Apologies for the lack of new material but the mobile and the studio are so busy at the moment that weve just not had time to put any new stuff up. We have some great new sessions waiting to go up and a sneak preview of a fantastic new compresser but thats all to come!!!!! In the meantime have a read about the first in our series of great mics under £100
Considered
by many as the most natural sounding microphones ever made, ribbon
microphones were immediately embraced by the broadcast and recording
industries in the early 1930s. Not requiring any awkward power
supply or batteries in their operation, the first commercially
produced ribbon microphones produced some of the most detailed
and memorable recordings ever made but with the development of
condenser microphones, over the past 30 years or so ribbon mics
slowly disappeared off the radar with only the British company
Coles still producing mics for the BBC. However, recently the huge
growth in home recording has seen a renewed interest, with new
high quality ribbon microphones from companies like AEA
and Royer becoming studio standards. Most manufacturers now how a ribbon mic in their portfolio with some interesting recent releases
from other companies like UK based Sontronics and Golden
Age in Sweden
As the name suggests, at the heart of a ribbon transducer is an
extremely thin, ultra light ribbon of aluminium suspended by both
ends. This ribbon is vibrated by sound pressure within a powerful
magnetic field and the ribbon's bidirectional movement, coupled
with its insensitivity to vibration at its sides or ends, produces
a figure-8 pickup pattern. Because a relatively low output voltage
is produced from the motion of the aluminium strip, a ribbon microphone
really needs a good clean preamp with up to 60 dB of preamplification
to achieve a standard 0 VU signal level. Generally the delicate
ribbon is surrounded by a large, weighty magnet assembly, making
many of the old ribbon mics relatively large and bulky, though
recent designs like range of Royer
ribbon microphones have brought a new lighter
style ribbons.
Recording
Ribbon Microphones have gained a reputation for being fragile
and it's true that the ribbons can break or become distorted
by wind pressure; even slamming a lid shut on the mic box has
been known to wreck a ribbon but this doesn't mean that they
can't deal with high SPLs if a sensible pop shield is used and
in fact it's good practice to use a pop shield all the time.
Added to this they require special handling during use and storage
to avoid damage to the ribbon element but the benefits of a
good ribbon mic far outweigh any of these difficulties as they
can sound stunning on the right recording session. Typically
the sound is characterized as smooth and natural with very silky
highs, a full bottom-end response at any distance, and high-SPL
handling. Low noise and superb transient response are additional
benefits, especially when a ribbon is paired with a quality
microphone preamp.
Generally speaking Ribbon microphones tend to be quite expensive
and companies producing premium quality Ribbon Mics such as
Audio Engineering Associates (AEA), Coles, and Royer Labs produce
mics in the £500 to £1000 range (and beyond) though
of course as with everything there is a new raft of budget Chinese
models by Apex and Nady and also the EH-R1, an updated version
of the Russian-made Oktava ML-52.
Normally the inherently low output of Ribbon microphones means
that the choice of preamp is really important and they can impart
a great deal of character to the sound of the microphones. The
classic Neve 1073 and 1081 have always performed well, along
with the more contemporary Grace units and in fact AEA have
produced their own TRP preamp specifically for Ribbon Mics.
It might seem like yet another expense but you really need a
good quiet preamp with lots of gain to really get the best out
of the mic and when Reelsound bought a pair of AEA R84s it became
clear that we would need a much better set of mic preamps and
we eventually settled on the Focusrite ISA 428 which really
brings the mics alive.
The Golden
Age company have developed a range of
interesting and keenly priced Ribbon mics and their R1
ACTIVE is very interesting Ribbon mic featuring
a F.E.T. buffer ampilier which means that you can use this mic
with long cables and virtually any pre-amp featuring 48V phantom
power, getting round the need to lay out for a quality mic pre.
I'm sure that in the next few years the re-emergence of the
Ribbon mic will play a significant role in the recording world
and there will spawn a huge range of ribbon mics of all shapes
and sizes.
