Apex Electronics 210

I am musician who likes the freedom to be able to record on a whim in the studio space at my house. Because I do not do this professionally, price / performance is always a concern of mine when purchacing new gear. I decided that my mic locker could benefit from the edition of a ribbon mic and after reading many posts on this and various other forums, I decided to go with the Apex 210. One of the things that attracted me most to this mic is the ease of modification and the shootout clips against a Coles ribbon. The mic on its own sounded pretty good but things got really exciting when a few simple mods were done. I performed the well documented mods...removed the inner grill, removed the protective windscreen, switched out the transformer and insullated the mic body. I also retensioned the ribbon being that it came with a lot of ribbon sag. Most of the mods are quite easy if you are confident with your solder skills and are not afraid of neat meticulous work. After the mods, I am very happy with the sound of this mic. It works great as overheads on drums and on acoustuc guitar as well. Beaing that this is such a cheap mic to buy, you wont be dissapointed with the results and if you are a diy'er then this is a fun platform to work on with results that are well worth the effort

If you are looking for affordable ribbon mics that will give you professional results (AKA great sounds) look no further than the Apex 210 and it's little brother, the 205.

Drum overheads not warm enough? Drop one or two of these over your kit and suddenly cymbals sound like cymbals and not high-pitched ringing things. You'll find increased warmth in the drums themselves, as well.

Guitar cab too trebly? Throw a 210 in front of it and listen to how great your amp can sound; this is how your guitar should sound.

Storage is an issue (if you are one of those types of people that leaves stuff lying about) as you must store these mics upright (and it's a good idea to cover them to prevent dust).

Outstanding sound, outstanding value.

While researching the Royer R121 I stumbled on some threads praising the APEX 205. I stopped by the local L&M and saw the APEX 210 for $150. Not knowing much about it, I bought it on a whim with my wife who is a cellist. We got home, plugged it straight into a Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 and crank the pre up to 10. I put some cans on and moved the mic around while listening back. Instantly impressed! What I found most satisfying was how forgiving the mic was regarding placement. It really captured the darker tones of her cello. I did not find the lows boomy, as some noted (Peluso P12 was a nightmare with cello boomy resonances). The highs were soft. The midrange was very smooth. I ended up positioning it about 1 1/2 feet away. The mic picked up a very satisfying amount of the room. I was concerned that the pre wouldnt' be enough and was having thoughts about a cloudlifter, but 10 on the Focusrite ended up being too much for the cello, I drew it back to 7 or 8, so no worries about gain on this baby if you use a prosumer unit, though I'm sure a cloudlifter would give even better results. I added a pair of SDC L and R of the cello about 3 feet away pointed towards the f holes and mixed this in with the APEX 210. The combinate was stellar. As compared to say, an NT1A, the results were much more satisfying. So much so that I ended up not processing the recorded cello at all (well, okay, just a touch of saturation from UBK-1). I also found the APEX 210 more satisfying for recording a dark, emotional cello performance than the AKG 414, which I felt was too clinical and captured too many of those "ugly" noises that sometimes creep out of a cello. I later tried the APEX 210 on my wife's voice and, once again, the results were great. I stuck a pop filter in front of it, and ran it through the Focusrite again. This time the gain was around 9, but there wasn't noticeable noise which made me happy. We tracked a few harmonies for backing vocals on a weird bjork style folk tune and it really nailed it. Sat back in the mix, put an LA2A on the group, then through Slate VCC RC tube and DONE. Most definitely recommended to anyone and everyone. What a pleasant surprise. Good job China!

nice but not the top
voice quality changes not uniforme;y based on angle.
The correct voice is difficult to be obtained due the above fact.
Internal resonances of the basket, are annoing.
But it’s great for some voice of]ver effect, guitar amp, ambient mic.
Outside these application, it’s not worth