The Death Wish soundtrack (2018) needed to match pace with fast action portrayed on screen by Bruce Willis, who plays a mild-mannered-father-turned-killing-machine seeking vengeance for violence against his family. That’s why the film’s scoring mixer Chris Fogel went with Royer Labs ribbon mics.
“I’ve said many times that if I had to choose three mics to live with for the rest of my life, one of them—perhaps even two—would be Royer,” he says.
Fogel has been around the Hollywood block: his credits include numerous projects such as Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill and box-office hits Black Panther, The Devil Wears Prada, Superbad, Creed, The Fault in Our Stars, and roughly 150 additional film projects.
Death Wish Soundtrack Recording Setup
- 2 Royer R-122V vacuum tube ribbon mics for the contrabass ensemble
- 2 R-122V ribbon mics for orchestral woodwind overheads
- R-121 ribbon mic on the contrabassoon
- R-121 for electric guitar
- Royer SF-12 stereo ribbon mic used for percussion
- SF-24V vacuum tube stereo ribbon mic as a drum overhead as well as on piano
Related: FOH Engineer Jim Ebdon Employs Royer R-10 Mic for Maroon 5 Tour
Advantages to Using Royer on Death Wish
Fogel says he uses the 122V ribbon mics on just about every recording he directs.
“One of the reasons I use them for woodwind overheads is because I can angle them slightly so that the null point is aiming towards the back of the strings, which gives me nice rejection. I also like how they shave some of the brittleness off the high winds—particularly piccolos.”
“I like using the SF-12 as drum overheads for the same reason, with the added bonus of not having to worry about phasing, along with the high SPL they can handle.”
He says the response time from Royer Labs — a crucial element in this line of work — is professional and speedy.
“I’ve only ever had to send one mic back for repair, and it was handled very quickly.”
