Royer Ribbon Mics

[juneaudio]

Has Anyone used the new Royer Ribbon mics? If so what are your impressions?

[Jules]

I have both haven't tried out the 121 but it has rave reviews from famous engineers on internet newsgroups and I cant wait.
The SP12 stereo is AMAZING on overheads IMHO. I've used it several times and prefered it to my previous favourite, a vintage AKG C24 valve stereo mic.
Jules

[Dead Space]

The Royer mics are VERY cool. They're one of my favorite mics for electric guitars. They can go where other ribbon mics can't-like 4 or 5 inches away from a thundering Marshall cabinet. The same applies for bass guitar.

Like other ribbon mics, they also sound great on brass and strings. I've also had cool results using them as drum overheads. In short, they're not cheap, but they're well worth the investment.

[BDWillis]

Ditto to all above — The Royer mono gave me the roundest crankin' Tele/AC-30 tone I've ever had the pleasure to put on tape/disk! And as a drum overhead the stereo mic's almost unbeatable… am looking to try two mono Royers overhead just for positioning versatility.

Warmest Regards,
Brian

[Sortasonic]

I've been considering the 121 myself. Can you describe what you like about it's sound characteristics? Is it good for acoustic guitar or does it's low output make noise an issue?

I record mostly rootsy, Wilco type of stuff. Tube amps and lots of acoustics and pedal steel. I was thinking the Royer might compliment this type of stuff. Any opinions? It's next to impossible to find these sorts of things to try out in my backwoods town.

[Dead Space]

The Royer is really smooth in the top end, as are most ribbon mics. It's great for amps that have a lot of snarl or spank to them. It really brings the top end into balance without sounding muddy. It's also great for that "big-***** Marshall" sound.

The 121 is the first mic I reach for when recording pedal steel. I've never tried it on acoustic guitar, but have had luck on cello and double bass. It is somewhat noisy in those applications, but the tone was unbeatable! I'll have to try it on an acoustic guitar sometime. It could be VERY cool indeed.

[Disco_Doctor]

The Royer mics are great. I have the SF12.

The top end is "subdued". If you want a really bright crisp microphone, like the Sony 800, this is not that sound - this mic is warm and present and detailed - it emphasizes the natural mid range.

The internal noise of the SF12 and 121 is at around -112dB, so I'm not sure what the noise problem is that Dead Space is having. Perhaps he is picking up unwanted room relections and reverb because of the Figure 8 pattern. Try putting some padded gobos or blankets behind the mic if you want to eliminate the room. Or it could be your mic preamp adding noise - to get a hot signal out of the Royer, which has a very low level output, you have to crank the gain on the mic preamp quite a bit - so it is necessary to use preamps with very low internal noise and lots of gain. For example, I found the Neve 1272's to be way too noisy to use with this mic. I recommend the Millennia's...check them out at www.mil-media.com.



[This message has been edited by Disco_Doctor (edited September 04, 2000).]

[Jules]

Some ribbon fans have noticed that giant tube pre amps sound the best with them. In a studio while auditioning everything they had for my overheads on a kit, the assistant pointed out a 3U high custom made box and said, you could try this, I asked if it had a phantom power switch as I was using a rental Royer SF12 and was paranoid about sending phantom down it, he said "yes, we can switch it off, plus it has some sort of 'setting' for old mics" The magic words! These were a high boost specialy for ribbons... It sounded amazing with the Royer! it was made by Vic Keary of Chiswick Reach, a valve gear Co here in the UK. So I bought it from the studio!
So big n valve, perhaps a more learned contributer could explain why it sounds better, I dunno, but I'm happy!



Jules

Back to Disco Doc's (Hi!) 'subdued' top end, I agree and am thankfull for it, I repeatedly get into deep sh*t with to much HiHat and sizzle that turns to an undefined hiss, the Royers give what I describe as a 'manly' sound to a drummers metalwork, clang, ting etc and not all hisssss. Ex-****ing-atley what I need, especialy in the transition I am making from tape (crank in the sizzle, cost your gonna lose it by mixdown) and digital.

-j

[This message has been edited by Jules (edited September 04, 2000).]

[Dead Space]

Disco_Doctor,

I was using a Daking pre for that particular application. We just got a couple of Millenia Twin Topology "Origin" units with an "extra gain" mod for the solid state mic pre, so perhaps this will help.

Jules,

The tube unit that you picked up sounds ultra cool. It might have an input impedance that works better with ribbons. The high end tip is probably before the actual mic amp. As a friend of mine who does a lot of tech work would say, transistors were invented to be switches, tubes were invented to amplify!

**disclaimer: don't take the above statement to be the start of another "tube vs. solid state" debate. I don't really care to go there.

[vtone]

I found the Neve 1272's to be way too noisy to use with this mic. I recommend the Millennia's.

I have both the royer sf12 and the 121 and I love both of them. however, as you said, they don't jive with the 1272's, especially when recording quieter passages.

I usually use syteks for this purpose. but I'm interested in the millenias... which preamp do you refer to? the m-2b? or the hv-3b? why do you like these with the sf12?