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anonymous 8 January 2004

I have been hearing and reading ALOT about these Royer R121 and R-122 being used to get some awesome guitar tones. I haven't had the opportunity to use or hear one that I would know of. I'm really just wanting to get some feedback on these mics and hear what everyone has to say about them. Like, what u have used it on and what this mic has done for u. Also what style of music you were using them on, mic configuration, guitar cabinet, and so on.

Thanks,
Shaun
Transcontinental Studios
Orlando, Fl

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Comments

anonymous Thu, 01/08/2004 - 15:58

I'm a huge ribbon convert. Right now I have a royer SF-1 and an AEA84. I love these mics. I've only had the AEA84 for 3 weeks so it hasn't seen as much tracking as the royer. It sounded amazing on my classical guitar less boomy then the royer. I find their a little to dark for most vocals but to me they outshine LD mics on most everything else. I love them on accoustic instruments. From strings to horns. Great on guitar cabs. Their quiet mics though good clean pre will be a must.

anonymous Fri, 01/09/2004 - 07:55

Hi

I haven't tried the Royer, but I have tried the Beyer and the Coles ribbons. The Coles is just plain stunning, specially on horns and piano, with a FAT sound but still the presence you'd expect from a 600£ (UK£) ribbon. They're handmade in the same fashion as they used to make them for the BBC. If you're buying a ribbon you need to check this out!

Also; if your dealers got them you definetly need to give the Beyer ribbon mic a try. It sounds natural and very wide and has more of a sparkly high end than the Coles. I think the Coles roll off gently above 12k, but they are also shipping a new ribbon now I think with an extended freq. response.

If you're splashing out all that money for a Royer, you should definetly try these first!
You won't be disapointed.

Stian Westerhus

PlugHead Fri, 01/09/2004 - 08:24

FWIW,

I haven't heard the R84 yet, but I've used R-121, SF-1, Coles 4038, Beyer M160's (stock and Sank DX mod): all have their merits, but if guitar cab is the MO, I would suggest either the R121, or R122. They will handle the SPL's a bit better, and have lots of meat in the midrange. If you're not at earth-shattering levels, then anything can work, but for loud guitars, the royer's rock :D

IME, a nice thing about ribbon mic's is their ability to take EQ well - you can get much more aggressive without penalty - very different than tizzy sounding condensers...

YMMV,

N. Jay Burr
PlugHead Productions

anonymous Fri, 01/09/2004 - 10:46

I used to assist for this guy who had a set of coles, man o man, those were some great mics on drums and the xylophone!!! captured a nice sustained 'ping' on every hit of that xylophone. I have seen that AEA has a 44 replica, I would like to hear one of those because I really enjoy what the original 44s do for overheads or on a marshall.

Doublehelix Fri, 01/09/2004 - 11:51

Originally posted by Do Makes:
I'm a huge ribbon convert. Right now I have a royer SF-1 and an AEA84. I love these mics. I've only had the AEA84 for 3 weeks so it hasn't seen as much tracking as the royer. It sounded amazing on my classical guitar less boomy then the royer. I find their a little to dark for most vocals but to me they outshine LD mics on most everything else. I love them on accoustic instruments. From strings to horns. Great on guitar cabs. Their quiet mics though good clean pre will be a must.

Are you saying that the AEA sounds great on guitar cabs, or the Royer?

henryrobinett Sat, 01/10/2004 - 07:05

Anyone had a chance to compare the R84 to an original RCA77dx yet? I know that since those mics are old the sonica characteristics can be varied, but for my jazz work on horns and vocalists that and the RCA44 are 'da bomb.

So I'm wondering about Do Makes comment about the 84 being to dark for vocals, whether this even applies to me. I LOVE the RCA77dx and the AEA44c for vocals. Gives me that smoothness I need. I have a 84 on order, but I haven't heard one yet.

anonymous Sat, 01/10/2004 - 07:53

Hey henry. I was thinking of them more in a rock/pop setting where vocals are up against things like louder more agrresive guitars. Also, I haven't tried the AEA on many vocalists at all, it's a fairly new mic for me. I did find the Royer inappropriate most of the times I tried it on vocals. There have been a few times it was right. For the style of music your talking about, I'm sure you'd get a lot more milage as a vocal mic. Looks like you'd be in the best postion to let us know soon enough. I'd like to hear your thoughts on how the AEA stacks up against the originals.

