Leadfoot
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My First Ribbon Mic
I just got a VR2 active ribbon mic by sE Electronics for Christmas. So far, I've used it on vocals and have mic'ed a guitar cabinet with it. I'm really loving it so far. Very gutteral sounding. It really feels like you're "there" when you listen to the playback. I can see this being my go to mic for quite a few things.
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Mosvalve
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/09 23:49:49
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I have the VR1 and use an AEA RPQ-500 pre amp with it. Excellent combo. The AEA is designed for ribbon mic's. Like you say, playback sounds just like it sounds playing in the room. What you hear is what you get.
BobV ASUS Prime Z370-P - Intel Core i7+ 8700K 3.7GHZ 16GB Memory, Intel HD Graphics 630 GPU, Windows 10 Pro 64bit, , Sonar Platinum 64bit, Motu 828MK3 Hybrid, Warm Audio TB12 Pre, Warm Audio WA273 Pre, AEA RPQ 500 Pre, Warm Audio WA76 Compressor, Presonus D8 Pre, Tonelux EQ5P 500 Eq, Kush Electra 500 Eq, Lindell PEX 500 Eq, Yamaha 80M monitors with HS10W Sub, and a bunch of other good stuff. I have a Roland Juno-106 that's looking for a new home. PM me.
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gswitz
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/10 05:58:09
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Ribbon mics are awesome.
If i started over, i might start with a ribbon as my first Mic.
StudioCat > I use Windows 10 and Sonar Platinum. I have a touch screen. I make some videos. This one shows how to do a physical loopback on the RME UCX to get many more equalizer nodes.
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fireberd
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/10 11:40:12
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I have a ($200) MXL ribbon. I was blown away by its fidelity. I used it as an overhead for drums and it worked well. I used it to mic my (squareneck) Dobro and the recorded sound was exactly like what I hear from the Dobro. I've tried other mics with the Dobro such as an SM57 and SM58 and I wasn't happy with the recorded sound. Only drawback they are low level and require some type of preamp if your recording interface doesn't have the gain or high gain causes noise. I settled on a "Cloudlifter" in-line preamp.
"GCSG Productions" Franklin D-10 Pedal Steel Guitar (primary instrument). Nashville Telecaster, Bass, etc. ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero M/B, i7 6700K CPU, 16GB Ram, SSD and conventional hard drives, Win 10 Pro and Win 10 Pro Insider Pre-Release Sonar Platinum/CbB. MOTU 896MK3 Hybrid, Tranzport, X-Touch, JBL LSR308 Monitors, Ozone 5, Studio One 4.1 ISRC Registered Member of Nashville based R.O.P.E. Assn.
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Leadfoot
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/10 16:03:58
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fireberd
Only drawback they are low level and require some type of preamp if your recording interface doesn't have the gain or high gain causes noise. I settled on a "Cloudlifter" in-line preamp.
That's why I decided to go with an active ribbon. I'm using an Audient iD22 interface with it, and the mic pres get a little of that overdriven sound when you push them hard. That can be a good thing a lot of times, but I didn't want to waste money on a ribbon just to have it sound overdriven. With the VR2, I have to turn the mic pre just past half way, which is still within the iD22's clean range.
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MakerDP
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/11 22:28:07
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The VR2 is awesome. It also works very well with my baritone voice for voiceover work. sE is making some VERY nice mics. Cream of the Chinese crop IMO. It helps that they are not your typical Chinese mic maker... they actually have a very talented and respected mic designer who designs all their mics as opposed to just trying to copy en-masse other mics using cheaper components and mfg methods.
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davdud101
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/11 23:43:07
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I haven't used a ribbon but a lot of people seem to say that ribbons pickup the sound "as it happens in the room" and sound "just as good as real life" where condensers apparently sound "better than real life", haha. I don't know about this, having used many REALLY nice condensers but absolutely 0/null/nada ribbon mics. I ought to rent some ribbons and see how they are. Enjoy it Leadfoot! 
Mics: MXL 990, MXL R80, 2 x MXL Tempo XLRs, Cobalt Co9, SM48, iSK Starlight Cans: Hifiman HE4XX, AKG M220 Gear: Cakewalk BBL - PreSonus Firepod - Alesis Elevate 3 - Axiom 49 DAW: Win10, AMD FX-8300, 16GB DDR3
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SF_Green
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/15 06:44:08
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AMD FX-8370, Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3, Win7x64 SP1, 16Gb CorsairDDR3-1600, GeForce GTX 950 (390.65), SSD 525Gb (OS), SATA 3 & 1.5Tb, MOTU microlite, RME FireFace 800 (D 3.124, fw 2.77), UAD-2Q, Adam A7X, A-800 PRO, CC121 Cubase Pro 10.0.5, SonarPt- 2017.10 (x64), Reason10.2, Live 10.0.5 Suite, Wavelab Elements 9.5.40, Komplete10Ult, POD Farm2.5, Omnisphere2.5, BFD3, Alesis QS7.1, Arturia BeatStep Pro, POD HD500, Alesis ControlPad, ARP Omni, many things with strings. GrSltz My Studio
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joegab
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/15 10:46:27
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I bought some time ago the cascade fat head (I couldn't afford the Royer 121).
For electric guitars combined with the sm57 it is really nice.
Giorgio
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SF_Green
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/15 17:38:15
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joegab
I bought some time ago the cascade fat head (I couldn't afford the Royer 121).
For electric guitars combined with the sm57 it is really nice.
Giorgio
That's what was intriguing about the R-10 it's very reasonably priced for a Royer ribbon ($499)
AMD FX-8370, Gigabyte 990FXA-UD3, Win7x64 SP1, 16Gb CorsairDDR3-1600, GeForce GTX 950 (390.65), SSD 525Gb (OS), SATA 3 & 1.5Tb, MOTU microlite, RME FireFace 800 (D 3.124, fw 2.77), UAD-2Q, Adam A7X, A-800 PRO, CC121 Cubase Pro 10.0.5, SonarPt- 2017.10 (x64), Reason10.2, Live 10.0.5 Suite, Wavelab Elements 9.5.40, Komplete10Ult, POD Farm2.5, Omnisphere2.5, BFD3, Alesis QS7.1, Arturia BeatStep Pro, POD HD500, Alesis ControlPad, ARP Omni, many things with strings. GrSltz My Studio
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joegab
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Re: My First Ribbon Mic
2018/01/15 20:14:19
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Yes, I think it's a good deal.
At the time I got the cascade the R10 was not available yet....
However I am happy with the fathead too.
Regards,
Giorgio
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