REVIEW IN RECORDING MAGAZINE (July 2017)

Resonator on Cover of Recording Magazine

PLACID AUDIO RESONATOR SERIES – WE GAVE THEM A SNEAK PEEK EARLIER THIS YEAR, NOW IT’S TIME TO CUT LOOSE ON GUITARS!

In our February 2017 issue, we brought you a quick preliminary look at the two newest members of the Placid Audio family: the Resonator Series. That review 
focused on the new mics’ use on vocals. This month we return to the Resonator and bring you an in-depth look at the application for which they were primarily 
designed… guitar amps!

Placid Audio is a microphone company helmed by Tripping Daisy/Polyphonic Spree bassist Mark Pirro. Placid Audio’s Copperphone mic is the original steampunk
 lo-fi mic. Originally the Copperphone was invented to add live phone-line style vocals to Polyphonic Spree concerts, but soon Copperphone found their way into
 studios… and general mayhem has ensued ever since.

All Placid mics come housed in copper tubes seated on large metal yokes. Beyond their lo-fi old radio/telephone sound when used on their own, Placid Audio
 mics play well with other microphones in multi-mic situations when blended in as a cool added tones you can’t get with EQ. This is especially true of Mark’s 
two newest models, the Resonator A and Resonator B, especially on guitar cabinets.

WHAT’S RESONATING IN A RESONATOR?
Both models are built inside the same 2.5? x 6? copper body as the original Copperphone, yoke and all. Visually, the Resonator A and B are only differentiated
 by the orientation of the lines on their head grilles.

The Resonators use a mylar dynamic capsule vs. the Copperphone’s aluminum capsule, and are internally baffled with a front-ported resonant chamber. The 
Copperphone’s transducer, by contrast, is rear-ported. The Resonators are also less band- limited, more low-mid focused, have more headroom, and are less
 prone to clipping than the upper-mid focused Copperphone.
Comparatively, Resonator A is the model with the fuller sound, but at the same time it has a distant tunnel-like character. The Resonator B is thinner and 
sizzles a bit more. It has the sound of an old wire recording, crunchy top and all, but somehow cleaner at the same time.

PLAYING WITH THE OTHER KIDS
Rather than suggesting that buyers choose one or the other model, I think Placid Audio should consider selling the Resonators as a 2-piece kit. Why? Because
they fit together so well, especially on guitar cabinets in tandem with a “normal” dynamic or ribbon mic. The standard dynamic mic grabs the usual thick 
forward punch that we are used to on a guitar cabinet, while the Resonators, when blended, add in a unique high-end openness and a touch of abstract 
roughness to the sound.

When set up as a pair on their own, one on axis to the cab speaker and the other off, the result is a great old-world blues amp sound. It’s like listening to an
 old 78 record… minus the clicks, static and pops.

IN USE
I used the Resonators in a variety of set- ups over several months. My favorite guitar amp trick was pairing them with a third mic. While any moving-coil 
dynamic mic or ribbon mic could work for this application, I especially enjoyed teaming them with MXL’s new DX-2. In this three-mic setup, place the standard
 dynamic or ribbon mic in the center of your mix, and pan each of the Resonators hard to the sides. Then send all three mic tracks to a stereo bus and add
 a stereo FET or opto-compressor to glue them together. This creates a unique, wide illusion for otherwise mono guitar tracks, with an amazing high end that 
you need to hear for yourself. It’s an especially cool trick to do with an amp containing a spring reverb, as the Resonators add a cool lo-fi sheen to the top
 end of the ’verb.

Interestingly, the electric guitar isn’t the only string instrument where the Resonators shine. On acoustic guitar and mandolin, I like the Resonators in place
of a bright pencil condenser around the 12th fret, combined with a large-diaphragm condenser mic just to the side of the sound hole. This gives a nice rough 
edge to an acoustic guitar for a rock mix. Here, either mic will work, but I like the sound of Resonator A better. I also like using the Resonators as massively
 compressed room mics!

As always, the Resonators won’t be your first or only mics, but they are great special utility mics that always yield interesting artistic results. They may 
have been designed originally for guitar cabinets, but they beg for experimentation on any source! – Written by Paul Vnuk Jr.