New MXL R44 ribbon mic

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douglas baldwin
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New MXL R44 ribbon mic

Post by douglas baldwin » Thu Aug 06, 2009 6:12 am

Anybody try one of these yet? For $100 at Musician's Friend, this beckons like a Snickers bar in the checkout line at Stop'n'Shop.
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Jitters
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Post by Jitters » Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:02 am

Ha! Well put.

I'm looking to find a ribbon to experiment with myself...

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MXR ribbon

Post by studiodog » Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:07 am

I've been looking at the same Mic. But have not heard any reviews etc. so I've been holding off.
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Re: New MXL R44 ribbon mic

Post by vintageblue » Thu Aug 06, 2009 3:47 pm

douglas baldwin wrote:Anybody try one of these yet? For $100 at Musician's Friend, this beckons like a Snickers bar in the checkout line at Stop'n'Shop.
I love it! While I have not given mine the true run of the gauntlet, it has found its niche as a stellar room mic for drum recordings. The R44 just loves low-end! I've found the missing "wonder EQ" for my drums, specifically toms and kick. As soon as I figure out how to upload song snippets, Ill post a couple.

IMHO, you certainly can not go wrong in picking it up. The shock mount is pretty decent too.

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calaverasgrandes
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Post by calaverasgrandes » Thu Aug 06, 2009 6:09 pm

looks interesting. I took alook thru the other MXL mics to see what other ribbons they had. Strange. They have 3 different mics called a '990'
990 ribbon, 990 LDC, and 990 USB LDC. Weird.
I am not sure if I want a cheap ribbon, or spend a bit more and get a cheap ribbon with a good tranny on it. Or get a cheap ribbon and put my own tranny on it. (knowing me it will be zip tied to the outside!).
eh, back to soldering.
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Post by digitaldrummer » Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:33 pm

I would like to see inside these. the MXL 990 obviously re-used the 990 condenser "chassis" and since it doesn't offer much there, I wouldn't expect much as a ribbon either. I'm guessing probably something like the RSM-1 or RSM-4 inside.

The R44 appears to re-use the MXL4000 body which is interesting. MF has them on "clearance" which is funny, because I didn't even realize they existed until today.

they also have the R77 which is $399. Looks like a polished RSM-2. Maybe I'll wait until that goes on clearance for $109. :wink:
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Post by johnnydove » Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:52 pm

digitaldrummer wrote:MF has them on "clearance" which is funny, because I didn't even realize they existed until today.
apparently they're renaming it to the R144, i imagine the dude from mxl will probably hop in here soon and say something about it.
-johnny

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Post by vintageblue » Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:36 pm

digitaldrummer wrote:I would like to see inside these. the MXL 990 obviously re-used the 990 condenser "chassis" and since it doesn't offer much there, I wouldn't expect much as a ribbon either. I'm guessing probably something like the RSM-1 or RSM-4 inside.

The R44 appears to re-use the MXL4000 body which is interesting. MF has them on "clearance" which is funny, because I didn't even realize they existed until today.

they also have the R77 which is $399. Looks like a polished RSM-2. Maybe I'll wait until that goes on clearance for $109. :wink:

Here's a snippet from an article on so called "chinese" ribbons. The R44 is in this category, and the description is pretty much dead on to what I've noticed in use. Here you go.



A couple of years after the original made-in-China ribbon mics began to lose some of their luster, the vendors began to offer a second category of ribbon motor that allowed rebranders to introduce more compact mic designs. Compared to the ?long ribbon / short path? mics, the microphone models named above all feature a shorter (45mm) aluminum ribbon suspended between two somewhat thicker Neodymium magnets attached to a yoke with straight sides.

The thicker magnets allow greater magnetic force to be concentrated on the ribbon, and thus make up for some sensitivity loss due to the shorter length of ribbon exposed to the magnet flux. However, the thicker magnets and straight-sided yokes increased the critical front-to-back acoustic path length and thus move the downward shelf to a lower frequency (8 kHz) than what is found in the ?long ribbon / short path? motors described above.

These mics also typically exhibit a mild ?peak-before-cut? frequency response shape in the upper midrange. Subjectively, these mics have greater upper midrange presence and reduced apparent high frequency extension than the ?long ribbon / short path? mics. For this reason, the ?short ribbon / long path? mics are popular as guitar cab and drum overhead applications where the recordist wants to attenuate high frequency energy that can become unpleasant, such as bad-sounding electric guitar distortion or cymbal hash, yet still allow the important midrange source material to cut through.

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Post by jgimbel » Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:55 pm

vintage blue, how do you think the r44 would stack up to the rsm-4, if you've got experience? I'm dying for a ribbon but fatheads are right out of my reach right now, and the rsm-4 is the one I've been planning to get. I know it'll be a crappy chinese ribbon, but i've got some chinese mics i love. i'm choosing the rsm-4 over the rsm-5 because of it's similarity to the shape of the fatheads. michael joly has written a lot about the shape of the ribbon mics and reflections within them, and from what i've gathered (and the fact that people rave about fatheads) that the rsm-4 would be better.

but if the r44's really nice i'll go with that. any thoughts?

by the way, digital drummer, the body doesn't look exactly the same as the mxl4000. i've got one of those, and it looks the same except the r44 looks like the 4000 cut in half. the 4000 is a surprisingly big (and also surprisingly good) mic. honestly it's my only multi-pattern mic, but god damn if setting it to omni and sticking it in front of an acoustic at the 15th fret doesn't sound amazing. it's so nice to have those few setups that you know sound awesome and are easy.

