Chris Ayer has been both touring and working on songs for a new album for the past year, and neither of these activities is letting up over the summer -- he has shows planned through the fall. August 18 will see the release of Ayers's second full length, Don’t Go Back to Sleep. The CD was recorded in Nashville and produced by Jason Gantt.

Ayer chatted with Gearwire about a couple of his favorite bits of gear, the first being the Neumann KMS 105 Microphone.

Do you use this mic live or in the studio (or both)?

I use it at almost all my shows. For a long time, I would just use whatever the house provided, or use my own SM58. But I played a show with a friend of mine, and he let me sing my set through his KMS 105, and I was just totally hooked. The sound is so wide, with really clear lows and highs, and a really honest balance of tone, that just felt right for my voice, from the first song. I like to play with the mic to create more background vocal stuff in between lyrics, and when I back off the 105 a few inches, it still picks me up and creates a cool ambient effect that has definitely allowed me to mess around with the way I perform some of my songs solo.

I mostly used mics from the mic collection at the studio I recorded at in Nashville, but there were a couple acoustic tracks where I was trying out different microphone setups for my guitar, and had my gig bag in the car, so I just set it up to see how it sounded, and it ended up working great! So there are a bunch of acoustic guitar tracks on the new album that it got used for.

Why do you prefer it over other, similar stage vocal mics?

It just sounds really clear, and has great response to vocal texture. It's really reliable in the face of whatever unknowns come up from each house PA system.

Have you had any issues with the mics either live or in the studio? Is there anything you would add or change about the mic?

Every once in a while there's a little pop on the "P"'s. . . but I think that's more about how I sing some words. It does it less than SM58s used to! It's a little expensive, but it's been very worth it.

Tell me about the best, single, feature of this mic?

It's balance and wide frequency response is really excellent. A lot of my shows are solo acoustic, so my voice is way up in the mix. So having such vibrancy and clarity is really noticeable, especially in the high end for my voice.

Is there a particular style of vocalist this mic will appeal to? Is there anyone who you think it might not appeal to?

I think anyone who wants to pull out the full tone of their voice, and really center their live sound around vocal performance will really love this microphone. It does really well with big dynamic changes in performance too. For folks whose performances range from full voice to whisper, I think it's got a lot to offer.

I don't think the differences are as noticeable for singers who perform more aggressively with a mic, whether it's with a louder rock sound. And it's probably not worth the money if people like to throw their mic around. For the louder bands and shows I've played in, it seems like SM58s seem to do the job really well most of the time for that, and they never break! Those things will outlive us all.

How durable is the KSM 105?

It hasn't broken yet! I take better care of it than past microphones, but not by much. It still gets hot and cold in the car, and banged around a fair amount at shows, and the sound is still just right after a couple years.