London, England, UK… In-demand trumpet player Johnny Thirkell racked up his 36th number one record this past January, playing on Shania Twain’s Queen of Me. Other #1 hits featuring Johnny’s playing include BTS’ Dynamite and George Michael’s Older, and recently he has been working on tracks for a project by Duran Duran. He works in different genres of music and has toured with Level 42, Swing Out Sister and others, but his bread and butter comes from playing trumpet on popular music recordings. Many of those recordings he handles himself in his home studio using one mic, the Royer R-121 ribbon microphone.
Common challenges with miking the trumpet include the instrument’s high SPLs and brilliant highs, which many microphones over-emphasize or mis-interpret, leading to thin or shrill trumpet recordings that lack body. For Johnny, however, those challenges essentially disappeared after being introduced to the R-121 by friend and fellow trumpeter extraordinaire Jerry Hey. Thirkell discussed why he uses his Royer R-121 so extensively.
“I discovered the R-121 about 10 years ago, when it was recommended to me by my friend the great (and best) trumpeter Jerry Hey,” Thirkell reports. “Since then, I have used the R-121 exclusively—not just in my studio at home, but also taking it with me to sessions at other studios, in case they don’t have one. I use it on every recording I do, irrespective of the project type. The R-121’s accuracy of sound is what I absolutely love about the mic, and that’s as important to me as anything else—whatever I’m recording. Having spent a lifetime trying to develop trumpet sounds that I’m happy with, hearing it play back as musically and accurately as possible is extremely important.”
Much of his recording takes place in his home studio, as Thirkell described. “My setup is simple and cost effective. I have the Royer R-121 feeding into a Solid State Logic SSL 2 USB Audio Interface, and from there to Logic X on my MacBook Pro. To monitor while recording, I listen through Audio Technica ATH M50 headphones. Monitoring loudspeakers aren’t that crucial to me, as I don’t really do any mixing. 95% of the work in my studio involves a producer emailing me a rough mix of the track. I then import that track into Logic and record the trumpet tracks over that. Once I’m done, I export each trumpet track as a WAV file and send it back.”
When asked about the R-121 attributes that make the most difference to his manner of working, Thirkell offered the following, “I’m not an overly technical person. In my case, it’s very much ‘monkey see, monkey do’ – but what I love about the R-121 is its musical feel and accuracy. In almost 45 years of recording trumpet, I’ve played into pretty much every microphone there is. Some of them are great, but to my ears, none of them give me back the sound that I feel I originally put in. There’s always some degree of ‘color’ to the playback sound—but with the R-121, no matter what I play into it ‘What goes in, comes back out.’ It’s really that simple.”
Johnny continued, “If I’m recording section parts and need to stack tracks, it sounds so natural with the R-121; when I put all the parts together, it really feels like a section. Same thing with recording solos – the sound capture is so true to my instrument; I can just play and not worry about the technical side. It always sounds good. And my clients keep coming back!”
While Thirkell says he’s never needed technical support from Royer Labs, he reports the company has been supportive of his efforts. “My R-121 has been bullet-proof so I’ve never needed customer service, but what I can tell you is they have been very supportive. They reached out to me after seeing a post on Instagram and we’ve been in touch a number of times since – they’re super nice people. It’s clear to me that the company shows genuine interest in their clients and that, in itself, is unusual these days.”
Asked for any final thoughts on his experience with the R-121, Johnny said “I put that mic up alone on absolutely everything I do. For me, nothing else compares.”
To see Johnny’s home recording setup and hear an example of one of his recent recordings captured by the Royer Labs R-121 ribbon microphone, visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zt9K2lcrkwo. Johnny Thirkell facilitates week-long residential courses with some of the world’s finest musicians through www.elitemusiccamps.com
To learn more about Johnny Thirkell, visit him online at https://www.johnnythirkell.com/.
About Royer Labs
Located in Burbank, California, Royer Labs’ microphones are a staple of leading recording and broadcast facilities. Royer ribbons can be found on countless albums, and they feature prominently on projects such as the Academy Awards and other high-profile events. Additional information about the entire line of Royer Labs microphones can be obtained at www.royerlabs.com.
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