Auralex Aural-Xpanders Reviews

4.5/5.0 based on 4 customer reviews

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Customer Reviews

Jake "Sour" Saltus
from Savannah,Ga U.S. and A.
August 1, 2009Music Background:
vocalist, guitarist, recording engineer, and I play the spoon.

Theres an Aura around these Aural Xpanders

To sum up the issue at hand, think, we the proud musician isolate our monitors from the stand or shelf they sit on, we isolate the amplifier from the floor, even the drum set from the risers. So Ive found myself thinking mostly on mondays ( my thinking day so I can avoid the brutish reality that is the day feared by most of the working class- a Monday) why not devise a way to isolate the microphone stand from the floor. Not just relying on a shock mount to eliminate floor-borne noise but have two means of defense to guard against the gruesome creature- noise. I called Sweetwater and put in my sales engineers ext. Matt Masek answered. By now i was in a panicked state, I could barely control the hyper ventilation to get the words out but calmed down slightly knowing the answer was on the telephone, I explained i thought of a genuis invention and if he would help me bring my idea to full prototype design we would split the profit 50/50. Matt then informed Auralex already makes that and they come with small baffles this was the most exciting disappointment ever. I would not have a swimming pool full of money but i bought the product and what a trade off. Now my recordings have a new clarity the kind you get from a cold shower after a long night. I must say Im not thrilled my pool of money is merely a figment of my imagination now but a new invention has come to mind a booth that isolates the vocalist from outside noises such as puppies, roosters, and all other annoyances, I'll call it The Vocal Booth. Thank you Matt Mazek and Sweetwater for guiding me to this truely amazing product and sparing me the embarrassment of inventing the already invented.

Cameron
from Fort Collins, CO
May 31, 2009Music Background:
seasoned guitarist/drummer, recording engineer

Gotta have 'em

These things have really helped my recordings to date. I never mic any source without using one of these guys on the mics. You might not be able to notice a difference right off on individual tracks, but if you A/B a whole mix with and without these it's major! I use the triangular ones on overheads for drums and the large xpander on the kick. combination of the large and a triangular one for vocals. and I make sure to at least use the small drum xpanders on guitar cabs (and drums of course). Get them, you won't regret it.

Lawrence
from Yukon Territory, Canada
March 20, 2007Music Background:
Professional musician, home recording hobbyist

Little Foams that could

These baffles are definitely useful. I've only tried them with acoustic guitar, so far. What they do is greatly reduce the ambient room sound entering the microphone, which is ideal for a home recording environment. I'll probably use these every time I record from now on, since I don't have an acoustically treated room.

Of course, they're also intended to be used for isolating instruments and drum microphones, and I have no doubt they would work very well in those situations.

It's a simple idea, well executed.

Chip Burke
from Columbus, OH
September 25, 2006

Who'd a thunk, they actually work...

These things actually work as advertised. This past weekend I was tracking a jazz trio... classical guitar, upright, and drums. The thing is, I don't have iso booths foreveryone and they wanted to have eye contact throughthe whole session. The bass I could gobo pretty well as the bass player could see overthe gobos, but the classical guitarist played sitting down. A gobo completely blocked his view of the other players. The week before I had done an initial session with them and the snare bleed was a real problem. I was using an large diaphragm condensor on the guitar in a cardiod pattern with the null towards the drums. I goboed as best I could while maintating their line of sight. I had to EQ the guitar tracks to death and then they lost a lot of high end due to getting rid of snare bleed. This week I tried the XPanders and they really did work. Not a miracle, mind you, but a significant amount of additional isolation on the mids and highs. I was quite skeptical going in, but I am keeping these.