I'm investigating the purchase of a ribbon mic, probably a Coles 4038 but possibly a Royer. We're recording more horns these days, and I'm not crazy about the Shure KSM44 or AKG SolidTube which we've been using to this point.

I've heard people say that ribbon mics don't have as much juice as condensers and dynamics, and that some mic pres can't provide enough gain to take advantage of the mic's full potential.

Who among us are using ribbon mics with their DA7? Who use these mics with other pres, and what combinations are working well for you?

Have you found ribbon mics to excel at any other applications besides horns?

I'm using ribbons a lot actually. I have Royer R-121's and Beyer M160's. I find that the DA7 has plenty of gain for them. I mostly use my Royer's with a Vintech 1272 preamp. It's a very smooth yet warm sound. It has less than 60 dB of gain and seems to do okay in most applications. Where I need extra gain I just use the "soft-gain"
feature on the DA7.

I've found my Royers to excel at guitar amps, front of kick drum (my favorite!), acoustic guitars (nice!), drum overheards, drum room, horns, percussion, you name it. It is probably my favorite mic since it is extremely versatile. Pick up the Royer Demo CD to hear examples of what people have recorded with Royer ribbons. The R-121 is my go-to mic for most applications actually.

Brad

The DA7's preamps have plenty of gain (60dB) to deal with any ribbon mics out there. And if they didn't, Royer just came out with a powered ribbon mic. Ribbon mics are less influenced by preamp mating than condensers, because they don't really care that much about impedance matching (the powered versions being the notable exception). But of course, the better the preamp the better the preamp.

Depending on the mic, they can work with anything. The Royer SF-1s, which I've been using on loan, are designed for general instrument miking. They sound great on ac bs, steel or nylong string guitar, overheads...all kinds of things including guitar amps.

I got a hold of Royer Labs demo CD at AES and was very impressed. It demonstrates their mics in a variety of situations and you can decide for yourself what aplications you like. It even has a comparison recording of an R-121 and a Coles 4038 on a sax. I'm assuming that the DA7 pres can give you enough gain but they are coming out with a new "active" series that will have more output. The CD is free on their website www.royerlabs.com

Nick,

I was under the impression that ribbons were very sensitive to loading...especially older ribbons. That's why many preamp manufacturers have selectable loading on their pres. And I believe that is the reason why Royer has decided to make the active ribbon mics--to eliminate mic/pre load mismatch:

Impedance Matching
The electronics in the Active Series ribbons impose a perfect load on the ribbon element at all times, meaning that R-121A’s are able to deliver 100% of their full sonic potential regardless of the input characteristics of the following mic-pre. Due to the low-impedance output, Active Series mics can also be used on extremely long cable runs with minimal signal loss.

A good impedance match is critical with ribbon microphones because impedance mis-matching “loads” a ribbon improperly, resulting in loss of low end, diminished body, lowered sensitivity and overall compromised performance. With the Active Series ribbons, the ribbon element lives in a perfect world; it sees an optimum impedance match at all times regardless of the following equipment, so its performance will never be compromised by the effects of improper loading. In addition, the ribbon element can’t be damaged by phantom power, electrical glitches or miswired cables.


Brad

I have a beyer M500, and at least for vox, the DA7 pre is not quite enough. I need to use my 2-610 to really get that mic working great.

Older ribbons may be sensitive to loading, I don't know, but the Royers aren't. I tried running them through an Avalon preamp I was reviewing with variable impedance, and it made no difference.

Shrimp,

The Coles 4038's are amazing sounding mics and I've used them on everything from drum overheads to acoustic guitars to male vox. They aren't flat and neutral by any stretch of the imagination, but the color that they impart lends itself to a very fat, warm and totally musical sonic character. The low end is unbelievably big and rich and although the highs are a bit too rolled off for some, the midrange is unlike any other. I haven't compared them to Royer's but I'm sure those are excellent mics as well.

I don't usually use them through the DA7's pre's, but don't recall them being incompatible gain-wise. You will definitely test the quality of your pre's however, and need to pay special attention to noise in your signal path.

My 20Hz.

Wes Dooley's A.E.A. (RCA 44 clone) ribbon mic is worthy of praise and sounds great with the DA7's mic pre.

And they're good enough to consider buying in pairs.