Have Lewitt invented the cure for poor mic technique?
Phantom power was designed for solid‑state capacitor microphones, and its limitations reflect that. Although the mic’s capsule needs to be polarised, this doesn’t really draw any current, so the only thing that’s being powered as such is the impedance converter, which typically contains just a couple of active components. The 10mA maximum phantom power current draw is enough for these applications, but it’s a limit that you run up against pretty quickly if you want to power other active circuits. Nevertheless, enterprising designers have done creative things with the meagre resources available.
Scope Labs’ Periscope mic, for example, incorporates a phantom‑powered analogue compressor, while the UA Sphere mic has a built‑in oscillator to calibrate your mic preamp input level, and LED indication of switch and button settings is now almost commonplace. But Lewitt’s new RAY microphone takes the idea of built‑in, phantom‑powered processing to several new levels.
In Black & White
In many ways, the RAY can be thought of as an evolution of Lewitt’s existing LCT 440 Pure. Like that product, it’s a large‑diaphragm true capacitor microphone with a one‑inch, centre‑terminated capsule and a fixed cardioid polar pattern. The RAY has the same form factor as the 440 and ships with the same accessories, including an effective shockmount, a magnetically attached pop shield and a foam windshield. The two mics also have the same form factor, with an attractive rectangular shell and a very open headbasket.
So what’s special about the RAY? Well, once you’ve realised that the side with the large Lewitt logo on is actually the back of the mic (gets me every time), you’ll notice that the front side is adorned with something resembling the Abbey Road zebra crossing logo, plus two buttons labelled Aura and Mute. Closer examination will also reveal a pair of racetrack‑shaped proximity sensors located either side of the black‑and‑white steps. The RAY uses these to detect how far away the performer is — and modify its response appropriately.
The RAY is a mic that can follow a performer’s movements in real time, and adjust the level and tone of its output in response.
RAY Tracing
I’ll say that again, because it is really quite a novel idea: the RAY is a mic that can follow a performer’s movements in real time, and adjust the level and tone of its output in response. (Lewitt describe it as “autofocus for your voice”, although that could be taken to imply that it’s varying the polar pattern, which is not the case.)
The way it works in practice is simple. Place yourself in front of the mic and you’ll see one of the white bars on the zebra crossing illuminate, along with the Aura logo. Move around and the display will change to reflect your position, illuminating a lower, wider bar when you’re near the mic and a narrower, higher one when you’re further away. And if you listen to or record the output from the RAY as you talk or sing, you’ll notice that the subjective level of your voice remains remarkably consistent as you move in and out.
The Low Down
To get a handle on exactly what Aura does, I tried playing test tones through fixed speakers and using my hand to trigger the proximity sensor. This showed that it varies the gain by perhaps 18dB or so between the nearest and most distant settings. Aura also applies what seems to be a variable low‑shelving EQ to compensate for proximity effect. The most distant Aura setting kicks in when you back off to around a metre from the mic, and at this distance, the low end is about 12dB up compared with the closest setting, with the +3dB point at about 200Hz. Aura doesn’t seem to change the tone in any other respect, which seems sensible, since there’s no way of knowing how the inevitable increase in room pick‑up will affect the character of the voice as the subject moves further away.
The zebra crossing display suggests that Aura works in fairly coarse steps, but that’s a simplification to make the visual feedback more immediate. Sonically, it tracks distance very smoothly, with no discernible lag, and you won’t hear any abrupt changes in tone or volume. It would take a lot of automation or a very intelligent compressor to recreate what Aura’s level compensation does after the fact, and I don’t think that even a multiband compressor can quite achieve the same degree of consistency in dealing with variable proximity effect.
The RAY package includes a discreet, magnetically attached pop shield that doesn’t interfere with Aura’s ‘line of sight’.The sensors follow what’s directly in front of the mic, which can be an object as small as a human hand, so if you get too excited and wave your arms in front of your face, you’ll likely provoke Aura into thinking you’re nearer than you are. It might also be possible for a poorly placed music stand to cause issues, and you’ll need to use the supplied pop filter rather than a conventional stocking‑and‑coat‑hanger affair.
But in general, it’s foolproof, incredibly easy to use and remarkably effective. And, in case you were wondering, it doesn’t seem to be affected by lighting conditions. I tested it in daylight and at night with all the lights switched off, and it worked equally well in both circumstances. My only quibble, really, is that if you move far enough sideways to be out of Aura’s ‘line of sight’, it’ll jump to the maximum distance setting, which perhaps isn’t what you want. An option to retain the last actively detected distance in those circumstances might be preferable, not that you usually want to be moving that far off‑axis during recording in any case.
RAY Of Sunlight
Aura’s most obvious value is in live contexts such as streaming, broadcasting, podcasting and so on, but it definitely has the potential to be useful in music recording too. When you’re moving a mic around to find the right placement, it’s hard not to be swayed towards closer positions just because they’re louder and more impressive for the same preamp gain setting. The RAY effectively levels that playing field, as well as offering a natural and transparent way of handling those performers who just won’t stay still when they’re doing their thing in the studio.
And in purely sonic terms, the RAY holds its own against other mics in this price bracket, with impressive specs that include an eye‑catching 8dBA self‑noise figure. Like some of the other Lewitt models I’ve heard, it has a relatively crisp and forward core sound, with a readily apparent presence boost, but is not so pre‑equalised as to lose too much in the way of versatility. It sounded very good on my own voice, and the gain variations prompted by Aura did not introduce any detectable noise or other nasties. Lewitt have created a simple, effective and mostly foolproof solution to a genuine real‑world problem, and it works beautifully. What’s more, even with the Aura circuitry and sensors, it uses only 7.2 of the 10mA permitted in the IEC phantom power standard. I wonder what further creative uses Lewitt will find for the other 2.8mA...
Mute By Distance
When Mute By Distance is active, the user sets a distance limit indicated by the red bar. Move further away than this, and the RAY will mute itself.
Press and release the RAY’s Mute button and it does what you expect, illuminating clearly in red to indicate that output from the mic has been attenuated by 70dB. Press and hold it, however, and you enter a mode Lewitt call Mute By Distance.
The idea is that after you release the button, you place yourself at the furthest point from the mic where you want sound to be picked up. The appropriate bar on the ‘zebra crossing’ display will turn red to indicate that the RAY will auto‑mute as soon as you get further away from the mic than that. This is another neat application for the proximity sensing, albeit one that’s probably more relevant to livestreamers and YouTubers than it is to music recording.
Summary
Like all really good ideas, the principle of a distance‑sensing mic sounds simple, but it’s never been done before. Lewitt have got it right first time!
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