Stephen McElroy
The first thing I noticed about Austrian Audio’s microphones was the build quality. Straight out of the box they felt solid, heavy and robust. They feel like they will last a life time.
Steve was one of the original founding band members when what was to become TAPFS formed in 1988 in Adelaide, South Australia. He has performed on guitar and vocals continuously through to the present day. He has enjoyed seeing the band grow from the early days through to headlining at the Royal Albert Hall, Wembley Arena, Hammersmith Apollo, and the London O2 Arena for a concert celebrating the 40thanniversary of “The Dark Side Of The Moon” in 2013.
He is a huge fan of Pink Floyd and is passionate about the authenticity of the band’s sound – “Pink Floyd created their own universe of sound, no other band has ever sounded the same. It’s so important to capture not just the sound but also the feel and the emotion of their amazing music”. Steve is a perfectionist and has carefully built up an elaborate replica guitar rig that incorporates much of the same equipment that David Gilmour uses.
Steve has also written for ‘Guitarist’ magazine and other music magazines worldwide on David Gilmour’s technique and playing. He cites playing at David Gilmour’s 50th birthday party as one of his career highlights and he has also played with other Pink Floyd band members including Guy Pratt.
The first thing I noticed about Austrian Audio’s microphones was the build quality. Straight out of the box they felt solid, heavy and robust. They feel like they will last a life time. The mode switches are also heavy duty and they don’t require a tool to adjust them, everything can be selected by hand. This is so important when in a live situation. It seems Austrian Audio have thought of everything. Then of course it all comes down to the quality of audio. These microphones are VERY accurate. VERY flat in frequency response and particularly accurate and smooth on the high end. They are warm, organic and real. These microphones won’t colour your sound so they won’t leave you second guessing what your audience is hearing. They won’t exaggerate undesirable frequencies. Instead your audience will hear what you hear on stage but sweeter. I’m extremely fussy and picky about sound and I’ve tried a multitude of microphones but these microphones are not only refined and classy, they also have a lot of ‘mojo going on’.
