New Gear Review: Luke Audio AL-X751 Microphone

The Luke Audio AL-X751 large-diaphragm condenser microphone.

I happened upon on the Luke Audio line this past fall while wandering aimlessly around the AES showroom floor. Tiring of the immense wave of brand names and products I was already aware of, I was craving something new and personalized.

And then, almost as if by magic, I passed a little stand with the moniker “Luke” with some very elegant-looking mics on display. The dedication to craft and quality was immediately apparent, and I quickly became enamored with this burgeoning new company from Nashville.

Unfortunately for me, there wasn’t too much information about Luke out there on the interwebs, so when the opportunity arose to test drive one of their microphones, I was excited to get my hands on one, and see if all that attention to detail translated into a sound worth paying for.

Features

I requested a Luke AL-X751, as I’ve always liked the vibe of the classic Telefunken 251 tube condenser that inspired it. The the X751 is clearly made to fill a similar niche to this and other mics built around the classic CK12 capsule, it is by no means a “clone”, and so I will not endeavor to directly compare the two in this article.

The Rycote Universal Shock Mount, included withe X751.

The X751 came in a very nice carrying case, complete with a Rycote InVision Universal Shock Mount, and a quality wooden box for the microphone itself. I found it a telling sign that Luke decided to include one of the best-quality shock mounts around for their microphone. I am a huge fan of Rycote’s mounts, and I was almost as excited to have an extra one in my arsenal as I was to try out this mic.

The body of the X751 is all brass and stainless steel, finished on the outside with plating and powder coating, giving it a feel that is both classic and modern at once. This is certainly a beautiful “woah” microphone to pull out during a vocal session, and the open air headbasket design adds to both the sensitivity and beauty of the mic.

The capsule here is an LA-1e, inspired by the classic CK12 capsule, with a precision machined 34mm backplate hand-lapped to extremely tight tolerances to provide an exceptionally detailed sound.

Luke’s platinum-sputtered, 1-micron-thick capsule for the AL-X751.

Most interestingly, Luke has its own in-house sputtering machine, quite a cool feat in itself for a small, handmade mic company.

But as if that wasn’t interesting enough, Luke has gone one step further, sputtering all its 1-micron-thick mylar capsules in platinum, rather than the usual gold.

Not much detail is given about the circuitry, but it is a solid-state design, and I can confirm that the Luke has incredibly low self-noise, and is not what I would call a “colored” sound. It has a cardiod-only pattern, which for my needs was more than sufficient.

The frequency response in practice seems to bring out much of the lower mids, but never in a way that is tubby or uneven. The high end is extremely smooth, not harsh or sibilant, but very pleasing. There is no printed frequency response chart, but I have it on authority from the builder himself that this is the intended style of the microphone.

In Use

As with any microphone, I tried the X751 out in as many situations as possible. It got most of its use as a vocal microphone, though I also used it on acoustic guitar, saxophone, cello, pan steel, F.O.K. position for drums, and in various “room” positions as well.

A photo of the Luke line from the 139th AES convention in New York where it premiered. Photo by SonicScoop editor Justin Colletti.

The one thing that was immediately clear about this mic is that it is very warm, and almost insanely articulate. We’re talking about subtleties of subtlety here, with even the smallest of vocal gestures coming out clear as day. This is both the X751’s strength, and possibly, its weakness as well. (If such a trait can be considered a true “weakness” in the mic at all).

As a room mic, it worked out extremely well, doing something that many mics can’t fully do: Normally, when I walk from the live room to the control room, there’s always a moment of “Hmmm, how much different will this sound through the speakers than it did out there?” Well, with the Luke, the sound was almost always spot on to how I was hearing things in the room.

Another great thing about this microphone is that positioning made all the difference. In audio, we all pay a lot of mind to mic position and angle, but how often have you moved a microphone only to have it not really change the sound all that much? With the X7, every small move altered the sound so much that I felt like I was almost working with a different microphone depending on the placement. For the patient engineer, this microphone will yield many different colors and tones, and could possibly even be the one microphone to build an entire session on.

Quite possibly my favorite application of the mic was on upright bass. It gave me all the warmth and pluckiness without too much brittleness or tubbiness.

Luke audio’s platinum-sputtered capsules on display during their AES debut late last year.

As mentioned, the one shortcoming of the microphone may also be its strength: Because it is so incredibly articulate and warm, the X751 would not be my microphone of choice on a number of instruments within a full mix.

Sometimes, it was so clear and full on an acoustic guitar that I felt I was getting too much from the microphone. On less than fully-trained singers, all that detailed articulation may not be something you want to highlight. (Depending on the density of a mix, this kind of exceptional detail may not always be something you want to highlight on a great singer either.)

The bottom line is that where the microphone shines, it really shines, but it is not necessarily a swiss army knife of microphone that will flatter all sources equally. Not all sources after all, were created equal.

Final Words

The Luke AL-X751 is without a doubt, a remarkably well built and high-quality microphone. The design and presentation is very impressive, and it is clear that the builder has taken great care with its product on nearly every level.

I have every reason to believe that the other microphones in the Luke line are also of excellent quality, and I would love to hear the whole lot side by side at some point in order to get the full spectrum of flavors they offer. This microphone delivers on every level that an LDC is supposed to, and provides an impressively warm, accurate and open feel.

Rich Bennett is an engineer, producer, composer, and guitarist who grew up in New York City. He is the owner of Acme Hall Studios, a recording studio and music education space in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

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