Ribbon Mics. MXL R144?

wallystripes said:
Great Potsy24! Post some samples please. I think it would be hard to get a useable tone out of a acoustic guitar using the mxl r144, but let me hear what you did, perhaps it is better than I can think.
Any overall opinions on the mic?
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My first impression was good. It seems to be well constructed, and comes with a good quality shock mount. The tone is what I was looking for, warm without high frequency hype. So far I have only recorded some acoustic guitar scratch tracks with it once, but I think it has a lot of potential for other situations.

Here are some samples of that recording. I miced a mid depth Ovation with an MXL R144 at the hole (6-8" away) and an MXL 993 sdc at the 12th fret (also 6-8" away). I was purposely going for a dark sound on the R144 here, but I think it would also be capable of a more balanced tone. My intention was to get the two extremes of the range of the guitar and blend them later. The preamps used for each mic were the front tube channels of a Presonus Firestudio Tube. The tube drive was about 1/2 way up, which adds a little warmth, but is almost not noticeable. These samples are the R144 alone, the 993 alone, and the two blended together. There is no compression/eq/effects on these tracks.
 

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  • R144 and 993 Acoustic.mp3
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nice one mate thanks for posting those. I got my cheap ribbon for a similar purpose amongst others.
I wanted to try to even out the often trebly recordings made with dynamic and ldc mics on my ovation (slim back).
the ldc has typicaly picked up those ncie high strings and the scratch pick noise. and the ribbon has honed in on the meaty bassier side of the tone.
I wanted to blend the two as you did and I am quite happy with the sound i can now get from the two mics.
Did you try a Blumlein pair on it? (same mics) I was really happy with this technique for single instrument acoustic tracks. You can get a really nice stereo spread with this method.
 
I actually haven't tried a blumlien pair on anything, this is the first figure 8 mic that I've had (and I only have one). It sounds interesting though, I'd love to hear an example.
 
Hey thats pretty good. I thought R144 wuld be too boomy, but it is actually quite nice, specially combined with higher freq recording. I think the best application for this mic would be electric guitar cab.

So this mic is deffinitely on my list. Also I so this oktavamod for the mic. It is not very expensive and looks really nice. If I end up buying this mic, I will play with it for a while and if someday I dont like it I will try sending it over to oktavamod to get the upgrade.
 
I beg your pardon i meant mid side recording. Ribbon as the side mic and the ldc Or a plain old dynamic as the mid mic. Easy to set up and great fun to play with when decoded.
 
kip4 said:
I beg your pardon i meant mid side recording. Ribbon as the side mic and the ldc Or a plain old dynamic as the mid mic. Easy to set up and great fun to play with when decoded.
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Ok, good idea. Another technique I can try now that I have a figure 8 mic. It sounds like this would be especially good for a recording of just acoustic guitar or acoustic/vocals.
 
In the recording studio i'm working (and making my stage kind of...) we use the R144 for guitar cabs as a predeterminate, sometimes mixing it with an SM57, the ribbon for the low end and the 57 for the edge. It's a really good value for money mic.
And don't forget to turn off the Phantom!! =)
 
i do much the same as Damianos . watch out for phase issues and i point the ribbon on the edge of the cone slightly off axis. the important thing to do is to listen through your headphones or monitor in a differant space if possible to where the cab is then you are listening to what the mics are hearing rather than the cab in the room.
 
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