Ribbon Mic Questions

[Punx]

I recently bought the CAD Trion 7000 and have been pretty impressed with it. No Royer or Beyerdynamic obviously, but definitely worth the money. I was just curious what the benefits if any there are to a ribbon mic like this that is figure 8 as opposed to a hypercardiod or some other pattern. It will be used primarily on a 2X12 combo. It's positioned directly on the center of the cone currently. It may be used occasionally on acoustic guitar, but typically on the amp with punk or classic rock style distortion. Not likely it will every get the Zakk Wylde treatment, but I've heard alot of those guys also use ribbon mics. Comments and suggestions??

[M.Brane]

Using a figure-8 pattern on a cabinet will give you more room sound as it will pickup more sound from behind. You will also be able to drastically affect the tone by rotating the mic off-axis.

Beware of micing close up with a ribbon on bass-heavy sources. You can damage the diaphram.

[albee1952]

When recording guitar with a ribbon, consider my favorite setup(I also use a 2x12 Vox AD120vt). Place the mic at the height of the center of the speakers but go 8-9" away and dead center between the speakers. With a Royer 121, this is the best recorded guitar I have ever achieved in almost 30 years. As said above, the room will be part of the sound(in my case, it was a 4x6 vocal booth with the amp angled some). Some ribbons can be used backwards and will have s lightly different character that may be just what you need so give that a listen too(probably insert an EQ plugin and reverse the polarity if you go that route).

[Punx]

Thanks for the info guys. How much gain should a ribbon mic typically take? I find that this one seems to take more than most of my condensors. Also when you say set it back 8-9 inches, does that mean from the speakers themselves or from the grill? I'm using the AD100VT.

[M.Brane]

Yes ribbons need a nice quiet/clean pre with a lot of gain. They tend to have a lower output than most other mics. A really good preamp will do wonders with a cheap ribbon.

LOL I said cheap ribbon.

I would be very careful about close micing a sealed cab on a loud amp. You could drive the diaphram into distortion or even blow it out.