 |
Microphone Test |
The
Testing Team
 |
Marko Balland :
Marko is mainly a rock harmonica player. His style is aggressive and uses a lot of
effects, distorsions and other tools used to trasform the harp sound. For that he needs
powerful mics that can restitute the aggressiveness of his playing while maintaining a
relatively clean sound.
Marko fronts his own band and he released his first album in early 99 called 'A Donf
Experience', where he covered a lot of Hendrix songs. He is currently in the process of
finishing his second album, more instrumental and more heavy metal. |
 |
Pascal Mikaelian aka Baco :
Pascal plays in several French blues formations and has for years been the harmonica
sidekick of French bluesman Patrick Verbeke. His blues is very rootsy, both acoustic and
amplified. For the latter he likes microphones that give a real bluesy touch but without
being too conventional, since he likes to vary his style. Nowadays he uses an old Turner
microphone when he plays amplified. He has released his first album last year in duo with
Claude Langlois called 'Le Premier'. |
 |
Greg Szlapczynski :
Greg plays many musical styles but he uses amplified harp essentially in the blues and
jazz-rock repertoire. He likes his sound to be fairly gutsy without excessive depth and
likes to keep open the possibility of using delays and other effcts on his amplified
sound. His second album called Gregtime has been released recently and we review it in the
current issue of Planet Harmonica. |
 |
Benoît Felten :
Editor of Planet Harmonica and amateur harp player, Benoît plays blues, rock and funk for
which he uses an amplified sound. His major worry is feedback, which he hates, especially
since many mics are guilty of that crime. He hasn't released any official recordings yet,
but it may happen one day ! |
 |
Jean-Jacques Milteau :
Veteran of the French harmonica scene, Jean-Jacques evolved towards a clean sound these
last few years and usually uses vocal mics to amplifiy himself. That being said he does
like a crunchy sound once in a while and therefore is open to other mic solutions. He has
just released his latest album Bastille Blues which is reviewed in this issue of Planet
Harmonica. |
 Family shot :From
left to right:
Greg Szlapczynski, Marco (owner of L'Ampli à Lampes, the shop where the test was held),
Marko Balland, Jean-Jacques Milteau, Pascal Mikaelian |
|
|