Ribbon Mic Help

NL5

NL5

Unpossible!
I need some pointer's on ribbon mic's. It will be used to record vocals mainly. I want to round out (compliment) my modest mic collection.

Here is what I have currently -

Couple el cheapo dynamics
MXL 603s pair
AT 4033 pair
Rode NTK
Neumann U89

What would be a nice fit with the above in a ribbon mic?

Thanks,

NL5
 
NL5 said:
I need some pointer's on ribbon mic's. It will be used to record vocals mainly. I want to round out (compliment) my modest mic collection.

Here is what I have currently -

Couple el cheapo dynamics
MXL 603s pair
AT 4033 pair
Rode NTK
Neumann U89

What would be a nice fit with the above in a ribbon mic?

NL5
Click to expand...

well I don't know about the fit part and I guess it depends on what you want to use it for? But I have a Beyer M260 and it works real well on my own voice, which is very smooth unharsh type lower sopranoish. That's all I use it for so far coz I dunno if it would hold up in front of my DR or V4. You can get a questionable M260 for as cheap as $150 and then send it to Stephen Sank for his great DX77 ribbon and have a really nice ribbon for <$300 yanno. Oh .. I also used it on my flute and it was very very nice. I have ksm32, sm57, md421, a Royer mod mxl1006 (real nice too on my voice), a pair of Octava mc012, a Beyer M88, and a GT ALesis something... AM20 (?) can't remember all these numbers. The Beyer is different and valuable.
 
NL5 said:
Kiira,

Does Stephen Sank have a website?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Oh yeah. You can call him up and talk too he's real cool. I mean, the unmodded M260 is really nice too but if you get a hosed one like I did, and lotsa people have no idea AT ALL about the mics they're selling and will call a broken ribbon mint as long as some sound comes out of it, it's cheaper to have Stephen fix it than to get another Beyer ribbon.
 
Thank you!

Anybody else have some recommendations. I like the looks of the R84, but the beyer is more in my price range.
 
Well, I have an M260 as well, but I've never used it. Why? Because I have other mics I like better. The M260 seems to me like a very neutral mic, with not much proximity effect (and no, it's not the 260.80, it's one of the old ones). Like it's suitable for radio announcers. Maybe that's good, but it doesn't float my boat.

I've had pretty good luck buying old Shure ribbons on eBay. I have a 333, a 330, and an SM33. They're all pretty much the same mic (different finishes, and the SM33 has impedance selection by wiring rather than an external switch). I sent one SM33 back to the seller because it had some fuzz in the sound, but the three I kept are great; and none of them was more than $400. Also got a 300, which is a figure-of-eight, and it's good. These are all long-ribbon mics (like 2 inches), which have that low-resonance thing Harvey Gerst mentions going for them. The Beyer mics do not. I figure that, now that I have all I want, I can share the secret.

As far as Beyer, I much prefer the M160 to the M260.

I do have some AEAs, and I use those as much as I can. But the Shures and the M160 really get used quite a bit too.
 
I have a Beyer M500 that I got on Ebay for $160. It's even better than I thought it would be. Sounds to my ears as rich and full as some condensors I have, all be it w/ lots of gain. I put it on as the sole mic on an upright bass last thursday for some duets we where playing. I thought it did a real good job on that, and I was kinda surprised.

Just as a note. The Pre's on my mixer really did not have enough gain to make it come alive. The DMP3 I just got in the mail really made a differance with that mic.
 
capnreverb said:
Just as a note. The Pre's on my mixer really did not have enough gain to make it come alive. The DMP3 I just got in the mail really made a differance with that mic.
Click to expand...

heya capnreverb - what is the gain on your DMP3? I have the same problem with the best pre I have, it's maybe 50db at most, and would like to have something that worked better with my M260 which is my main voice mic.

fankoo
 
kiira said:
heya capnreverb - what is the gain on your DMP3? I have the same problem with the best pre I have, it's maybe 50db at most, and would like to have something that worked better with my M260 which is my main voice mic.

fankoo
Click to expand...

My manual says it has 66db gain.
My alesis board that I usaully use says in the manual that it has 76db's of gain. I am no expert at all in this department. But, when I cranked the gain all the way on my alesis, the m500 did not like it. I can crank the gain on my DMP3 just as high (at least as shown on the levels on my recorder meter) or higher and the mic sounds great. Maybe somebody who actually knows about db's can help us out with technical info. Maybe real high gain on my alesis is just not good/addequite.
 
capnreverb said:
Maybe somebody who actually knows about db's can help us out with technical info.
Click to expand...

Don't believe all the stats that manufacturers produce. Unless you know to look for differences in the ways the tests were conducted or weighted it can be hard to compare.

I'd like to get my hands on a ribbon mic one of these days. The REA's do look nice. The Octava's are tempting but I have a feeling they'd be a waste. I've never really heard anything good about them. Anyone know of any mods for them?
 
TexRoadkill said:
Don't believe all the stats that manufacturers produce. Unless you know to look for differences in the ways the tests were conducted or weighted it can be hard to compare.

I'd like to get my hands on a ribbon mic one of these days. The REA's do look nice. The Octava's are tempting but I have a feeling they'd be a waste. I've never really heard anything good about them. Anyone know of any mods for them?
Click to expand...

A ribbon mic is a very simple design, the only real useful mod I could think of would be to change the ribbon. I had bad luck shopping for those Oktava ribbons, out of three I found one with no high end, one that was dead and one that sounded fine. I didn't buy the "good" one for fear it would end up like the other 2.

Those MC012's are sure worth it though, I've had great success thus far with my pair.

War
 
The Octava's are tempting but I have a feeling they'd be a waste. I've never really heard anything good about them. Anyone know of any mods for them?[/QUOTE said:
Yes. People remove the internal pop shield and replace the transformer. I think Marik knows about this.
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top