nady now has a whole line of ribbon mics

Crowly & Tripp is making a nice line of ribbons now, too...worth checking out, if you want to know about 'em all.

http://www.soundwaveresearch.com/ctmicrophone.html

My Beyer M160 is beautiful :)

The Beyer M160 IS beautiful, isn't it? I have owned several Beyers over the years and they do have a great vibe with the right source. And those Crowley&Tripps look great($$$$!)...
I also have an APEX. I don't have the same regards for it that I do my Beyers, but I didn't spend nearly as much $$$ on it as the Beyers, either. Don't expect miracles from these cheap ribbons. They work OK on certain sources (room mic for drums and guitar amps), on some vocals (lots of trial and error), and acoustic instruments (don't blast them with a trumpet up close!). I feel like I got what I paid for, nothing more. It's another paintbrush, so to speak. Frankly, I got more "bang-for-the-buck" from my AT4047, E-V RE20, and Shure SM81 mics than the Apex...

IIRs wrote: My Beyer M160 is beautiful :)

And its Figure-8 brother is beautiful too (the M130). I love it for vocals, strings, snare, toms, woodwinds, (esp sax) and all brass (except horn - there are better choices for horn).

The Beyers aren't that expensive. Also, I don't know if they're still running the deal, but sweetwater was selling the M130/M160 set at like $799! That just can't be beat!

J.

The M130 is high on my wish-list ;)

I just put my M160 up in front of a tenor sax for the first time, it sounded great. Also got a fine 1-mic drum kit sound from it the other day 8) its not the most expensive mic in my box but its rapidly becoming my favorite!

I've got a DEAD M160! Too close to the bottom snare drum, blew it! I have learned my lesson, yes... Now, anyone know a good inexpensive repair shop for these? I've sent some emails to some, but never get a response (repair places)... Let me know if you know of a good repair place that's still in business and won't cost a bunch. A simple repair is fine, no need for mods and crap...

Lonewalker wrote: I've got a DEAD M160! Too close to the bottom snare drum, blew it! I have learned my lesson, yes... Now, anyone know a good inexpensive repair shop for these? I've sent some emails to some, but never get a response (repair places)... Let me know if you know of a good repair place that's still in business and won't cost a bunch. A simple repair is fine, no need for mods and crap...

Try Sweetwater.

They're just as cheap as anyone I know.

barnee wrote: Hello there,

I'd like to get information from people using those new ribbon mics.

I'm planning to buy a pair of ribbon.

- APEX 210
- SHINYBOX 23
- NADY RSM-2
- T.BONE RB500

Those appear to be the same microphone.

Anyone here has ever used one of them or has made comparison with others?

I need those to record acoustic guitar (mostly picking), overheads from drums, flute, cornet maybe...

Please, let me know.

Thanks.

-Barnee.

any help?

I've finally bought a pair of RB500.
Those are cool sounding.
I've put a pair as overhead on a drum set, it was for a show recording purpose.
the result is good.

I've tested them on acoustic guitar.

when it's played "finger picking style", a little hiss appear...if the song is just guitar, forget it maybe...but if the song contains several instrument, it mght be ok.

otherwise, when the guitar is played "rhythmic way", no trouble.

Waaaarm sound for those ribbons.

I have the tapeop one. I love it and use it a lot, on vocals, drums, trumpet, etc. The only things I haven't liked so far is loud guitar amp, and only because the grill rings. One of these days I will work on fixing that. Hopefully a royer, AEA, etc., will sound better but I don't have that kind of money (I paid $112 for the mic) right so I do the best with what I've got.

mrufino1 wrote: The only things I haven't liked so far is loud guitar amp, and only because the grill rings.

Seriously??!! the mic's grill actually rings?? that's pretty nasty isn't it? I've heard very good things about these mics when you open them up and remove the inner mesh grill and a layer of cloth, maybe that will help?

I'm considering buying one and doing that kind of mod on it, but even though $150ish is cheap by ribbon mic standards, it's still $150 that I can't afford to throw away if I screw things up with the mic. I would imagine that removing the inner grill is an irreversible task (probably involving pliers and wire cutters LoL). Anyone try this yet? While you're at it you could look into dampening the base of the remaining outer grill with something, I've heard of using bits of stiff foam, I'm not really sure what would work best or if it would work at all, and bits of foam in my mic seems worrying (what if a bit of foam came loose inside and hit the ribbon - it would be toast!).

Interested in feedback - anyone go the guts to try to improve their chinese ribbon mic to make it close to an equivalent of ribbon mics costing 3 times the price??

Cheers,

Don Kelley
double take recording

My budget ribbon is an Oktava ML52. Bought a pair of them at GC for $200 each - didn't like one of them so I sold it on eBAY for $360 - so I figure that means I only paid $40 for the mic I kept.

It needs a lot of gain and (usually) a lot of EQ on the top end, but it can sound sweet on some sources!

The RB500 sound pretty damn good to me.

I use it on acoutic folk guitar to smooth the sound.
Unfortunately, you have a little hiss.
And this come from the mic, not from my preamps.

I used several ones, and some that got high gain available.
Each times, you bring out the hiss with the sound.

Some fellows told me to change the output transformers, but will this really enhance the sound?
(I'm not eletronic expert at all)

'cause if this hiss could be fixed then those mics would be amazzzzzing!!!