The FlexBar can make all sorts of dual‑mic placement jobs quick and easy.
There’s a popular adage amongst recording engineers that details in order the things that most affect the quality of a sound recording. It starts with the musical composition, then the musical arrangement, next the performer(s), the recording environment, the mic positions, the mic selections... and finally the rest of the technique and technology: mixing, mic preamps, signal processing, converters, file formats, and all the rest that we tend to get hung up on but which, in the grand scheme, make relatively little difference to the end product.
If you think about it, this list makes perfect sense. If you don’t start with a really great song that people want to hear, in a good arrangement and performed sublimely, the best mics in the world won’t make it any better. And if you don’t place those world‑class mics in the right places around the instruments no one will hear the performance as intended either! In my experience, finding ways of getting microphones where you want them to be is often a significant part of the challenge of recording, so I’m always on the lookout for effective and versatile new mounting tools and was intrigued when I learned of Royer Labs’ new FlexBar system, which they describe as a ‘dual mic utility bar’.
Serious Flex
As ‘stereo bars’ go the FlexBar is relatively expensive, but it was designed in collaboration with Triad‑Orbit, who make a range of brilliantly clever, extremely robust and versatile mic‑mounting hardware (see SOS July 2016 for my review), none of which could be described as inexpensive. Nor should they or the FlexBar be: unlike the crude agricultural mechanics we’ve become used to with cheap Far Eastern imports, the FlexBar is a really high‑quality, beautifully engineered product that guarantees a very long life expectancy. This kind of gear is a genuine investment designed to work day in, day out in tough professional environments over a long lifetime.
The FlexBar... affords a level of flexibility and configurability I’ve never found in any mic mounting system before.
Most ‘stereo bars’ are simple designs, comprising a rail with a central stand mounting point and a couple of threaded mic mounts that are usually movable along the bar to set the required distance between mics. The FlexBar takes a simple but very different approach that affords a level of flexibility and configurability I’ve never found in any mic mounting system before. At its heart is an aluminium T‑shaped bar with slotted cross arms and a knuckle joint at the base to fix the system onto a mic stand. The upright of the T is around 130mm high and the cross arms extend about 70mm to each side. The knuckle joint is locked in position by a re‑positionable lever arm, the length of which makes tightening very easy, although very little tension is actually required. The mating surfaces of the knuckle clamp have fine radial serrations so that once closed together they are mechanically locked in place across their entire surface area. A spring pushes the two interlocking surfaces apart when the lever is loosened, so they can then rotate freely, and a miniature ball race with pressure washers either side ensures the lever’s action is smooth and consistent.
Slotted into the T‑bar’s cross arms are movable L‑shaped extensions, terminating with a mic mounting thread and locking ring. In fact, all of the fixing threads on the FlexBar are the American standard 5/8‑inch type, but FlexBars destined for export markets (like the UK and Europe) are shipped with a 3/8‑inch threaded insert for the stand‑mount socket, and a pair of 3/8‑inch adaptors for the mic mounts. The L‑shaped arms are slotted to allow extension over a 50mm range, with up to 225 degrees of rotation about the hinge point. Locked, again, with long, adjustable lever arms, serrated washers either side of the extension arm grip it securely in place with little tension on the clamp. Indeed, over‑tightening will tend to flatten the serrated washers and reduce grip over the long term rather than maintain it!
Along the tops of the extension bars are centimetre marks indicating the (horizontal) mic mount distances from the centre (scaled from 10 to 15 cm), as an aide to quickly configuring the stereo bar. Overall, the horizontal span between mic mounts ranges from 20 to 30 cm.
The Flexbar can be used to host most dual‑mic setups.
In Practice
The most fiendishly challenging aspect of the FlexBar is figuring out how to adjust the arms to get the thing back into the foam cutout in its storage box after use! But actually configuring it to support a chosen mic array is obvious and fast and, most importantly, the result is reassuringly sturdy. Taking the simplest configuration first, with the movable arms extending horizontally from the T‑bar arms, the FlexBar serves as a reasonably standard‑looking fixed stereo bar to support side‑address or end‑fire mics in all the usual coincident and near‑coincident array formats (XY, ORTF, NOS and so on). For end‑fire mics where the capsules need to overlay one another, rotating one or both movable arms slightly accommodates that without needing extra thread adaptors to gain the necessary height.
For side‑address mics, a neat‑looking option is to allow the movable arms to drop downwards and face outwards, so that the mics rise up along the sides of the mount with around a 30‑40 cm capsule spacing, depending on mic suspension hardware. This is a practical arrangement for near‑spaced stereo pairs of omnis, figure‑8s or cardioids in many situations.
It’s probably no coincidence that the FlexBar neatly accommodates two Royer ribbon mics in a Blumlein array!Of course, Royer are best known for their ribbon mics, which are inherently side‑address figure‑8s — a format which is notoriously tricky to mount neatly in a Blumlein array since it requires the mics to be mounted vertically, head to head. The FlexBar accommodates this requirement with ease — it’s as if it were designed specifically for that purpose! Simply rotate the knuckle joint so that the T‑bar extends horizontally from the mic stand, move the arms to their fullest extent, attach the mics to face into the centre of the bar and rotate them to the desired ±45‑degree angles. The result looks elegant, and it’s simple to achieve and very solid in practice.
Moving on from classic stereo mic array configurations, the FlexBar can also be used to position any two mics of whatever type wherever required. For example, if you want two mics on an acoustic guitar, one near the 12th fret and one nearer the tail, the FlexBar can do that. Need to mic up a singing guitarist, with one mic for vocal and one on the guitar body? The FlexBar can sort that out in a trice. Want both top and bottom mics on a snare drum? The FlexBar can do that easily. Ditto, for a pair of mics dropped through the open lid of an upright piano, or even close mics near the hammers tucked under the lid of a grand piano. The FlexBar can do everything a standard stereo bar can do, and a lot more besides. Imagination and requirements are the only limits!
Verdict
While handling and adjusting the FlexBar, its solidity and ruggedness are apparent. This thing genuinely oozes quality engineering, and its supremely versatile configurability is quite unlike anything else I’ve used. If I had to nitpick (I do — it’s in my job description!), I’d suggest that, perhaps, the FlexBar could benefit from some built‑in clips or clamps to assist with fast and neat cable dressing. But that’s very obviously not a deal‑breaker, and I got on fine using my usual black Velcro wrap‑around ties.
While pricier than traditional stereo bars, the asking price is reasonable. Indeed, looked upon as a tool that will remain in use over decades — it really will get used in almost every recording session — the investment seems a very wise one. All the best designs seem simple and obvious once someone has brought them to market, and the FlexBar is no different. It’s a genius product, and once used you’ll want to go on using it for everything. I know I do!
Alternatives
I am unaware of any mic‑mounting system quite this versatile. The Shure A27M comes close for many applications, but the FlexBar can do things the A27M can’t.
Pros
- Solidly and beautifully engineered.
- Supremely versatile and configurable in ways no other utility bar can match.
- 3/8‑inch adaptors included in export sets.
Cons
- Cost.
- No built‑in cable‑dressing clips.
Summary
An ingenious but simple and elegant solution to myriad awkward mic‑mounting conundra.
Information
£252 including VAT.
SEA Distribution +49 5903 93880.
