Microphone for my specific style of acoustic playing?

[j3ffr0]

Warm and smooth + more warm and smooth sometimes equals mud, so I agree with the folks who suggest starting with a relatively flat condenser mic and going from there. If you pick something up used, you can sell it for roughly what you paid for it later, if it's not your cup of tea and try something else.

Perhaps the bigger questions are around what you are recording with? Do you have a decent audio interface to run the microphone into? Planning on doing stereo? Do you also planning on using this mic live or is going to be a dedicated recording miic.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by fitness1

Ah - it's only 499

Ah, not the mic I thought it was. Here's the one I've noticed, also claiming to be an extended range ribbon:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...pert-neve-rnr1

$1999.

Once you get into that price range, you start comparing to Neumann's, Royer's, etc, and SE's known more as a budget brand. A $499 SE mic seems more reasonable.

[DukeX]

I love SDCs and have five different choices. But I would not discount the Royer R-10. This is not a Coles 4038 sound.

I haven't heard one in person but have spent considerable time reading reviews and listening to demos.

Lots of players liking it on acoustic guitar. It also has an offset ribbon, so the back side is a little brighter than the front. Both sound great on the demos I've watched. Very smooth top end.

[min7b5]

Originally Posted by DukeX

..I would not discount the Royer R-10..

I have one and really dig it so far. Though we live in a hundred year old house with knob and tube wiring, and for whatever reason the R-10 really picks up a fair amount of interference/60 cycle hum.. Sometimes more than others. But I've got a guy coming to run a new circuit to my whole home office space. Anyway I had the 121 for a while too, but I think I prefer the R-10, for the mid/side thing anyway.

[arashaw]

I had an engineer record my Lowden with a Cascade x-15 stereo ribbon. At first I kind of wrote it off like "what's that all about?" It wasn't a sdc 84, 184, mc930, m300 etc.. I was drinking the kool aid a bit I'll admit. Anyhow, I've always been curious about ribbons since then but worry about self noise. The thing sounded good I thought.. I found this demo of the mic on their site.

video"]https://www.cascademicrophones.com/audio-video[/URL]

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by arashaw

I had an engineer record my Lowden with a Cascade x-15 stereo ribbon. At first I kind of wrote it off like "what's that all about?" It wasn't a sdc 84, 184, mc930, m300 etc.. I was drinking the kool aid a bit I'll admit. Anyhow, I've always been curious about ribbons since then but worry about self noise. The thing sounded good I thought.. I found this demo of the mic on their site.

video"]https://www.cascademicrophones.com/audio-video[/URL]

I have an X15, but haven't tried it in ages. Maybe I'll dig it out tonight. I like stereo ribbons in general. The demo by Thomas Oliver is what lead me to get one.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

I have an X15, but haven't tried it in ages. Maybe I'll dig it out tonight. I like stereo ribbons in general. The demo by Thomas Oliver is what lead me to get one.

I gave mine a quick trial. It's as I remembered, maybe a bit finicky about placement, or maybe I just need to work with it a bit more. Requires a lot of gain. I used my Apogee Ensemble preamp, and I had it all but wide open, resulting in quite a bit of noise. I only got about a -35db noise floor. A quieter, high gain preamp should help a little. I'd have had to crawl under my desk to use the one I have, so I didn't :-). Nice stereo image, which is what draws me to stereo ribbons. I had the best luck in MS, which is what usually works for me with these tall stereo mics. XY sounded either a bit distant or too boomy in my quick trials. MS works nice because you can put the mid section of the mic right around the waist, with the side mic more spanning the soundhole, giving a nice wide sound, still keeping the soundhole in the null.

Here's a quick demo with a Lowden O35. No EQ at all on this (it could use some, tho it doesn't sound unlike the guitar, which is pretty deep), and I left some "silence" at the beginning and didn't fade the tail, so you can hear the noise. A touch of reverb, otherwise just a raw track:

[arashaw]

DY- Yeah I think that sounds nice. There is obvious hissing noise no doubt. If you ever get the hankering to plug in to the higher gain pre I'd be interested in the difference. Don't hurt your back tho digging under the desk! Thanks for the share!

[anton]

To the OP, are you using any mics currently? Anything you like/don't like about them? Do you want to post a sample of your recording so far?

If you have a budget of up to a $1000, depending on what mics you already own I might opt for a pair of small or large diaphragm condensors. They might be more versatile than a ribbon. But that is just me.

On an adjacent note, I now want to buy a ribbon too. I just bought my first SM57, now surely I need a ribbon so i can mic my guitar amp.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by arashaw

DY- Yeah I think that sounds nice. There is obvious hissing noise no doubt. If you ever get the hankering to plug in to the higher gain pre I'd be interested in the difference. Don't hurt your back tho digging under the desk! Thanks for the share!

I did a quick compare with the Royer SF24 that's what I have connected to the AEA RPQ preamp. Visually looks like nearly the same mic! With that, I get a noise floor of about -50db, so not as good as I normally get with condensers, but much better than I got with the posted demo. Probably a combination of the preamp and the mic itself.

[TBman]

My experience with a ribbon (active) is that it picked up more noise than my condensers. The track had more "cloud" in it.

Also, my large condensers are "warmer" than my small condensers.

[Cocobolo Kid]

A Gefell M300 mic just popped up in the AGF classified forum for $675. That is a great, and well regarded mic for recording acoustic guitar.

https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=599926

[anton]

I have a pair of the M300's and love them. That is a good price for a single, if you like it you could buy another later on. Gefell says their tolerances are so close they don't do "matched" stereo pairs. Here is an example of mine.

[DupleMeter]

Originally Posted by fujauroste

Hi everyone, I'm looking for custom-fit microphone recommendation:

I have a Seagull cedar folk guitar
I play with D'Addario flat tops, warm tone and less squeak
I typically fingerpick without using fingernails
When I do pick, I often enjoy using a Wedgie rubber pick.

I guess the takeaway is that I like soft, smooth, round, warm sound. I'm looking for a good microphone that will compliment these characteristics. I've been interested in ribbon mics, but still doing research. I'd like to spend $1000 or less. Thanks for any input that anyone has for me!

I wouldn't go with a ribbon mic for a few reasons: first, you already have a warm sound. You may want something with a little top end lift to add definition. Secondly, a ribbon mic requires a preamp with a lot of clean gain (like 70+dB). Thirdly, ribbons tend to be figure-of-8 patterns and that means you'll pickup a lot of room in your recordings, so you need a well treated room.


That said, AEA has a supercardiod ribbon out now that is brighter than most ribbons I've used. It's around $1100 & it's call the KU5a. It might be a fit. Plus it's active (requires phantom power), so it's about 12dB hotter than a typical ribbon mic.


In all honesty, I put one of the KU5as up against my AEA R84, and it was night & day. The R84 was bigger, warmer and more 3-dimensional. The KU5a felt small & bright in comparison.


From your description of your technique & tone, I would lean towards something tube with a little top end lift. Something in the 251/C12 spirit, but those are going to be more than $1k.


Not sure if that's helpful...but something to think about.

[ChuckS]

Originally Posted by anton

I have a pair of the M300's and love them. That is a good price for a single, if you like it you could buy another later on. Gefell says their tolerances are so close they don't do "matched" stereo pairs. Here is an example of mine.

I don't have experience with the M300, but that recording was very enjoyable!