AEA R84 vs. Royer R-121

[nemisis633]

For those of you who have used them.. how do these 2 mic's compare to eachother. I'm looking at adding a pair of ribbons to my mic locker in the new future and I'm squarely between these 2. Primary uses would be Room Mics and possibly electric guitars.. (in the case of the R-121).. Thanks in advance for the opinions...

Jon

[NathanEldred]

They are very different mics, even though they are both ribbons.



The easiest difference to pin point are their frequency curves -

Royer 121 - more mid/high mids, between 1k-4k to my ears. Made slightly brighter to my ears by a rolloff below 40hz. Relatively slow transient response.

AEA R84 - Greater low frequency boost (and it is not just proximity effect either). Flatter, much less bright high mids than the R121. Faster transients.

So in general if you want things to come off as thicker and have the mic shave off the harsher top-mid, the R84 is the way to go. If you want a somewhat more present in your face sound, the R121 is a better choice.

Also, it seems the Royer SF-1 is often overlooked. This is quite the incredible sounding ribbon, it's like an "accurate" version of the R84 (to put it in basic terms), where the R84 is presenting something that is 'larger than real life'.

[Brad McGowan]

I'm glad you mentioned the SF1, Nathan. I have the SF12, which is essentially two stacked SF1's. Sometimes I use it just as a mono mic on acoustic guitars and I'm continually amazed by how accurate it sounds. It does have an excellent transient response.

Brad

[nemisis633]

Nathan,

Whats your experience been using the R-121's for room mics?

Jon

[kevinc]

And for that matter how about in front of the kick somewhere in a 3 mic setup ?

[NathanEldred]

I prefer either the SF-12 (or dual SF-1's, same thing), or AEA R84's for room mics.

For 3 mic setup I wouldn't use ribbons as the primary, I would use condensers. Probably LDC's, or small diaphram omni's. Most of the Zep stuff was done with U67's (some ribbons were used but I believe it was for special effect), with a D12 on the kick. What ribbons excel at for room mics, makes them not desirable for primary mics (imo). For kick though it would be massive, not a ton of "modern" attack though (although out of the two I might prefer a R-121 there specifically).

[henryrobinett]

Curious about these comments. I've had a 121 for a couple of years. I just picked up a R84 two weeks ago and have yet to put it through any serious paces. The mic I'd really want is the AEA44c. I had one of those for about four months awhile back. Sigh.

[StuartMac]

Where does the Beyer M160 fit into all of this? It's the only one I've used, and I thought it was great, but it doesn't get mentioned too often in ribbon mic threads nowadays.

the drums on that levy song by led zepplin was done with two m160s...

that popped into my head. probly not helpful though...