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Post by vintageblue » Fri Aug 07, 2009 1:57 am

jgimbel wrote:vintage blue, how do you think the r44 would stack up to the rsm-4, if you've got experience? I'm dying for a ribbon but fatheads are right out of my reach right now, and the rsm-4 is the one I've been planning to get. I know it'll be a crappy chinese ribbon, but i've got some chinese mics i love. i'm choosing the rsm-4 over the rsm-5 because of it's similarity to the shape of the fatheads. michael joly has written a lot about the shape of the ribbon mics and reflections within them, and from what i've gathered (and the fact that people rave about fatheads) that the rsm-4 would be better.

but if the r44's really nice i'll go with that. any thoughts?

by the way, digital drummer, the body doesn't look exactly the same as the mxl4000. i've got one of those, and it looks the same except the r44 looks like the 4000 cut in half. the 4000 is a surprisingly big (and also surprisingly good) mic. honestly it's my only multi-pattern mic, but god damn if setting it to omni and sticking it in front of an acoustic at the 15th fret doesn't sound amazing. it's so nice to have those few setups that you know sound awesome and are easy.
All other things being equal the reason I posted that last quote was because for all intents and purposes, the R44 is in the same category as the RSM-3, 4, 5, and Cascade Fathead. And if you already know MXL to have some reliable mics, why not? It ships from MF with a few extra goodies too. And using the 4000 in figure 8 with the R44 can be great for mid-side, or acoustic & vocal tracking at the same time.

Funny you mention the MXL 4000, I have seriously been debating on whether to get that as my multi-pattern mic or a Studio Projects B3.

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Post by jgimbel » Fri Aug 07, 2009 4:31 am

I don't have any experience with the B3 so I can't be of as much help as I'd like, but I can't say enough good things about the 4000. When I got it a while ago I thought it was so expensive (man how our perspectives change!), but since I actually got a handle on general pricing of things, I'm amazed it isn't more expensive, and I can't believe I don't hear about them more often. Last year I went to this guy's warehouse space to record a few songs. I used the 4000 as a room mic in omni for one song with just piano, and one song with just acoustic guitar. Both sounded great. The bass cut was great and much appreciated, as we were relatively near an airport and the mic was picking up a lot of bass rumble that was completely not audible in the room (I was amazed on first playback, I had no idea where it was coming from). I use it in figure 8 sometimes for vocals too. I try not to use it constantly because for me it's an easy default way to get a good sound, I just don't want the same good sound on everything. I can't say it's a mic that'll change the world, but it definitely deserves very good credit.

And thanks for complicating my ribbon decision! Hahaha, I just got some money to spend and I was planning on going with a Fathead (not Fathead II), but now I don't know if I should get that, the r44, or even the rsm4..oh boy..

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Jitters
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Post by Jitters » Fri Aug 07, 2009 5:50 am

I think I'll go ahead and take a chance on this guy. I mean, it's purple! How bad can it sound?

Seriously though, I'm thinking that once the ones marked R44 are gone, prices will go up and the good reviews will be plentiful. I have a few MXLs that I really like. Worse comes to worse, and it's not so great, I'm sure Mr. Joly will have a mod ready for us soon.

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Post by Dr Rubberfunk » Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:17 am

Curse MF and their lack of International Shippability ...

Hang on - girlfriend in NY on business in a week or so ...

*hatches convoluted cheap ribbon mic plan*
:wink:

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Post by Michael_Joly » Fri Aug 07, 2009 7:59 am

vintageblue wrote:Here's a snippet from an article on so called "chinese" ribbons...
huh, whatya know ;)

The R44 is a "long ribbon / short path" mic that would benefit from the usual upgrades - headbasket, ribbon tension, wire routing / guage increase, transformer and acoustical damping. Looks like MXL wants a piece of the $100 long ribbon mic market owned by the Apex 205. The $80 "short ribbon / long path" Nady RSM-4 and 5 still remain the lowest cost ribon mic entry point.
Last edited by Michael_Joly on Thu Aug 20, 2009 10:08 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Post by jgimbel » Fri Aug 07, 2009 8:47 am

Michael, always nice to read what you have to say. I know this is a tough question to answer because of so many variables, but do you feel that between the MXL r44, Nady RSM-4, and the Cascade Fathead, all future mods aside, that one is definitely superior in sound quality? I've been looking at ribbons to tame bright amps and to try for some drum overheads/room mics, and it's tough to find good info as to if any are better stock. I know most can benefit greatly from mods, but for those of us just getting into ribbons, do you have an opinion there?

Btw it's always awesome to see you posting here.

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