Who said ribbon mics are insensitive

[ruffrecords]

The other day I was testing the latest version of my Classic Solo tube mic pre project. As this version had no phantom power I was testing it with an old Grampian GR2 ribbon mic I bought in the mid 60s. I had wound the gain right up to 70dB and was looking at the level on a wide range LED PPM. The background PC noise, local traffic and me walking around were all quite visible. Then I happened to stand in front of the mic to make an adjustment to the test gear and I notice this very low frequency thump about 10dB high at about 1Hz. I leaned in closer and it got bigger. I moved back a couple of feet and it disappeared. Then I realised, the mic was at chest height. What I could clearly see was my own heartbeat.

Who says ribbon mics are insensitive!

Cheers

Ian

 

[Pip]

Ribbon mics are truly MAGIC is what they are. With todays lower recording equipment (digital) noise floor I have fallen in love with all my old ribbon and dynamic mics again!

 

[emrr]

Yeah I never said that! 

 

[leswatts]

With something close you could easily get 20mV/Pascal at LF with a ribbon...That's why we put a bass cur switch on our mics.
With drums it can be volts if the transformer can handle it.

Les