Thomann Ribbon mic ROCKS

[seb37000]

They look like the ones thomann sells, whats the difference ( apart that they cost more)?

[Zoo]

I have no experience using ribbon mic's (exept the sontronics who have a built in protection for phantom power). If you accidently have phantom power on the t bone mics, does it break the mic? And if you put it in front of for example an heavy guitar cabinet, do you need to put a pop filter before it? I ordered 2 t bone rb 500 last week, can't wait to try them out. greetz, Zoo

[Agli]

I have a couple of these rb500 and I agree with most everything that has been said. They are great mics to have, but they do sound super/super-compressed and thick so they'll only work on the odd track for me.

[Blacky]

Originally Posted by Zoo

I have no experience using ribbon mic's (exept the sontronics who have a built in protection for phantom power). If you accidently have phantom power on the t bone mics, does it break the mic? And if you put it in front of for example an heavy guitar cabinet, do you need to put a pop filter before it? I ordered 2 t bone rb 500 last week, can't wait to try them out. greetz, Zoo

HI!
Yes,yes be careful with Phantom Power on ribbon mics! You can damge the ribbon!
I have the R1 active ribbon mic and for 1week ago i recorded a heavy guitar with them.
For my R1 you don't need a extremly closeness to th speaker, so the best for this track was 50inch far away from the speaker.
If you have a passive ribbon (normally) you can or must be closer, but take attention! Don't blow in the mic!! Take always,always a pop filter for vocals!
Hope that helps
Robert

[TheSweetener]

Any news about the RB100 compared to the 500?

[David-Morpheus]

Hi,

here is a song from the last project where I used the T.BONE mics

the RB 500 were used on

1) drum overheads
2) accoustinc guitar (a blumlein pair)

one rm700 was used together with a md421 on dual recto/recto cabinet and another rm700 with and sm57 on a 5150 with a marshall cabinet.

this was the first time I used the mics so I was experimenting a little bit to know what they are capable

mixed in PT, 90% of plugs are UAD (1073,1081, plate, la-2a, 1176) and summed with an neve 8816

enjoy
david

[chandlersonic]

OOOOOPPSS. Completely forgot about this thread. Well I guess I'll post those samples after all, a few months late...

[Michael_Joly]

Coles 4038 and OktavaMod Apex 205 available for shoot out.

Hiya, if anyone here based in the US has the interest, time, a good-sounding room and steady access to talent I've got a Coles 4038 and OktavaMod modified Apex 205 I'm sending around for shoot outs. I'm looking for a room and talent at a quality level to match the Coles & modded 205 - sorry, no 7' ceiling basement studios etc.

The Coles is a classic, all-around ribbon mic with a great HF response. My modded 205 seems to think its cut out of the same cloth. So vocals, OH, guitar cab and acoustic guitar would be good test material.

You're welcome to track with both mics for a week in exchange for some well-recorded clips I can post to my site.

Email me (not PM) directly if you're interested and we can discuss the details.

Best, Michael

[dkelley]

wow, nice guy!

so let me get this straight, I CAN'T have your mics for a week in my 8 foot high basement project studio in canada?

LoL, just kidding, I wouldn't want to be responsible for the coles in particular, even though I love those things to death (and love the 205s too for their purposes).

Good plan man, I can't wait to hear the shootout done by a great engineer in a great studio.

SOMEONE DO THIS! AT THE VERY LEAST YOU GET TO USE A COLES 4038 FOR A WEEK!

:-)

Don

[LSD-Studio]

The m160 is one of my favorite mics for guitar (acoustic and electric) and Ride-cymbals, brass etc...
so I thought I'd try the thomann ribbon...
it does sound ok!but it was unusable for stuff like youstic guitars cause it's too noisy. on acoustics I often boost 8-12k or so with this mic that was impossible, all I raised was noise...perhaps I had a bad one, but I think it's not usable at all.

[Shaman]

Originally Posted by LSD-Studio

it does sound ok!but it was unusable for stuff like youstic guitars cause it's too noisy. on acoustics I often boost 8-12k or so with this mic that was impossible, all I raised was noise...perhaps I had a bad one, but I think it's not usable at all.

I´m using my RB-500 all the time with a cranesong spider + a 12 k high shelve on my massive passive and have no noise problems at all.

Some of you guys either have bad units or noisy pre amps / EQs...

This mic often needs +60 db of gain - you can´t expect this amount of amplification without hiss / noise from a less than VERY good pre amp.

[LSD-Studio]

Originally Posted by Shaman

This mic often needs +60 db of gain - you can´t expect this amount of amplification without hiss / noise from a less than VERY good pre amp.

sure, but that goes for the m160 as well, and that is by far not as noisy...
perhaps I just had bad luck and got a RB500 of minor quality

[minus-sounds.com]

Originally Posted by TheSweetener

Any news about the RB100 compared to the 500?

