Just to pile on here - made an Austin DIY mic - sounds great!
Good budget ribbon mics
- Thread starter Tubetec
- Start date
Help Support GroupDIY Audio Forum:
I was unfortunate enough to buy in the past two Austin diy mic kits,
I advise everyone against it, it's pure crap.
There's no mount inside the Body for the ribbon motor, so the motor it's just hanging there by 2 really bad foam tapes on the sides that will disintegrate some time after and also loose it's glue.
Also the Magnets have to be glued to a crappy plastic motor structure, not only are those difficult to glue but also after a while the magnets will release from the plastic and join each other, breaking the ribbon and rending everything unusable.
It was the worst waste of money I've ever done in microphones
much better and cheaper than that are these two mics:
Unfortunately I never tried that one, it's one the new Tbone Active ribbon mics.
It looks good and based on my previous experience with their other Ribbon offerings I'm quite confident is sounds pretty good
Hey,
I was lucky to order a pair of Bash audio RM BIV-1 ribbon microphones from Russia before all war madness started. Not sure how shipping in between Russia an the rest of the world works these days.
Ribbon mics Igor makes are top top class, in league with big big boys. Recently I did 3 piece ensemble recording with 2 x RM Biv-1 in stereo Bluemlein. Pure magic, musician and house engineer told me they never heard their instruments so real, same with on drums as O/H.
It's very small boutique production, and this man knows his craft.
Once I asked Igor his opinion about 'upgrading' his stock transformer with Lundahal LL2912
In short this was his reply
'The transformer must correctly match the impedances of the microphone and preamplifier.
The problem is not that the transformer is better, but that it is better suited for harmonization.'
http://www.bashaudio.ru/rmbiv1.eng.html
Good luck
I was lucky to order a pair of Bash audio RM BIV-1 ribbon microphones from Russia before all war madness started. Not sure how shipping in between Russia an the rest of the world works these days.
Ribbon mics Igor makes are top top class, in league with big big boys. Recently I did 3 piece ensemble recording with 2 x RM Biv-1 in stereo Bluemlein. Pure magic, musician and house engineer told me they never heard their instruments so real, same with on drums as O/H.
It's very small boutique production, and this man knows his craft.
Once I asked Igor his opinion about 'upgrading' his stock transformer with Lundahal LL2912
In short this was his reply
'The transformer must correctly match the impedances of the microphone and preamplifier.
The problem is not that the transformer is better, but that it is better suited for harmonization.'
http://www.bashaudio.ru/rmbiv1.eng.html
Good luck
snigglepit
Active member
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2012
- Messages
- 31
TromNek
Well-known member
Thanks
Most people play it very soft and nice
Well, (my) Sally was a 'tart' who broke my heart. So I sing it that way.
I just saw Richard Thomson perform here in NYC. It was an all 'audience request' show.
I put Sally Free And Easy on my slip of paper. I really wanted to hear what he would come up with. It didn't get pulled from the hat.
I also often perform Polly On The Shore from that album. That entire album (and all their stuff) is awesome. I wish they had recorded more.
Yup, nice to know there are Trees fans out there !
I don't have much experience with Ribbon mics but I built an Austin DIY Ribbon mic with a Cinemag transformer and I think it sounds great!
mrgrooves666
Well-known member
I have experience with it, very nice vocal mic, has a little more extended top end than the BIV-1 and very natural, unhyped ribbon sound. Not for stereo usage though, due to the geometry of the dual ribbon array it has inside. I installed one of bumble bee's active booster pcb's and used it often for voice over or vocals. I think its very good value for the buck, as all of Igor's.
JW
Well-known member
I also have a pair of BIV 1 ribbons from Igor. It took like 4 months for them to arrive in the US. This was before the what have you . . . (Don't mention the war!) If you might have been pessimistic waiting form months before, well good luck now. Anyway, they are amazing. He has some pretty nice sounding samples on his site too. I'd say they are indicative of what these mics are capable of. They're very rich and balanced. The are a bit dark But they are so smooth and easy to eq. One of the BIV 3 is definitely something I'd love to add to the mic locker.
Marik
Well-known member
Not quite... not even close. Besides grill/body differences/similarities there are many other variables even in the ribbon motor itself--length and width of the ribbon, size of the magnets, ribbon thickness, type/pitch/shape of ribbon corrugation, size of the slits between ribbon and pole pieces, frame itself and front to back distance, resonators, ribbon clamps, tuning frequency and its iniformity, and some other aspects of the construction and production, which all make difference. Besides, I am still to see a ribbon motor with 3 parts... there are at least 7 (without counting screws) even in the simplest motors. Our MF and VL lines of ribbon mics have 6 magnets per frame, alone.
What is true, the ribbons are quite forgiving and even a sloppy executed ribbon mic with 6um thick stretched ribbon element can sound at least half decent... obviously, it won't fly in say, condenser))).
Best, M
Marik
Well-known member
Trololo,
Following the same logic, if conceptually a condenser microphone consists of 1. capsule, 2. impedance converter, 3. some body assembly, then say, KM 84 is a clone of Ela M251?
Obviously not, as the devil is in detail. The details, which differ ribbon mics from each other I listed above.
Best, M
This seems like a silly argument. If it were true that ribbon microphones were as simple to design/build as you say, @trololo, then wouldn't they all sound the same? That couldn't be further from the truth. Very good ribbon mics, i.e., Coles, RCA, AEA, Royer, Melodium, etc (maybe Samar as well - I haven't had the pleasure of hearing one) sound distinctly better, and are used by professionals in countless recording studios over cheap ribbons (i.e., old EVs, Shure, cheap Chinese ribbons, etc.) everyday. I have used a number of both cheap and nice/expensive ribbon mics, and the differences are huge.
Are there some good-sounding cheap ribbon microphones? Of course! Stagers are affordable and sound fantastic. Cloud mics sound wonderful as well. Even the not-so-great sounding ones often have their place. I have used both Reslos and Cascade ribbons on guitar amps many times with great results. There is a clear difference in sound though between something like a Cascade Fathead and something like a an AEA R44CE.
Magnet material & placement, headbasket acoustics, ribbon tension & corrugation, transformer quality and ratio, etc....all of these things matter.
Are there some good-sounding cheap ribbon microphones? Of course! Stagers are affordable and sound fantastic. Cloud mics sound wonderful as well. Even the not-so-great sounding ones often have their place. I have used both Reslos and Cascade ribbons on guitar amps many times with great results. There is a clear difference in sound though between something like a Cascade Fathead and something like a an AEA R44CE.
Magnet material & placement, headbasket acoustics, ribbon tension & corrugation, transformer quality and ratio, etc....all of these things matter.
Looks like every single one of your 7 posts is promoting or in defense of Lmics. Coincidence?
McIrish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2016
- Messages
- 218
Not to put this back on topic, but I found the Alder Audio H44 to be a good and not expensive ribbon mic. Worked great on many cello sessions. I haven't used it on much else so far but it won out over an AEA R84 in those few sessions. Tyler was easy to get info from and a pleasure to do business with. I have no affiliation with him, other than I like what he made. They did go up in price but $499 isn't bad.
TwentyTrees
Well-known member
Yes, I noted that as well.
