reflection filters because they are not very ‘creative-friendly’ environments. The Halo’s form, colour options and size is designed to create a more ‘organic-feeling’ space for the performer to work with. Whether you choose the sE Reflection Filter or the Aston Halo, you shouldn’t be disappointed with the build quality. Both these reflection filters feel really premium and are well engineered. Although with it weighing 3x more than the sE, the Aston does feel the most sturdy.

Where the sE lags just provide absorption from the sides, the Aston Halo absorbs and protect your mic from all 360 degrees – that being the left and right hand side, as well as the top and bottom. The Aston Halo comes with a unique mounting design that’s all made of metal and simply screws onto the top of your mic stand. Once attached, it can be adjusted by both height and angle too.

Oh no! Why did I get blocked?

The sheer difference a Halo makes to vocals is nothing short of phenomenal. Get your hands on one of these and you’ll soon see what we mean. Sing or spit your rap bars into a Halo and almost immediately your vocals are more focused and noticeably tighter in the low end. They’re just so much more pronounced than you get with a bare microphone setup. All of which makes post production 10x easier, especially if your recording environment isn’t what you’d call soundproof. Safe to say, if it’s good enough for Drake, then it’s good enough for virtually everyone. How do you attach an Aston Halo?

In fact, the only instance where we think you should think twice, or at the very least assess whether a Halo would be worth it, is if you don’t really need a mic isolation shield full stop. In other words, you’ve already got a fully sound-treated room or free access to a professional studio. In which case, this purple shield would serve more as a prop than a functional piece of equipment. But saying that, it would look pretty killer as part of a music video, and certainly screams “pro producer” to any artist who walks into your studio. For mic mount positions heading further into the Halo the available distance from the bottom of the mic to the slotted rail can be an issue for the mic cable and XLR plug, though we found moving the mount to one side alleviated this problem for larger mics. Not everyone has access to a perfect place to record vocals, unwanted reflections coming into your take, but not anymore. The Aston Halo is a huge leap forward in reflection filter performance, for isolation, absorption, mounting hardware and the overall performance as a studio tool for achieving portable room control. Key Features: The most impressive quality of the Halo is its sonic neutrality. Placing any (semi) solid object close to a microphone, especially those with cardioid and figure-eight polar patterns, tends to seriously affect tonality, whether the intended source is close or at a distance.I’ve had a few mic shields over the years. This one actually works. Really good. I don’t need it anymore so selling on.

Aston Microphones pride themselves on being a British brand; both designing and building high quality, hand crafted and affordable microphones in the UK. Somewhat surprisingly, they're currently the only microphone manufacturer in the UK. In case anyone from Greenpeace is reading this, we’d also like to point out that the Halo on the Aston is made of recycled plastic bottles (PET), so as well as not feeling cheap it’s environmentally friendly too! When it comes to sound absorption, the sE uses foam. Unlike the Aston which uses the company’s patented type of PET felt. A materials that’s said to 1up the sound absorption that you get from traditional foam. Buy a Halo and you’re buying a completely new product – the Aston Halo has been completely re-engineered as a mic isolation shield. It’s not just a rip off of one that’s been released before.Much bigger surface area (approx. 40% bigger than main competitor, and ridges almost double this again) The results are visually stunning. TheSpirit Mic may look like a piece of modern art, however aesthetics are only part of the story. Each element has been meticulously designed to create better performance, better durability and better usability. The filter itself offers a much bigger surface area and is made of the latest patented acoustic materials and proprietary moulding techniques which bring massively improved filtering performance. It also incredibly lightweight so you don't need a ridiculously heavy duty stand or have troublesetting it up. Because with the Halo, the centre of gravity is directly above the top of the mic stand, there’s little chance of it causing your mic stand to tip over. Good news for those of you with precious condenser microphones! The Aston is moulded in one piece, thanks to that innovative PET felt. All of which means that you don’t have to worry about it falling apart or moving midway through your session.