I bought a couple of RB-100 a couple of weeks a go but I just tried them last Friday.
First I plug it to the Yamaha DM2000. Pretty decent preamps, nothing spectacular. It was a love at first hearing. I just couldn't believe that a mic that costs 89 euros could sound that good. I tried it with my voice and I think that it is excellent as a voice over mic too.
Then I pluged on the next channel the Beyer M500 (the brightest ribbon ever) and I realized how hugely different they are. I didn't have time to plug the M160 and the M260.80.
Then I got silly and I added all the gain on the EQ, +18db at 12kHz. Some noise came from the preamps as it was expected but the sound was not strange at all. Very nice.
I plugged it then to the Avalon 737 and the sound was very thick. I am not sure if I liked it but definitely it could have it's uses. I will give it a try again some other time.
I will try it with the ultra clean Millenia too.
Definitely the best sub 100 euro mic for me and one of the best on the sub 200 euro category too.

[Miramar_sessions]

does anybody tried cascade fathead? is it the same oem microphone like thomman 700?
Is it a reliable microphone to do a professional work like royer?

thanks.

[drBill]

Originally Posted by Miramar_sessions

does anybody tried cascade fathead? is it the same oem microphone like thomman 700?
Is it a reliable microphone to do a professional work like royer?

thanks.

Do a search. This has been covered a dozen times in the last couple of weeks. Here's a couple to get you started:

Fathead vs. 121 vs. 84 Shootout CD

Cheap Ribbons?

Ribbon Shootout

[luiscpferreira]

Hey,

I own a Tb500 and I'm really pleased with it. As someone it has really low output, so it's almost necessary not to use them with a Noisy preamp.

I've used them on Voice, Snare, Acoustic Guitar and Electric Guitar... Now that I think of it, it did really awesome in all those situations. I'd usually team it up with a Sm57 or a condenser. If someone's interested I can get some samples and stuff.

I'll try using it with some heavy guitar sounds, see how it does with that. Cool Thread, by the way

[trancedental]

TB100 Thomann Ribbon sounds great but it does need a decent pre, tried it in all my prosumer pres with no luck then plugged into a pair of channels from an Soundtracs CP6800 console with no noise at all.

I reckon the source would have to be fairly loud for it to be useful through a cheaper pre amp?

A bargain for the price

[Miramar_sessions]

I have 2 Neve Portico 5012, witch have 72dB of gain with absolutly no audible noise, so i think it will work fine.
The thing is.... Someone told on this forum that, he never put this mics as overheads or something important because of their bad response to transients, and because they compress to much. I understand that for some music styles this is not a good thing, but, for some rock'n'roll i think this kind of response is ideal, because we try to compress as much as we can (with limits of couse!!)

Is there someone here who have the Royers 121 and the T.bones, and is suficiently honest to put his ego and his spent money out of question, and agree that although the mics are diferent, you can do a professional work on the same degree with both? Because, i have listen to some shootout here in this forum, and my opinion, about it, is that they sound on the same stlyle, they dont have audible noise, and its all about small diferencies in the low and mids.
Does someone agree with me? Of course i have no doubt that the quality control of the royers, and the built quality is much better.
If someone have some room mics with the t.bones and royers, i would like to hear.
Chears

[chandlersonic]

Originally Posted by Miramar_sessions

I have 2 Neve Portico 5012, witch have 72dB of gain with absolutly no audible noise, so i think it will work fine.
The thing is.... Someone told on this forum that, he never put this mics as overheads or something important because of their bad response to transients, and because they compress to much. I understand that for some music styles this is not a good thing, but, for some rock'n'roll i think this kind of response is ideal, because we try to compress as much as we can (with limits of couse!!)

Is there someone here who have the Royers 121 and the T.bones, and is suficiently honest to put his ego and his spent money out of question, and agree that although the mics are diferent, you can do a professional work on the same degree with both? Because, i have listen to some shootout here in this forum, and my opinion, about it, is that they sound on the same stlyle, they dont have audible noise, and its all about small diferencies in the low and mids.
Does someone agree with me? Of course i have no doubt that the quality control of the royers, and the built quality is much better.
If someone have some room mics with the t.bones and royers, i would like to hear.
Chears

I own both and as much as I like my tbones for the price, they are not in the same league at all!
I use a tbone as mono overhead, sounds awesome there imo for rock and roll, this mic is a bug part of my drum sound when I'm looking for Dirty, kinda vintage sounding drums. The Royers are just pristine sounding next to the Tbones. This is truly apparent when mic guitar amps, stack like 4 guitars with the Tbone and it sounds nowhere near as big precise and compact as the Royer.
The Bone is great for a vintage, dirty, kinda bluesy vibe, if that's what you like go for it!!
The Tbone is definitely a great buy given the price but it's not the answer to all your needs.
I'll post a sample of the Tbone as mono overhead, don't have any track with it as a room mic as I always use Neumann for that app.

