Post
by douglas baldwin » Tue Aug 18, 2009 7:33 am
I had a bit of time to test the MXL R44 ribbon mic last night. There?s more listening to do, and much more information to be gathered, but these preliminary observations may help others and further the discussion on this exciting world of inexpensive ribbon mics.
The quick review: I like this mic a lot, especially for my guitar amp.
Caveat: This is the first ribbon mic I?ve owned, so many of my comments may be simply desribing attributes common to many ribbon mics.
The full review: I?ve already posted a description of the MXL package and Musicians Friend?s generous addition of a free12-foot XLR cable to the $100 price of the R44. I also took a few pix of the mic and discussed some of the physical attributes of the mic. You?ll find that post at the top of page 3 of this thread.
I tested this mic very informally, and with gear comparable to what most might use when purchasing a $100 mic. Specifically, I set up an MXL 990 condenser (with the internal basket crap removed) right next to the R44, about 2 inches apart, with their diaphragms as equal in height and depth as possible. I ran their signals into a Korg D1600mkII workstation, and monitored the sound with Polk 10A speakers powered by a Carvin amp. I chose the MXL 990, by the way, because I?m used to it and because I don?t own that many mics and I am not rich. (?Damn it Jim, I?m a guitarist, not a recording engineer!?) The room was about 12 feet by 14 feet by 10 feet high, with wall-to-wall carpeting, amps along one wall, my desk and recording gear on one wall, and books and CDs on the other two walls. It?s a moderately dead acoustic space.
After setting the mics up, I began by getting some levels while music played back on my speakers. Two observations here: 1) The figure-eight response of the R44 generates some really ?interesting? phase cancellation that the 990?s cardioid pattern avoided. In the center of this small room, capturing the sound of the speakers against the wall, the R44?s sound was hollow and a bit unfocused, with less definition than the 990 overall. 2) Having read so much about how ribbon mics require hotter preamps to achieve recording levels consistent with condenser mics, I was pleased to discover that the R44 was only about 6dB quieter than the 990. I had no problem getting a decent signal with the Korg?s preamps. Another interesting point: I had the Korg?s output up in the speakers at first so, of course, the mics fed back. The 990 generated the usual high-pitched squeals that we all know and love as ?microphonic feedback,? but the R44 generated a big, low note like a hollow-bodied guitar feeding back. I?m sure this was the ribbon oscillating, and I?ll bet any ribbon mic will do this, but it was very nice. I gave the mics a few taps with a pencil to hear what their baskets and bodies were doing. Interestingly, a really prominent set of pitches (noted in my earlier post) was unnoticeable on playback, but a bongo-like ?doink? was more obvious. A rubber band around the basket did nothing to minimize this sound, but it didn?t seem to figure in my recording anyway.
For my first real test, I played my J-45 acoustic (strummed and fingerpicked) and sang into the mics. They were set about four feet from floor, about 18 inches away from both my mouth and the guitar?s 12th fret, with no pop screen. There was definitely less sibilance and more of that ?old timey? sound in the R44. It was a nice match for the J-45?s woody midrange, but lacked the definition that I like to hear in both my voice and my guitar playing. On the other hand, the combination of the R44?s warmth and the 990?s hot highs made it very easy to mix the two. Together, these two mics make for one really nice mic.
Then I went to my electric rig. I played a Yamaha Pacifica (essentially a Strat with sing-sing-hum pickups) into a Mesa Boogie Lone Star Special (Class A amp, EL84 tubes) into a 2 x 12 open-back cabinet. I set the mics about four feet away from the cabinet, about 28 inches from floor, in the middle of a carpeted hallway, 5 feet wide by 10 feet high by 35 feet long. The R44 captured the amp?s clean channel nicely, and really worked with the overdrive channel. The 990 better caught the chime and air, but the R44 had lots of woody midrange and ? most outstanding ? a real nice ?cabinet thump? that I?ve never recorded before.
Then I opened up the door from the inner hallway to the outer hallway ? an L-shaped space about 25 feet down one corridor, 40 feet down the other, a tiled floor and bare sheetrock walls. Can you say ?natural reverb?? The mics were set up in the outer hallway, just outside the door at the elbow of the ?L.? The amp remained in inner hallway, about 17 feet away.
Oh my Gawd. What a beautiful sound. The R44 captured the space?s reverb amazingly well. I suspect that the figure-eight response worked naturally to give the attack transients priority, and then allowed the room?s ?bloom? to fill in. I could easily put an SM57 or 58 near the speaker grill and the R44 out in a hallway like this and just turn into a puddle of joy.
In summary: I still need to go back and listen more to what I recorded. There was some close-up talking that I passed over, and I still need to normalize the tracks, check carefully for peak overloads, test EQ possibilities, listen carefully for hum and hiss, etc. etc. etc. I look forward to really taking my time doing more A/B comparisons, and listening with a pair of Grado SR80 headphones. But my immediate first impression, last night, was that this is a great little mic, which, like so many of MXL?s budget mics, delivers a whole lot of whoop-ass for very tiny dollars. If you handle them carefully and do some simple mods (like removing the veils of inarticulation obscuring the path to the diaphragm) you can get some really excellent sounds.
If the tracks I recorded seem worthwhile, I?ll post them later as well. After some more listening, I'll pull all this information together and post it in the Mic Review sticky.
Douglas Baldwin, coyote in residence
Music and writings
Psychedelic pop and ambient soundscapes a specialty
www.thecoyote.org
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Yeah, Rock on with that.
