What is it with ribbon mics?

[Doug Young]

BTW, it just occurred to me that this is the same way the Townsend mic works when used in stereo. You basically aim it so that the capsules are shooting left and right. I don't think that mic has a particularly deep null, tho, and you're expected to use their DSP processing to make it all come together. But the raw mic doesn't sound bad when used that way.

[min7b5]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

None of these ribbon boosters will help TBman with his active Sterling ST170. The ST170 requires phantom power, and has a built-in preamp section, although the output still isn't as hot as his condensers…

Oh, I see.

Originally Posted by TBman

…
I'm curious to see what mid side recording has to offer me, if any thing. I have a suspicion that the room has to be better than what I have to reap any benefit, but we'll see. I'll have to read up on the differences between mid/side and a spaced pair.

I think I just like the strong center image, and then the ability to dial in more stereo spread to taste after the fact. It’s mono-plus! It’s also just simple for me as quick a point-n-shoot setup. It’s just right in front of the sound hole ten inches out, done. With a spaced pair it always take me more time to find the spots, and then I have a sip of coffee and then it’s seemingly a little different again..

Another theory is that for my personally all my home recording is basically just for YouTube and other social media as a creative and promotional outlet, and since so many people probably are just checking it out on their phone, or iPad, maybe something that translates to mono well is a good thing. But I don’t know..

That said, I’ve never used mid/side on any of my studio albums -always spaced pairs with room mics..

[DukeX]

Originally Posted by DukeX

I've had luck with them on acoustic guitar by angling them sideways so the lobes are left/right instead of back/front.

Originally Posted by KevWind

... That is interesting but that would seem to place the nulls facing the guitar and rely more on off axis response ... I will have to try that. I have always pointed them front/back thinking that the null facing each other might give a bit more stereo separation ??

It's been a while, but for fig-8 I think I actually preferred it pointing straight at the neck joint like a bullet. It is a multi-pattern LDC tube mic (797 Audio CR998). I remember trying it from 6" 12" 18" 24" out from the neck joint, and I preferred fig-8 at 18" over cardioid or omni in that small room.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by min7b5

Oh, I see.




I think I just like the strong center image, and then the ability to dial in more stereo spread to taste after the fact. It’s mono-plus! It’s also just simple for me as quick a point-n-shoot setup. It’s just right in front of the sound hole ten inches out, done. With a spaced pair it always take me more time to find the spots, and then I have a sip of coffee and then it’s seemingly a little different again..

Another theory is that for my personally all my home recording is basically just for YouTube and other social media as a creative and promotional outlet, and since so many people probably are just checking it out on their phone, or iPad, maybe something that translates to mono well is a good thing. But I don’t know..

That said, I’ve never used mid/side on any of my studio albums -always spaced pairs with room mics..

Thanks! I'll have to see if what I have does the converting stuff or I'll track down a plug in.

[lkingston]

Make sure you don't send phantom power to a ribbon mic! It can damage it. A FetHead or Cloudlifter will boost the level and also protect the mic.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by TBman

Thanks! I'll have to see if what I have does the converting stuff or I'll track down a plug in.

There's a free plugin by Voxengo. You can also do it the manual way, with three tracks, inverting the phase of one side.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by lkingston

Make sure you don't send phantom power to a ribbon mic! It can damage it. A FetHead or Cloudlifter will boost the level and also protect the mic.

Barry's ribbon is active, so it actually needs phantom power. My understanding is that this issue is rarely a problem even with passive ribbons these days, and it mostly applies to vintage mics, and mostly if a mic cable is mis-wired. However, the preamp I use for ribbons has a no-phantom input, partly to make sure this doesn't occur, but also because then it doesn't need DC blocking capacitors, resulting in a better sound. But there are now lots of Active Ribbon mics, that do take phantom exactly like a condenser.

Here's some info from Royer on the phantom issue:

https://royerlabs.com/ribbon-mics-and-phantom-power/

and another source:

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/pro...e-myths-busted

[TBman]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

It's just a different mic placement technique, Barry. It is especially beneficial if you want to be able to adjust the stereo image after the fact, any where from mono to ultra-wide. You can get an extremely wide stereo image (Eric does this) that would normally be a bit problematic, while still being completely mono-compatible - which isn't the case with spaced pairs. For solo guitar, it also just has a nice "centered" quality to it, while still being spacious.

If you haven't seen it, I go thru the process and maybe talk about "why" (I forget) here:

Thanks for this. I installed the plug-in and played around with the setup. I made one error with the setup so I will redo my demos at another time.

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by lkingston

Make sure you don't send phantom power to a ribbon mic! It can damage it. A FetHead or Cloudlifter will boost the level and also protect the mic.

Unless the mic in question is a vintage RCA phantom won't damage a passive ribbon mic. The only issue would be to avoid inserting or removing a plug while phantom is active, there's a slight possibility that the XLR pins will not be perfectly matched so the phantom will be unbalanced momentarily.

http://recordinghacks.com/2008/04/02...th-vs-fiction/

Fran

[nsureit]

The Beyerdynamic M160 is hypercardioid, and perfect for recording acoustic instruments. You can get them used for around $450 these days. You can use an in-line booster - I like the Royer dBooster.