[Miramar_sessions]

thanks chandlersonic,
i cant wait, to here it.
But tell me something: I see here that many people uses the t.bones as a mono OH, but, why mono? isnt the result better in stereo? i know its the vintage kind of thing, but? And i saw many people using it like mono Room mikes too. The thing is that, when you abuse with the compression on a mono room mic, the cimbals, on the overheads decay to the center of the stereo. its a little bit weird. I think its better to go, OH stereo and room mics stereo, or, OH mono and room mics mono.
What you think?
Cheers

[chandlersonic]

Originally Posted by Miramar_sessions

thanks chandlersonic,
i cant wait, to here it.
But tell me something: I see here that many people uses the t.bones as a mono OH, but, why mono? isnt the result better in stereo? i know its the vintage kind of thing, but? And i saw many people using it like mono Room mikes too. The thing is that, when you abuse with the compression on a mono room mic, the cimbals, on the overheads decay to the center of the stereo. its a little bit weird. I think its better to go, OH stereo and room mics stereo, or, OH mono and room mics mono.
What you think?
Cheers

We went for the mono oh because this band is looking for a really old school sound, no tom mic, no snare mic, just front of kick , ohs and the Tbone as mono oh/snare mic about 1m30 above the snare. When using a mono oh I spend quite a bit of time with mic placement to avoid phase problems, this was a pretty quick session (4 songs in one day) so the placement wasn't as good as it could've been but I think it sounds ok. This sample here is un mixed and a little messy , just volumes and pans ( the Tbone went through Audient pre and 1176 on the way in but I wasn't hitting it too hard) and verb but I think it can give you an idea of what the Tbone can do, the Tbone is off to the left as they want the drums mostly on one side and the solo gits on the other.

[Jbassist]

I just tried my rb100 on a guitarcab next to a sm57, and the ribbon sounds reeaaaally dark when compared to the sm57.
Obviously the rb100 should be darker but im talking quit alot here, alot ows on the ribbon! is that normal?

[Jbassist]

Thanks!

Yeah the r84 curve looks alot like the one seen on the rb100 box, this is also my first ribbon so i have/had no idea what to expect anyway..

It's pretty cool though, paired with the sm57 you can arange low and high end by moving faders between the 2! Nice!

And why did you delete the comment? haha

[Matti]

These are just about the same as the T-bone, I claim.

Matti

[XLR2XLR]

I have tried the T.bone RB500 on a 4 x 12 marshall with head
4 inches away from speaker and found it exhibit an extreme sub/LF
bloatyness which was a total pain in the botom to mix as such I ended
HPF it at 130Hz. I am no longer convinced I need such a mic appearing on my guitar
reocrdings at least.

Anyone else experienced this massive blown up bottom end?

[GuitarRuss]

Originally Posted by XLR2XLR

I have tried the T.bone RB500 on a 4 x 12 marshall with head
4 inches away from speaker and found it exhibit an extreme sub/LF
bloatyness which was a total pain in the botom to mix as such I ended
HPF it at 130Hz. I am no longer convinced I need such a mic appearing on my guitar
reocrdings at least.

Anyone else experienced this massive blown up bottom end?

Yeah, everytime I hear modern metal...

[Shaman]

Originally Posted by XLR2XLR

I have tried the T.bone RB500 on a 4 x 12 marshall with head
4 inches away from speaker and found it exhibit an extreme sub/LF
bloatyness which was a total pain in the botom to mix as such I ended
HPF it at 130Hz. I am no longer convinced I need such a mic appearing on my guitar
reocrdings at least.

Anyone else experienced this massive blown up bottom end?

XLR

the huge bottom end lies in the nature of this mic.

What´s the problem engaging a HPF in the mix / during tracking which BTW you will need on most tracks except bass + kick drum if you´re doing pop/rock ?

[stickers]

Id like to hear the mic on floor tom or E.bass by looking at the freq. response graph above.

[XLR2XLR]

It wasn't a good bottom end it was muddy and boomy
and seemed like it resonated with specific chords making them
a low end mess.

Very annoying effect I am afraid.

Maybe I can use it for something else, can't think what yet.

Talkback mic? : )

[AllAboutTone]

I will have to look into this, they are a bunch of factorys putting out cheap ribbons.