This page about Sontronics Delta is a stub. You can help improve it:

Pricing and availability

* Product prices and availability are updated by Equipboard every 24hrs and are subject to change. Equipboard may receive compensation for purchases made at participating retailers linked on this site. This compensation does not affect what products or prices are displayed, or the order of prices listed. For more information, please refer to our affiliate disclosure.

Description

Experience a new dimension of sound with the Sontronics Delta, a ribbon microphone designed to redefine your studio recordings. Perfect for capturing brass, strings, and guitar amplifiers, this microphone delivers stunning clarity and warmth. Known for its high SPL handling, the Delta ensures your recordings maintain integrity even at high volumes, making it ideal for both studio and live environments.

The Sontronics Delta is designed with an advanced dual-ribbon element, providing a more accurate transient response and enhancing its versatility across various instruments. Its figure-8 polar pattern captures sound sources with precision while rejecting off-axis noise, ensuring your recordings are clean and focused. The robust construction and internal shockmount system protect the microphone from external vibrations and handling noise, making it as reliable on stage as it is in the studio.

Whether you're a seasoned professional or an aspiring musician, the Sontronics Delta offers superior sound reproduction with an authentic vintage touch. Its ability to handle high sound pressure levels while maintaining a detailed and smooth output makes it a standout choice for anyone looking to elevate their sonic projects.

Key Features:

  • Advanced dual-ribbon element for accurate transient response
  • Figure-8 polar pattern for precise sound capture
  • High SPL handling suitable for loud sound sources
  • Built-in shockmount system for reduced handling noise
  • Ideal for brass, strings, and guitar amplifiers
  • Durable construction for studio and live performance use

Reviews

Owner Insights

We analyzed real musician discussions from forums and Reddit to find what players love, question, and tweak about Sontronics Delta.

Features and functionality

  • Sontronics Delta is a ribbon microphone, highly sensitive and detailed, but extremely delicate and should not be powered to avoid damage.

    Source

Use cases and applications

  • Ribbons like the Sontronics Delta are known for their dark and natural sound, ideal for overheads and guitars.

    Source

Comparisons

  • Ribbons are used less often than condensers for overheads, but some prefer their natural sound compared to the detailed top end of condensers.

    Source

User experience

  • Users emphasize experimentation with microphones, including ribbons like the Delta, to find unique applications beyond typical use cases.

    Source

Critic Reviews

Sontronics Delta

soundonsound.com

The Sontronics Delta shines with its smooth, warm, vintage sound, ideal for clean guitar-amp tones and even as a room mic. It impresses with its active ribbon design, higher output, and sturdy build, making it a stylish addition to studios. However, its high output levels and lack of a pad can be problematic, especially in live situations, and it's not the most versatile mic for all applications. While not a go-to as the only guitar mic, it's a fantastic alternative for those seeking a classic rock vibe or a secondary flavor in their mic arsenal.

positive

Sontronics Delta ribbon mic review | MusicRadar

musicradar.com

The Sontronics Delta excels in delivering a beautifully balanced sound for guitar amps, making it an excellent choice for musicians seeking simplicity and quality. Its rugged build ensures reliability for live performances, although it falls short as an all-rounder. While its higher top end is restrained, it responds well to EQ adjustments. Overall, it's a great addition to complement existing mic collections, particularly for those focused on capturing smooth, retro guitar tones.

positive

Based on 0 Reviews and 0 Ratings

5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star

Artist usage

Add artist
See how Hozier uses Sontronics Delta

Hozier

Singer, Guitarist

...
Verified via Soundonsound

Used on guitar and organ for the Take Me to Church EP, as stated by mix engineer Rob Kirwan in this March 2015 Sound on Sound interview.

“Guitars I generally record using an SM57 and a Sontronics Delta. The former will go through a ‘lunchbox’ Neve 1073 copy, and the latter through an API 3124+. I’ll compress that with the ADL 100 and an LA2A. The Delta is a ribbon mic, and I use it a lot. I like Sontronics’ ribbon microphones. They give you that ribbon sound, but the problem with a lot of traditional ribbon mics is that the gain is so low that you end up bringing up a lot of noise to get them to speak. I don’t think it is worth it, whereas the Sontronics microphones require phantom power to start off with, which is pretty wild, and they are loud. They really complement the 57. The Delta mic gives the guitar lovely warmth and big bottom end, and the 57 picks up the edgy stuff in the middle. I use those two microphones on pretty much every guitar amplifier that I record."

See how PJ Harvey uses Sontronics Delta

PJ Harvey

Singer, Guitarist

The Desert Sessions

...
Verified via Sontronics

Used for the electric guitars on Let England Shake, as stated by producer Flood on Sontronics' official "Famous Users" page.

"I use the mics all the time, be it with Editors, Orbital, Karima Francis, Foals or anyone else. The mics were used on PJ Harvey's Mercury Prize-winning album Let England Shake mainly DELTA, SIGMA, ORPHEUS and HELIOS. We used DELTAs on amps; ORPHEUSs on Polly and John's vocals, brass and ambience. ORPHEUS was our go-to mic for anything and everything: voices, snare drums, acoustic guitars, autoharp, ambience and piano."

See how Steve Stevens uses Sontronics Delta

Steve Stevens

Guitarist

Michael Jackson (band)

...
Verified via Sontronics

Featured on Sontronics' official "Famous Users" page.

