first time playing with a ribbon mic

tcm123


i have a long time friend who is a shure rep. he left me a bright shiny KSM313 to play with for a couple of weeks. i have never used one before.
all i have done with it so far is some vocals.
we used the non badge side and ran it into a gr me-1nv.
i found that it was very easy(too easy!) to push it into distortion without coming anywhere near clipping.
were we eating the mic too much!
i'm going back to my trusty ksm27 to redo all the vox we recorded last saturday.
what did i do wrong? or was this just the wrong application for the mic?

Humm... it would be rare for a ribbon mic to have too much outuput for the preamp.  What is the next gain stage after the me-1nv ? Maybe you need to back off the output level on the preamp.

tcm123


the next stage after the great river was into a rme fireface 800.

i was really pumped to check this mic out and was disappointed with the results.

could easily have been something i did wrong though.

Has to be a gain stage. It should be Mic -> Great River -> Fireface 800 line input (not XLR). Set the RME mixer for that input up all the way. Use the output level on the Great River till you get the right level.

i found that it was very easy(too easy!) to push it into distortion without coming anywhere near clipping. were we eating the mic too much!

Probably. How close were you getting?

i was staying in the 4" to 6" range from the mic.
we tried the badge side of the mic with slightly better results.
i dunno...i'm giving it one more try this weekend with some
different settings.

"i found that it was very easy(too easy!) to push it into distortion without coming anywhere near clipping."

What do mean by distortion?

Are you breathing on this mic?

well, there you have it. :-)

146BSPL is not a wind rating.

I'm surprised the Shure rep doesn't know to teach you much about the mic... that may be because the mic is really a freshly relabeled Crowley and Tripp. :-)

I don't have a Shure ribbon but I use my other ribbons as near far mics and I push the preamp gain settings.

I also use a Great River with my ribbons... so I'm hopeful you will find a way to make good use of yours as well.

I'd start by assuming the pop filter was useless for a ribbon and develop a technique that made the pop filter seem superflous.

When I sing in a ribbon I work off axis about 12-18" away.... I sing in to the room and consider the ribbon mic a listener.

These are not mics that you work with "technique"... these are mics for people who sing to the room.

Think of the great singers from the 30's thru the 50's and think about where you see their mics placed. Chest high about 12" out. You may also find lots of contradictory photos of ribbons being mis-used... and that is why when I was a kid there were loads of broken mis used ribbons laying in piles in storage lockers.

Have fun with the mic... you may learn a new singing style. :-) You are very lucky to have aproper preamp to use with it. That should be a winning combination when you find the best use for it with regards to your interests.

best regards,
mike

Mike's right.