anonymous Wed, 01/14/2004 - 19:13

Here is this man's take. The Royer is fantastic on guitar amps. It's so realistic. I've had good results with it an acoustic instruments as well. If you are looking for an all around ribbon though. Consider the Coles. It's not as sexy on guitar amps, but it's just heaven on vocals, some brass, acoustic and overheads (jazzier material). I had an AEA R84 and overall I gave it a thumbs down. Sounded great on a 50's J-185 though. Horrible on most of the amps I threw at it. Maybe it was messed up, but I preferred my cheapo Oktava ML-52 to it. Which brings me to my last ribbon. The ML-52 can be a great mic. The main problem is the huge amount of variation from one to the next. I bought one and it was ok sounding (great for 200 bucks). It came with response curve. I went back for another one and picked one with a totally different curve. Sounds pretty good. But for 200 you can't go wrong. I love the Bk5's too.

BDFitz Mon, 06/13/2005 - 00:43

I can add this on the Royer R121. This is an amazing mic. It won't do everything but it will record loud amps extremely well. I think its slightly better on electric guitar than bass but it has high SPL, needs very little EQ and can capture a great tube amp on 11. Remember, most great guitar sounds come from great guitar players but this is one mic that you can literally stick in front of a speaker cab and sit back and record. Pricey considering it is very difficult to set up and find the sweet spot on ambient instruments like flute, violin, acoustic guitar, piano and sax. It does not get my vote as a vocal mic so the Coles and others may be more versitile. All ribbons are fragile.

Set the mic about a foot from the speaker center across horizontally and tilted up at 20-45 degrees.

To get a brighter sound, turn the mic around (with emblem on back)

You may be doing a double take if you record a track with the monitors on. The mic is very directional and background noise is at a minimum. I have gotten the best sound ever of an acoustic guitar but it literally took close to an hour to set up. The sweet spot once located is incredible. If you've ever spent hours trying to get am amp to sound good on a recording, the Royer is worth every penny.

Davedog Mon, 06/13/2005 - 20:24

I have used an R121 for guitars and an R122 for drum overheads as well as a Beyer M500 I owned for several years.I wish I had not sold it but it became a bit fragile and I couldnt afford the Sank ribbon replacement/upgrade at the time. It was a beautiful mic as are the Royers. The 122 on drum overhead is simply the most natural sounding overhead I've ever heard.Just like being there.

J-3 Wed, 06/15/2005 - 09:23

Dave dog I'm jealous, I wish I had a pair of 122's for overs!

I love my 121 for: elec amps, drum room, kick drum (outside awayfrom hole with a steadman pop screen) Pretty much any stringed instrument or brass. It's great for some vocals but too dull for most. It's so frickin' easy to get killer ac and elec tones with this thing . Get a good pre that compliments the mic you get. I've done recordings where 80 to 100 percent of the tracks were the Royer. Sounds nice. I'd love to hear two for overheads but I am afraid they would be a little too dark. BUT they do take eq very well. I like nice crisp overheads. Davedog how would you describe the top end of the cymbals/snare when using the 122's as overs? What pre are you using with them?
CHeers

anonymous Wed, 06/15/2005 - 10:30

AEA now has the r92, which is supposadly more suited for guitar cabs. It's about the same price as the 84 (I think just a little less) and sounds different, probably not as open. I heard some comparisons a while back, not in this forum though (forget where exactly)

Don't hesitate to get the Royer demo CD, it has alot of great examples on it. You can download some of it at their website as well.

Davedog Wed, 06/15/2005 - 16:23

My drummer uses older Zildjians and they are a touch soft so they're not really LOUD cymbals but they have tremendous tone.Since he isnt a 'beater' we tend to get very good separation with most of the set-ups we get to use.The Royer...ONLY ONE STEREO MIC!!made it sound like you were standing right next to the cymbals and since there isnt a proximity effect at that range, all the drumms came through clearly with the tone they started with.We were using the Digi pres in the HD3 system.They are more than adequate.Heads above the 002 pres in depth.Fairly transparent to my ear,so to me(a profound lover of the microphone)a perfect combination.The song was a ballad in a countryrock vein.All of the mics were through the Digi except the kick->Focurite Red and the snare top-> Focusrite Red and the snare bottom->TLA British Tube Channel. I love the Royer stuff.But then I like ribbons.

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