"Finally a company that has designed microphones that are guitar amp-specific!

"The Sontronics DELTA is stunning... what a fantastic sounding mic. It pretty much sounded great right in front of the speaker with no EQ. I recently got a 1965 Sears Silvertone amp and the combination of the DELTA microphone and this vintage amp is just perfect.

"If it sounds good coming out of the amp, I can guarantee you that the DELTA will translate that perfectly, in almost 3D clarity. It blew away ribbon mics costing twice as much!"

See how Peter Holmström uses Sontronics Delta

Peter Holmström

Guitarist

The Dandy Warhols

...
Verified via Sontronics

Featured on Sontronics' official "Famous Users" page.

"My discovery of Sontronics mics came about when I was looking online for a Helios Electronics preamp and I stumbled across the Sontronics HELIOS mic. It looked really cool, as did all the other mics on the website. I read up a bit more and couldn't find a bad review so was interested in getting hold of some for myself.

"I started out with a DELTA and HALO combination and the results are amazing! Not just on guitar amps either... I use them on everything. In my little studio I've been using them on my '60s Kalamazoo and my '50s Ampeg amps.

"I'm starting a band with my friend Herman Jolly, and he's been singing into a HALO. We've been using the DELTA on the acoustic guitar too.

"We've now got four HALOs and four DELTAs that we uses on the Dandy Warhols set-up live and in the studio. I've now got my eye on the SIGMA, SATURN and HELIOS mics and hoping to see a 500-series Sontronics preamp added to the range. The build quality and design are excellent, I'd recommend Sontronics to everyone... in fact, I already have!"

See how Flood uses Sontronics Delta

Flood

Music Producer

...
Verified via Sontronics

Featured on Sontronics' official "Famous Users" page.

"Sontronics was recommended to me by Alan Moulder who had just been working with Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age). I tried the DELTA and SIGMA and fell in love straight away. To be able to get clarity and depth so close to the amp was amazing!

"The whole thing about Sontronics is that immediacy of things sounding great without having to do anything. The ORPHEUS has such a great bite to it and all the Sontronics mics seem to have a great natural compression without losing any clarity or detail.

"There is only praise to add about value for money, amazing customer support and the knowledge that Trevor [Sontronics MD and mic designer] cares about every aspect of the mics: the sound quality, build quality, design... and I love his ability to be as caring with the everyday consumer as he is with us professionals. And the mics look amazing!

"I use the mics all the time, be it with Editors, Orbital, Karima Francis, Foals or anyone else. The mics were used on PJ Harvey's Mercury Prize-winning album Let England Shake mainly DELTA, SIGMA, ORPHEUS and HELIOS. We used DELTAs on amps; ORPHEUSs on Polly and John's vocals, brass and ambience. ORPHEUS was our go-to mic for anything and everything: voices, snare drums, acoustic guitars, autoharp, ambience and piano. For Polly's latest album The Hope Six Demolition Project we also added an ARIA for vocals… she won't record her voice with anything else now!

"Both of those albums were the sound of Sontronics, firstly because they were used on so many sources but also, more importantly, because every time we put up a Sontronics mic it gave us what we wanted: clarity, character, purity and openness. The whole album was recorded flat, which is a tribute to engineer Rob Kirwan but also to the Sontronics mics!"

"I have DELTAs, SIGMAs, HALOs, a SATURN, ARIA, ORPHEUS, ARIA and DM-1B, and they all have that immediacy of things sounding great without having to do anything!"

Album Usage

The Sontronics Delta has been featured on the following albums:

Genre Usage

Based on how artists on Equipboard use this gear, it is most commonly found in the following genres.

Used With

Based on how musicians on Equipboard use Sontronics Delta, it is most commonly used with the following gear.

Sontronics Halo
Sontronics Halo Dynamic Microphones
2
Sontronics Sigma
Sontronics Sigma Ribbon Microphones
2
Sontronics Orpheus
Sontronics Orpheus Condenser Microphones
2
Sontronics Aria
Sontronics Aria Condenser Microphones
2
Sontronics Helios
Sontronics Helios Condenser Microphones
2
Sennheiser MD 441-U
Sennheiser MD 441-U Dynamic Microphones
1
Shure SM57
Shure SM57 Dynamic Microphones
1

More Sontronics Ribbon Microphones

Royer R-121

$1,499.00 - $1,599.00

# 1

Rank

John Frusciante Billie Joe Armstrong John Mayer
49 artists using
AEA R84

$1,199.00 - $1,499.00

# 6

Rank

Jack White Yannis Philippakis Justin Meldal-Johnsen
9 artists using
AEA R88

$2,299.00 - $2,799.00

# 9

Rank

Jacob Collier Butch Walker John Osborne
6 artists using
Royer R-10

$629.00 - $1,298.00

# 11

Rank

Masaru Teramae
1 artist using
AEA R44CE

$3,499.00 - $4,299.00

# 22

Rank

Álvaro Henriquez Bibio Lizzo
3 artists using
Shure KSM353

$2,771.00 - $3,079.00

# 35

Rank

Ray Toro
1 artist using
AEA KU-4

$5,861.15 - $7,099.00

# 37

Rank

Benson Boone Ali Shaheed Muhammad Mario Jose
3 artists using

Community setups

Similar

Gear Guides