Lauten Audio Clarion FC-357 Large-diaphragm Condenser Microphone Reviews

Upgraded to the 357 from a pair of 87 clones. Quickly became my go to condenser for 80% of my LDC needs. Love the boost setting. Really showcases the mic's detail and clarity. Used on outside kick, room mic, acoustic, banjo,voice over,and bass cab. Has sounded great in every application.

Purchased for my son, he did tons of research and absolutely loves it! Quality product! Love the customer service at Sweetwater!!

A buddy of mine called me and said he'd just bought a Lauten Clarion FC-357 and asked if I wanted to try it in my studio. I'm always game for a new mic! So I got it from him and used it for a few days. I loved it so much I bought a new one from Sweetwater the day I returned his!

I have a nice collection of mics from Neumann, AKG, Sennheiser, Shure, Avantone, Warm, and others. They all do a job nicely but I've consistently struggled to find a mic that didn't do that hissy or hyped high frequency thing so many mics do- especially on vocals. Yes, I've "corrected" them in a mix but I was always on the lookout for a mic that kinda sounded like an SM7b but maybe more "polished."

This mic is it. It's got a very sweet top end that doesn't take much eq to have it sit well in a mix- especially on vocals. It may not fit every vocalist but so far I've used it on male and female singers and I'm loving what I'm hearing. I don't have to worry about heavy compression totally hyping the top end and then dragging a de-esser on the track to tame it. Less is better.

I'm primarily digging this as a vocal mic but have mic'd guitar cabs and acoustic guitars with it. All with wonderful results. Wish I would have found this earlier. It's worth the price for sure.

When you interact with a microphone that is made at the level of quality as Lauten's Clarion, you start to notice new colors and textures inside of each waveform.
The different polarity and gain structure options make this a versatile microphone, for recording vocals, it is absolutely one of a kind.

I'm not going to go into the fact that this microphone provides unrivaled clarity, a quality of brightness and yet depth that feels impossibly nuanced and exciting, I'm not going to go into that because you can count on that with Lauten's products, these are handmade by individuals who put intention into every detail.

What I will talk about is the one of a kind color and texture that comes out of this microphone, because that, that is what really sets this mic apart from others in its class. Like fine wine, once you get to a certain level of quality it then becomes about the tiny notes, the small hues of flavor that you know can only come from that exact bottle. The Clarion has the quality, and in my opinion, the best "flavor" of any mic I've ever worked with.

Thanks to Frank Gerdts, sweetwater sales rep.
Frank allways steers the studio toward usable gear, real gear,
The Lauten Clarion FC-357 delivers everything Frank said it would" and some. Our engineers loved the lauten.
We pushed the microphone hard on numerous applications.it got all our approval, 5*Star rating from top tune studio
Buy this microphone, and you wont regret it,
Thanks Frank Gerdts and the sweetwater team

I primarily use this mic on the outside kick and bass cabinet but it is also a very good guitar mic for ambience and sounds good on vocals. There really nothing it does badly and sounds great on bass for bass guitar and kick drum. The electric sound I ever captured has a clarion up high and about 5 fet from the cabinet.

I work with a lot of acoustic music so I've used this mic on a lot of acoustic guitars and vocals. It's always given me a full, rich, and clean sound that's easy to work with in the mix and very detailed. It's quickly become a go-to mic in my studio!

This is a great sounding microphone it sound very clean and very when you engage the 10 dB boost or a little more vintage sounding without the boost. My new go to vocal mic! You definitely need one of these in your mic locker!!!

What a great mic. It is war and clear and what great output without struggling with my mixer to sound out. Wow, blew me away.

Holly Rose

Love this mic. So far I have put it to work on acoustic guitar, vocals, and drums. It does well on a variety of sources. The Clarion has a unique big and rich sound. It can lay back and softly sit in the mix or really get out in front and take charge if you like. It is a forgiving mic and requires very little tweaking of the recorded tracks. I was searching specifically for a mic to take the harshness and brittleness out of acoustic guitar tracks, and this mic definitely accomplishes that goal. The high end is deceptively soft, and decidedly not harsh, but the highs are definitely all there. I am very pleased to own this microphone. Thanks to Mike Soper for steering me in the direction of Lauten Audio. It's just what I was looking for.

This is with out a doubt an open and detail mic. I have a AKG C414b xls and while this is a great universal, It doesn't give me the BIG SOUND!!! i get from the Clarion. thru my UA LA-610 its nice, big, detail and clean sound Im looking for.

Thanks to Paul Allen my sweetwater rep..

OK so I"ve had this mic for over a year and can telll you I can"t leave it in the locker. Works well for many voices...non hyped highes... However my favorite application is recording bass guitar amps. I probably did 5 projects that I struggled with bass sounds until I decided to try it... WOW! I had the solution here all the time...great overall mic. But don"t forget the bass!

Was in the market for a large-diaphragm condenser microphone for recording my voice in a home studio setting. For the past 16 years, I have been using the same vocal mic, an sE Electronics 2200a. I had gotten to the point where the age of my voice was sounding too scratchy and sibilant with that mic. I tried the Lauten Audio FC-357 Clarion. While being a very solid, rugged, and impressive microphone, I did not hear much improvement in the scratchy tone or sibilance, compared to what I was already using. I was surprised, because, based on the frequency-response curve, I, at least, expected an improvement with sibilance. I did record acoustic guitar with it, and found the sound it produced to be much more honest and warm compared to the AKG C3000B I had been using. While I do believe, compared to the sE 2200a, it provided some added warmth and depth, it did not address the issues I was having, so I came to the conclusion that my voice was probably just not pure enough for this microphone, so I ended up with an AKG C414 XLS that, so far, seems to be a better match for my voice. Sometimes you just have to try stuff.