Anybody ever used ribbon mics on hi-gain guitar?

[stringyo]

More specifically, a Royer R121?

I've heard a few recommendations that the Royers kick ass on guitar cabinets, but these guys were talking about low-gain-Led-Zep-Plexi sort of tones...

I wonder if it'd have a similar sound as a condenser.

Also, to anybody who has ever used one, exactly how fragile are they? Can they withstand the SPL of a cranked 50 or 100 watt tube amp?

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

As a prude ribbon mic virgin, I have absolutely no right to respond here, but I was under the impression that ribbon mics and metal guitars have as much business together as say, Deicide live in a Christian church.

 

[Carrier Flux]

I've got a ribbon that I use with my mesa rectifier setup. sounds good to me. they're much more forgiving than an sm57, at least mine is [as far as placement goes]. I've got a shinybox 46 ribbon. it's low end stuff compared to the royers however..so I can't comment on those.

basically they sound the opposite of a condensor mic from my experience. more rounded sound, a lot less high end. but nice and beefy and relatively warm. they're good on dirty guitar simply because they smooth out the high end a bit, making the guitars a bit less harsh. of course this means you lose a bit of transient energy, but in my opinion you make it up in perceived "warmth".

I could post some clips soon...

I'm curious who told you dirty guitar and ribbon mics don't get along? seems the opposite to me.

 

[axeman720]

not a fan on the high gain guitars at all. i love the 121s as room mics on drums and i've used for medium gain and clean guitar sounds mixed with other mics. i also really like the coles 4038s.

 

[metalkingdom]

Fuck a ribbon.

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

Fuck a ribbon.

That's a hard thing to do... however, get fucked by a ribbon? Easier. Sounds like a cannibal corpse song...

*Triple Rectifier heavyness*

Anyway, I heard Andy tried ribbons and "the Sm57 never left the room" or something like that. I personally have not tried ribbon microphones on anything myself, but I've heard clean female vocals sound very nice through them.

 

[Andy Sneap]

correspondense with John at Royer -

Hi Andy,

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I should have looked you up on allmusic.com before I emailed you - you've tracked some heavy stuff! I understand what you're saying about that heavy, in-your-face, no room ambiance sound that you need. The R-121 by itself isn't going to give that to you - it's just not made to do that. By the time you're close enough to the grill to get the directness you need, the highs are gone. Some guys still get a great sound like that, mainly by having the mic dead center on the speaker where it's brightest, but that doesn't usually work for me.

Here's something that could be interesting to you if you're into trying it. I was in the studio with Ross Hogarth when he was tracking Coal Chamber's last record (and DevilDriver after that). He miked the cabs with an R-121, a 421 and a 57. You can see some pics of the setup at http://royerlabs.com/RH_devildriver.html The close 121's bottom end blended with the other mics made for a huge sound that was still very immediate. We tried a prototype R-122 (the phantom powered version of the R-121), putting it where the R-121's are in these shots, and it was even better. The transformer in the R-122 is a lot bigger and you can hear the extra iron - it kinda tightens up the low end and brings it into better focus. I'm just passing this on in case you'd like to try a Royer again sometime.

Your comments weren't offensive at all! Thanks for your kind email. Most times when people don't like the R-121 it's pilot error and a few suggestions lead people to great tones. But NOTHING works for everybody! After hearing what you record, I'd have to agree that the 121 ain't the mic to get it. I do think that the blended mics could be very cool and I hope you'll give that a try sometime. Either way, it's good to be in touch with you. Talk to you soon.

John Jennings
Royer Labs

I think thats a very fair summary right there. Must add, very well built mics and they can stand the spl alot better than the older ribbon mics....oh and I guess that link isn't working now.

 

[stringyo]

Cool, thanks for the responses guys.

 

[Exsanguis]

I love the sound of a 121 or a 122 on high gain guitars. John Royer was definitely right, however, when he said in his email to Andy that the key to using them in that application is to combine them with other mics. I've used 121's and 122's with a large combination of 57's, 421, 409's, and ATM25's, and the blend that I've gotten just by adjusting the levels of the different mics was enough to convince me that ribbons on high gain amps can add great things.

 

[puremetal666]

The song on my band's myspace page was recorded with a Royer 121(on Peavey cab) and a Neumann TLM 103(on Line 6 cab), single tracked, not sure what percentage of each mic was used. The amp used was a Peavey XXX. Both mic's were run through a Neve preamp of some kind. The song is unmastered and is supposed to sound thin at the beginning.

www.myspace.com/burningredmusic


CAUTION!! The band is modern rock, not metal per se.