figure of 8 ribbons...as sensitive as...

creature.of.habit · Post by **creature.of.habit** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 4:48 am

hello everyone,

i'm about to take the plunge into the latest ribbon design by much maligned T.bone, mainly for vocals and amps, but i want to know how sensitive there really are..

i just sold my Studio Projects B1 cause it picks up a guy whistling while pissing in the street at midnight, believe it or not...i live near a busy road, in a busy part of town, on a second floor, so a stone age Sennheiser 441 is being thought of. Plus my room sucks.

Condensers are long gone for me, now that i more or less got over the wow factor. My only condenser will be the new revised meek 47A, wich according to all initial views, beats the ADK Hamburg and similar lines, for a fraction of the price. Either way, not yet.

dynamics for now...but i have no idea on how ribbons will work here. most of them are figure of 8 right? so, pretty sensitive i guess...but will they pick up a large portion of environment sound like condensers? are they that sensitive as well, or will they pick up more or less what a dynamic picks up (i surely hope it's somewhere in between).

thanks in advance for any views on this.

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 9:06 am

most good full range mics will pick up a gnat farting in another room, so maybe some noise abatement is a better investment for you first?

ulriggribbons · Post by **ulriggribbons** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 1:37 pm

Personally, I'm a big fan of the vintage gnat fart sound...

creature.of.habit · Post by **creature.of.habit** » Sun Jan 01, 2006 10:49 pm

drummer...

thanks, but i cant get into room treatmeant just yet :/ too expensive and ill be moving soon...besides, idd have to kill the room in terms of sound getting both in and out, if i wanted to do some serious treatment here. im saving it for when i have a definitive place.

right now i just really really want to know if a ribbon will be as sensitive as a condenser...

NewAndImprov · Post by **NewAndImprov** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 5:57 pm

I used a shinybox 23 ribbon to record some acoustic guitar in my control room, with a G5 humming away in the background. Set the mic perpendicular to the computer, in the null of the figure 8, and got pretty useable results, very little ambient noise. Also tried recording guitar while singing with the shinybox on it's side, so the null was facing the vocals, and it did a pretty good job of picking up the guitar with some, but not a lot of vocal bleed.

BTW, is there any reason I shouldn't record with the Shinybox on it's side? I know it's supposed to be stored upright, but wondering if recording sideways will damage the ribbon.

tonewoods · Post by **tonewoods** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 6:13 pm

"right now i just really really want to know if a ribbon will be as sensitive as a condenser..."

No....

ulriggribbons · Post by **ulriggribbons** » Mon Jan 02, 2006 7:09 pm

NewAndImprov wrote: BTW, is there any reason I shouldn't record with the Shinybox on it's side? I know it's supposed to be stored upright, but wondering if recording sideways will damage the ribbon.

Nope, no reason. Won't hurt a thing.

Regards

ju

creature.of.habit · Post by **creature.of.habit** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 3:19 pm

thanks tonewoods and newandimprov,

that's exactly what i wanted to know..ill have an asus humming in the back, but to my ears its really virtually silent..i wonder if anything will show up in the track though..

anyway, i can get the ribbon and not be afraid of micing the guy pissing 5 miles up the road, at friggin midnight...a relief. cant wait to mic two amps at the same time either..

tonewoods · Post by **tonewoods** » Tue Jan 03, 2006 7:16 pm

Like NewAndImprov says, you can really work the nulls on a figure-8 ribbon...

I've set up a single Coles over a drum kit with an Ampeg B15 and a 3-10" Bandmaster going off in the same room, and set the Coles so that it picked up the drums very nicely and yet nulled the amps to the point that I could almost do bass and/or guitar overdubs...

There was that much isolation, and yet it was a 32' x 16' x 14' room...

Weird but true...

llamaj · Post by **llamaj** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 11:39 pm

i recently acquired two AEA 92's. even though they are figure eight the back of the mic is either darker or less sensitve. they dont pick up much room if close micing. Way flatter than a LD condenser. These are the only ribbons ive ever owned and i bet they would be perfect for rooms with issues.

Osumosan · Post by **Osumosan** » Sun Feb 19, 2006 7:50 pm

Apparently, in some cases, if you use the ribbon on its side, the ribbon itself may temporarily bow and touch the magnet assembly causing a (most likely) undesirable effect. I have found this out by sending my B&O M3 to Stephen Sank thinking that the ribbon was broken. He's still testing it out, but on first look, he said the mic was fine. I was hearing a fluttering sound AND I just happened to be setting it up on its side.

Who knew? Not me.

A-Barr · Post by **A-Barr** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:43 am

I don't have the T-Bone mic or whatever it is, but I do have an R121, which I imagine is more sensitive. It is indeed less sensitive than a condensor but more so than a dynamic. It can pick up ambient stuff, but it doesn't have that glimmering high end that condensors can have, which tends to make background stuff jump out and cut through, so I'd say it's a bit more manageable with a ribbon. If you want a quick fix for isolation, check these out: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/AuralXpander/
I just got them, haven't experimented too much with them but they seem like they'll do the trick.
Good Luck!

A-Barr · Post by **A-Barr** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 11:46 am

One more thing - using a figure-8 mic can give you a lot of unwanted room noise in the wrong situation. That's why I got those "Xpanders" - so I could basically mute half of the figure-8. Helps a lot.

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figure of 8 ribbons...as sensitive as...

figure of 8 ribbons...as sensitive as...

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