ribbon mics the best??

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dcptnsdcvd

New member
are ribbon mics the best mics in the universe or what??? are they whats missing from a garage sounding recording?? are they whats adding to things like sm57 and making them sound so good??

if so, who makes the best ribbon mics. i'm sure someone has mastered making ribbon mics more than others, just like EV mastered the broadcast mic (as far as i've heard). who's the company guys?? whats the best??
and if anyone out there has recorded using a ribbon mic, let me hear???

Mike...
 
RCA 77, 77a, 77dx and 44 BX

some can still be had cheap. Ribbons arent the be all end all...they are noisy, cant be placed too near loud sources and dont pass treble very well

BUT

when they are the right mic for the job they are WAY OBVIOUSLY the right mic...I LOVE ribbons !!!!
 
at one point i was told by someone that they were exectly what makes drums sound pro. the best mic to record drums with.

???

and i don;t just mean cheap ones. if the BEST one is 3grand, then i got 3grand. simple as that. i wan;t the best. and you get what u pay for in this world.

Mike...
 
Well, there's a wide variety of ribbon mics available on the market. I have a vintage RCA 77DX ribbon mic. I like it a lot, use it mainly for vocals, but there are other applications it excells at too.

Some folks here have and use the Royer R121 and others from that series. Royer makes fine ribbon mics as well.

AEA makes a nice "knock-off" of the vintage RCA ribbons, and are priced accordingly.

Octava makes a decent ribbon mic, from what I hear.

Ribbon mics are not "the best in the universe". They do some things extremely well, and some things not so well. Ribbons are extremely delicate too. They also need a lot of clean gain to drive them properly.

As with any recording situation "the best mic" is one that is well matched and properly placed for the given application.
 
dcptnsdcvd said:

and i don;t just mean cheap ones. if the BEST one is 3grand, then i got 3grand. simple as that. i wan;t the best. and you get what u pay for in this world.

Mike...
Click to expand...
You can spend 3 grand on a ribbon. You could spend 4 grand.
That's not going to make it the best. You need to consider your entire signal chain when working with mics of that caliber.
For instance, if you bought one of these:
http://www.mercenaryaudio.com/aear44cx.html
what pre-amp would you drive it with?
What cables?
What medium would you record to?
What would you use it on?


-questions abound-
 
Before you spend $3,000 on something because someone in a home recording forum told you it was a good idea (if anyone were to tell you that), you might want at least to rent or borrow one and see what you think of it.

Also, as mentioned, think about what preamp you want to use with it.
 
It's true that ribbons can sound wonderful as drum overhead mics. But for close mic'ing, you'd have to have a bit of a suicidal tendancy. On kick you'd be dealing with potentially damaging blasts of air if you get too close to the front head, and for snare and toms you'd be risking the mic to one errant drumstick from an over-enthusiastic drummer. (Although I have experimented with a R121 set up on the snare side/shell)

There's certainly no need to spend $3000 on a good ribbon mic. Your money would be much better spent by putting $1000 on a Royer 121 or a Coles and the other $2000 on a VIPRE. Of course if you wanted the ribbon primarily for overheads you could go with the stereo Royer and the Great River MP-2NV preamp for just a little more money.

But unless you have unlimited funds, you might want to slow down and get some experience and do some research before wildly throwing your wallet around. The best equipment in the world is not nearly as important as the knowledge of how to use it. On a tough racetrack, you could put me in a Ferrari and a real pro driver in a Hyundai, and the pro driver would still kick my ass. So, in my case, dropping six figures on a fast car is just wasting my money until i get my skill level up to par.

But, if you've got a Bill Gates sized bank account, you might as well go for the Ferrari. At the very least, it should help you get a date! :p
 
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