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mooseherman « Cheap reliable ribbon mic »
Published on 12/15/10 at 23:47This is a ribbon microphone for use in the studio. Overall it's definitely not something you can use anywhere else, if you have nice gear at home it can be useful but most people don't have pre's nice enough, so most likely you should just leave it to studio owners. As a ribbon mic it can't use phantom power without getting severely destroyed, so make sure you avoid that at all costs.
This is a much cheaper ribbon mic than is typical, but I'm surprised at how nice it is considering. It has a figure-8 pickup pattern and is pretty fragile overall.
OVERALL OPINION
I really think this mic has a fantastic sound to it. It's warm and feels like ribbon, which is good. At half the price it's certainly not as nice as a vintage Reslo or a Royer ribbon microphone, but the only thing it's really lacking is some richness of tone. This doesn't mean it sounds bad, just not quite as stellar as those.
That being said, it's a great microphone for vocals and acoustic instruments like strings, acoustic guitars, banjo and mandolin. I also really like it on percussion. I tried it as a mono overhead for drums to get a great dirtier type of sound. And it sounds lovely on a piano as well. In short, it's a versatile mic if you're recording lots of different kinds of instruments, and definitely thrives with acoustic instruments.
Overall it's got a great price for a mic like this, I'd say if you are a home studio owner who's rocking good mic pre's, but not stellar ones, you'd benefit from this mic. If you're using API or NEVE pre's on a regular basis you might as well get a better ribbon mic.
This is a much cheaper ribbon mic than is typical, but I'm surprised at how nice it is considering. It has a figure-8 pickup pattern and is pretty fragile overall.
OVERALL OPINION
I really think this mic has a fantastic sound to it. It's warm and feels like ribbon, which is good. At half the price it's certainly not as nice as a vintage Reslo or a Royer ribbon microphone, but the only thing it's really lacking is some richness of tone. This doesn't mean it sounds bad, just not quite as stellar as those.
That being said, it's a great microphone for vocals and acoustic instruments like strings, acoustic guitars, banjo and mandolin. I also really like it on percussion. I tried it as a mono overhead for drums to get a great dirtier type of sound. And it sounds lovely on a piano as well. In short, it's a versatile mic if you're recording lots of different kinds of instruments, and definitely thrives with acoustic instruments.
Overall it's got a great price for a mic like this, I'd say if you are a home studio owner who's rocking good mic pre's, but not stellar ones, you'd benefit from this mic. If you're using API or NEVE pre's on a regular basis you might as well get a better ribbon mic.