Lauten LS-308 noise rejecting mic

I really want to try this on drums. Apparently the 308 is second order cardioid - it appears to have two capsules separated by a 1-2 inch air gap.

The isolation is really appealing. There are samples on the Zen pro audio that sound like garbage and nothing like the Lauren press video - wonder if they had the mic pointed backwards.

Unfortunately the local shop doesn't do returns or I would be writing differently.

I await further reviews as I sometimes record cymbal bashers.

That video is pretty impressive at first listen.  But I'm a little bit suspect of this product.  Why?  It was released in mid March but there are still ZERO reviews of the mic to be found on the internet--not even buyer feedback on Amazon or Sweetwater.  It's really strange to me that Lauten would spend time and money on R&D and release spiffy promo videos on a potentially unique mic, but not put the product in the hands of trusted engineers for public testing and comments.  I'm not saying that's the be all end all of judging whether a new product is worth buying.  But often you can read between the lines of what folks are saying and pull together an opinion.  (When I read things like "studio workhorse" or "holds it's own with mics twice the price" I run for the hills.)  It's times like this that I wish Kidvybes was still with us.
 
I'm also really curious about how the LS-308 would deal with acoustic guitar bleed when recording a singer songwriter - STILL the toughest recording hurdle for me.  For whatever reason none of the promo videos suggest using the microphone for that purpose.  If anyone from Lauten (or anyone that owns the mic) reads RGO please weigh in!  

Wow. First impression. Lasts 5 seconds...

Then my techie brain wants to know how the hell this would work. Electro-acoustically? That would be phenomenal.

Meanwhile my skeptical brain looks for the date. April first, maybe?

The polar pattern is second order cardioid, which I'd never heard of before this mic, but reminds me of calculus


You can see the tightness of the pattern below






My guess is it has something to do with the two capsules being spaced so far apart.



From the press piece:

"270 degrees of side and rear off-axis rejection, reducing ambient sound from nearby sources by up to 25dB. This rejection is achieved because of Lauten Audio's unique dual, large-diaphragm pressure gradient transducer element design, in combination with its specially designed circuit."



I'm waiting for some reviews too.

In practice, "second order cardioid" could mean two capsules for starters, with a delay on one signal and summing the two signals results in a reduction of "noise". I simply can't picture how you would be able to get all of that into the mic's housing and end up with nice sound.

There have been many experiments in the past, resulting in very useable products for voice reproduction where only legibility matters. Like in airplanes.

Besides, Agere Systems (Broadcom) are holding some patents. Interesting read:

patents.google.com/patent/EP1278395B1/en

Maybe Lauten licensed those?

Anyway, I hope I'm just too skeptical. I'd like to hear this work!

Fab Dupont used the Lauten 208 and 308 for this recording. As you can see in the video, the musicians are all grouped in the same tight space, so there is a lot of potential for bleed. I've downloaded the stems from the session and the 308 on the kick drum has absolutely zero bleed from the other instruments. The 208 is on the lead vocal and there is fairly minimal bleed considering how close everyone is. Pretty impressive.

You can download them here.

www.puremix.net/zelab-mixing-contest/zelab-session-35-monsieur-perine.html

Lead Vox Lauten 208
Kick Lauten 308
BG Vox Beyer M88
Guitar and Quattro Beyer M160
Woodblock and HiHat Shure KSM313/NE ribbon
Some kind of Shure ribbon mic on the guy whistling.

Vocals and acoustic instruments are the only place this would matter to me. I could really care less about drum or electric instrument track bleed in my usual situations.

This slipped through my radar. Interesting. I'd like to know more about this too.

Pretty interesting.

Yeah, it's clearly meant to be a problem solver, and your purpose fits the bill.  Question is whether RX8 debleed is a better solution or not (time consuming, and ?).  All these bands with upright bass and drums are similarly tricky.  They'll usually have a DI, but that never sounds like an acoustic bass.  ANY mic without bleed is gonna be a big step up, no matter what it sounds like.  

Oh the number of times electric bands have insisted on using the scratch vocals done in the room with a bashing drummer.  It's always been safer to have them sing into an omni then, at least the bleed isn't crap.  

My only thought around the last question is that it wouldn't seem to matter about the treble in everything I've experienced, the treble from drums and cymbals will mask it in that range anyway.