Good budget ribbon mics

[johnsonic]

Just to pile on here - made an Austin DIY mic - sounds great!

 

[Whoops]

Just to pile on here - made an Austin DIY mic - sounds great!

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:

 

[rankot]

Anyone here used t.bone RB 770? I'd like to buy it as a present for my son, but I can't find any reviews about it (except on Thomann site), and no sound samples.

 

[Whoops]

t.bone RB 770

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

 

[Nen'O]

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

 

[snigglepit]

@TromNek I'm late to the party here but enjoying your version of Sally Free and Easy. Alway good to encounter a Trees fan! And that is a good guitar sound for sure.

 

[TromNek]

@TromNek I'm late to the party here but enjoying your version of Sally Free and Easy. Alway good to encounter a Trees fan! And that is a good guitar sound for sure.

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 !

 

[poda]

...hello...speaking about RM BIV mics...did anyone had experience with new RM BIV 3 microphone? ..hoping primary for vocals/roam mic/guitar cabs...
locking at one for sell +/- 350e (used)...

 

[Tronfxdx]

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]

...hello...speaking about RM BIV mics...did anyone had experience with new RM BIV 3 microphone? ..hoping primary for vocals/roam mic/guitar cabs...
locking at one for sell +/- 350e (used)...

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.

 

[Nen'O]

Is it the same ribbon mic sold on ebay from Nasastore?
Think it’s the same business model as bashaudio.

 

[JW]

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.

 

[Nen'O]

I do not think that it is bashaudio.
They provide a link to the ebay profile. But Russians now cannot sell on eBay.


View attachment 114620

Its clone od Igors BV1 mic.

 

[Marik]

Here is info from creators site:
View attachment 114653

It's funny. Despite the fact that the ribbon microphone consists of 3 parts and a bunch of screws, Igor is sure that it was his microphone that was cloned. All passive ribbon microphones with neodymium magnets differ only in the transformer. The ribbon is the same, the magnets are the same, the motor is almost identical. So who cloned whom?

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]

I forgot three details:
Conceptually, a passive ribbon microphone is a motor with a ribbon (1), a transformer (2), and a microphone body assembly (3).

well, nuts, screws, wiring, etc.

Maybe your passive microphones have some additional parts?

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

 

[OneRoomStudio]

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.

 

[OneRoomStudio]

Little less pathetic, please. I didn't talk about crafts from China.

As for studios with expensive equipment, I already wrote about marketers who need to justify the huge cost of microphones from the brands you named. The same specialists will prove to a very rich and, of course, equally talented musician that he needs to record in a studio for 1k USD/hour. Because (the same or a wider list of brands will be listed further). But the topic is about choosing a budget microphone. The best for the money. And therefore, all the brands you listed are not relevant in this topic.

Let's move on to the rough language of numbers. The price of a pair of Lmics lenta PR is $350. price of a pair of AEA R44CE - 7'000 usd. Do you really believe that AEA sounds 20 times better? If so, listen to the comparison with RCA 77 on the Lmics website, and then try to say that your faith is just as strong!

Looks like every single one of your 7 posts is promoting or in defense of Lmics. Coincidence?

 

[McIrish]

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.

 

[drezz]

I bought a pair of these russian mics on ebay a few years back. I love them. They're pretty darn decent. No compaints. Very good value and the grills are quite lovely to look at, nice aesthetic. Very good mics for the money.

 

[TwentyTrees]

Looks like every single one of your 7 posts is promoting or in defense of Lmics. Coincidence?

Yes, I noted that as well.