Ribbon mics ......which ones?

[SUPADUPA]

I'm looking to get a stereo pair of ribbon mics

for stereo drum / piano / gat recording .................

Does anyone have time on the Coles 4038 , the

Royer R121 & SF1 and the AEA R84 ....................

Like's , dislike's ... are the R121 & SF1 the same?

Lowest gain - highest gain of the lot .......... widest

frequency response ....... best figure eight pattern

for stereo applications .... most hardy ribbons etc

is the best bet for all-rounder the good'ol Coles 4038 ?

thanks in advance ............................................

[halljams]

I love my R84 more than anything in the world.
I have a 122 also. They both are very different mikes.
The 122 is much brighter than the 84 and the back side is even brighter.
The 84 gets darker on the back than the front.
I haven't tried other ribbon mikes but man, i sure love both of these mikes.
I have used both on vocals with great success also.
And the guitar sounds, electric and acoustic are just beautiful.

[concentric]

Originally posted by SUPADUPA


is the best bet for all-rounder the good'ol Coles 4038 ?

thanks in advance ............................................

All of these mics are great, in my opinion. I don't have much seat time with the R84, though. The Coles are dark, chocolately sounding genius. If you love a vintage vibe, they rule the school.


Jason

[PlugHead]

My experience is with Coles 4038's, Royer R-121/ SF-1, Beyer M160 (stock and DX mod), M500NC: of them all, I prefer the SF-1 for natural, acoustic sound. Tho I dig the sound of each and every one of them, I find the SF-1 to be the most natural of the lot, and closest to "reality". I would expect the SF-12 to be a killer stereo mic, and tho I haven't directly heard either the R-122 or R-84, I assume they both have outstanding attributes, as only ribbons can...

4038: it is one beautiful sounding gem: a horn player's dream, and a killer room mic - I like the thickness it has, as well as a very smooth, creamy top-end: only bummer is replacing ribbons, as I gather they are a bit more fragile than the latest batches of ribbon mics hitting the market.

R-121: what can I say - it is a super brass mic, and absolutely kills on ampz, even at rockin levels - also makes a super room mic, but needs tons of gain (not unlike the 4038) - has a much more present mid-definition than the 4038, and flatters those (mid) frequencies that too often get lost or scooped on many mics...

Beyer M160: stock is a bit bland - use it on alto sax, or something that really needs 40 lbs around the hips. It's a bit unexciting, but the Sank DX mod brings it into another realm: very useful, and has a much smoother top, and bit of scooped mids, but still the rich bottom end typical of ribbons: well worth the mod...

If I had my way, I would have a mittful more: thank goodness for a cap on the credit card

[henryrobinett]

I own both the AEA R84 and thr Royer 121. I love them both. I have yet to use the R84 on guitar cabs but the 121 rules there. I just did a jazz session where I employed the R84 on Tenor sax/flute and the 121 on Trumpet. Beautiful!

I've also spent quite a bit of time with the RCA77dx and the AEA44cine. The 44 is awesome. My dream microphone.

[artapril]

Had two SF-1 on a session a few month ago as OH, amps and guitar room mics.
Guitar sounds like heaven, but OH is rockin the devil out of hell.
The snare and toms are punching out of the speakers, and the cymbals sound wonderful natural. Just adding a little eq on the top.

[ShellTones]

Scott Dorsey just reviewed the new Coles 4040 in April 2004 "Recording" and loved it. I guess he was never crazy about the 4038. He liked the 4038's smoothness but was disappointed by its lack of top end. He said this about the 4040:

"The 4040 basically fixes everything I did not like about the 4038. And It keeps everything I did like about it. It has a top end that just keeps going and going. It is clean and solid on the top end, detailed while still mellow."

He further said the 4040 "has a fairly deep and fast bass rolloff, a nice lower midrange, and then a rising presence peak that centers around 8 kHz or so, and then a dropping response that is down only 6 dB at 20 kHz."

According to dorsey, the 4040 uses the same ribbon, gap, and transformer as the old 4038 but uses a newer high-density neodymium magnet assembly that is stronger, which gives it a much higher output.

He liked it on a lot of vocals, acoustic guitar, and as an area mic, and finished the review by saying, "This is the first really exciting new microphone I've seen in a long time."

Hmmmmm...

[Shawn1272]

I did a shootout with a Coles 4038 and a Royer (the phantom powered one, not sure of the number). I used them on OH, room, acoustic gtr, piano, and vocals. The Coles won every time. The Coles seemed more balanced and true to the source while the Royer had a more pronounced high mid peak and sounded unnatural. I didn't try the Royer on a guitar amp, which is where it's supposes to really shine. YMMV.

I love my Coles, I use them all the time on OH, Room, acoustic guitars, some vocals, some guitar amps. As far as the Coles 4038 being 'dark', I like it. Depending on the song, the dark quality of the Coles can really help in getting tracks to sit together. They absolutely rule on drums, amazing sounds.

I also have used the R84. Very very nice, more bottom and top than my Coles but also a lower output. With noisy pre-amps like my Neve's, the R84 output was too low for me (depending on the source, of course)

I also have an Octava ML-52. This mic is cheap (sold at Guitar Center) and sounds good on guitar amps and believe it or not, on kick drum. I've placed the ML-52 about a foot away from the front of a kick drum and it rocks. Tons of chest thumping goodness and snap. Maybe it's the ribbon crapping out but for how cheap this mic is, who cares. If it sounds good, it is good.

Hope that helps,
Shawn

[studjo]

I'm not that experienced with ribbons but I love my Royers 121 quite a bit. Today I used 'em as room mics (the first time actually). I think I won't use any other room mic anytime soon. They have quite some colour but that's what I like in my room at the moment .
I use the Royer quite a bit as git mic and everyone knows they are wonderful in that application. I like 'em also as FOK mic. The bass response is wonderful.

I'm a fan as you see

Jo