Really gassing a Fathead II...

[JakeAC5253]

I really really want a Fathead II ribbon mic with the stock tranny. I've been debating grabbing one for the last month or so, and it's been grating on me heavily for about a week. I might use it on close miked guitar tones occasionally, but aside from that, the mic is figure 8, which I currently don't have, so that opens a lot of doors for me. I've got an upcoming album project for a local musician, friend of a friend, which I might do for free, and I think the mic might perform greatly for this particular project. It's a sort of acoustic pop/rock project with minimal hard rock influence, at least as far as I can tell so far.

I was thinking of using the Fathead and another mic, maybe an SM57, in M/S mic position on the acoustic guitar, and that that might be neat to do. On top of that, I was thinking that the Fathead might make a great OH mic for drum recording in this genre. A third use for it might be not for close miking guitar cab, but for room sound... a la Gojira or something.

Anyway, just had to get that off my chest before I do something stupid and buy one. Anyone use a Fathead II for any of the above mentioned uses?

 

[xTomx]

Whole heartedly recommend it, not a band goes by without it getting used somewhere.
It's fantastic blended with a dynamic on guitar cabs, but try replacing the 57 in your M/S setup with an LDC for some high-end detail.

I might pickup another one of their long ribbon models for a little more high-end on vocals and drums.

 

[xTomx]

Plus try using it as a centre OH in addition to a spaced pair, gives the snare so much low mid smack!

 

[nialldoran]

just used two of these today for the first time as kit mics (not OVH) about 12- 15 foot away from the kit in blumlein (XY) position, sounded really great i was surprised, apparently less build quality than other ribbon mics like the coles 4038s (which can take some phantom power mistakes, and some abuse) the fatheads are more delicate, sounded really cool though, cymbals were just really smooth in them,

 

[JakeAC5253]

Plus try using it as a centre OH in addition to a spaced pair, gives the snare so much low mid smack!

By Center OH, do you mean placed in the center of the kit with one side of the mic facing the kit, and one facing away from the kit? Or just placed in the center of the kit, with each side facing either side of the kit? The latter was what I had in mind, but if the first one gives results then I'd love to play around with that too.

 

[Sloan]

I highly recommend the cheap Nady ribbons. Now, I generally avoid Nady like the plague, but I picked up two RSM-4's like a year ago or something and they are amazing on guitar. THEY ARE CHEAP.

I just slap them in a random place and walk away. fucking rules. Have used them on two live sessions in the past months and since i'm in one room I setup everything so the null of the mic faces the drums. Never had to worry about bleed.

For vocals, they definitely have less highs, so that can be good if you want to dull things. Would imagine they would work good for horns and other instruments where the highs need to be tamed.

I've have them up as ambiance mics for metal drums right now, but my room is not 'good', so i doubt they will prove useful.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-audio/nady-rsm-4-ribbon-studio-microphone

 

[Heabow]

Always wanted a pair of these Fatheads too I heard many great stuff out of them but you know, I have so much things to buy... but they're still on my list!

 

[xTomx]

By Center OH, do you mean placed in the center of the kit with one side of the mic facing the kit, and one facing away from the kit? Or just placed in the center of the kit, with each side facing either side of the kit? The latter was what I had in mind, but if the first one gives results then I'd love to play around with that too.

The first one, same height as my spaced pair mics but sitting directly over the snare, it naturally rolls off most of the cymbals and just gives plenty of mid range for the shells.

If you wanted one to work with cymbals a little more then try a long ribbon design for more high end.


Anybody shopping for cheaper ribbons should check out this article:

http://recordinghacks.com/2008/11/01/chinese-ribbon-microphone-designs/

 

[metalhead3ecr]

u guys suck. I went to da website, and I literally want to buy every ribbon mic on there. :Spin:

 

[C-Martin]

I was GAS'ing for these about a year ago and i grabbed a stereo pair of the Fathead I. Something about the mics being held only by rubber bands just didn't seem right to me so i opted for the I instead of the II because the shank is slimmer and can accommodate more after market shock mounts in case the stock ones eventually failed, which btw are basically AT8410's and work great for not only the Fathead mics. These are pretty good mics for the money, it will definitely give you the ribbon characteristics to your recordings if your craving that. I liked how they roll off the high end and low end, kind of like a HPF at around 60hz and LPF around 8khz. This works great for guitars especially if you add a dynamic (or even a condenser) to blend some highs back into it if needed. It can be a bit dark sounding, the highs are smoother than say a 57, but it takes EQ pretty well and could be used on it's own that way. I prefer to blend in a 57 or i5 instead of going for EQ. They are fragile though, you gotta be careful of the usual not blowing into it, not bumping them or dropping them, store them in a upright position, when moving them for long distance use the mic covers, etc.. However for such a low price, i don't think you'll find better ribbon mics than these.

Just seen that they have a new Active/Passive Fathead, i'm curious about it and would definitely like to try one of those. The X-15 is also another one i've been curious about, i often use my Fatheads in X/Y and been thinking this could replace my fatheads rather large, heavy and bulky X/Y setup.

That said, i havn't really used my Fatheads since i got my Royer 121 lol. It kills the fathead and i'm always debating weather or not i should sell my fatheads. I still like them, but anything they do the Royer will do better. I keep em around and occasionally use them for stereo room mics.

 

[recordinghacks]

@xTomx, thanks for linking to the RH site. That article is really great for understanding how these designs differ. I agree with you 100% about the high-end loss of "medium length" ribbon designs like the Fat Head and its many clones. For me, they're not great drum OH mics because the high end is too attenuated. Longer ribbons, like the Cascade Vin-Jet, deliver a much more balanced sound, with a more natural high frequency response (although still soft compared to condensers).

You all might be interested in a new review I just posted that compares three different cheap ribbons. These are from Thomann, but they're comparable to models from Apex and Nady. The piece has sound samples of all mics on guitar cab (both clean and dirty), acoustic, drums and vocals.
http://recordinghacks.com/2012/07/13/the-t-bone-ribbon-mic-test/

\m/

 

[C-Martin]

@xTomx, thanks for linking to the RH site. That article is really great for understanding how these designs differ. I agree with you 100% about the high-end loss of "medium length" ribbon designs like the Fat Head and its many clones. For me, they're not great drum OH mics because the high end is too attenuated. Longer ribbons, like the Cascade Vin-Jet, deliver a much more balanced sound, with a more natural high frequency response (although still soft compared to condensers).

You all might be interested in a new review I just posted that compares three different cheap ribbons. These are from Thomann, but they're comparable to models from Apex and Nady. The piece has sound samples of all mics on guitar cab (both clean and dirty), acoustic, drums and vocals.
http://recordinghacks.com/2012/07/13/the-t-bone-ribbon-mic-test/

m/

Nice review, thanks for sharing it. I rather disliked the RB100, i don't really see how having one could be an advantage TBH, it seemed to lo-fi everything in a bad way. When switching from the RB100 to the RB500, it was almost like switching from a low res mp3 to a wave file. The RB500 surprised me though, as i was listening to those clips i kept getting the urge to grab one just for the heck of having an extra ribbon to toy around with. I like what it did on the acoustic guitar and vocals. To me it seemed like the best of the 3 IMO, i'd definitely find some uses for it.

 

[if6was9]

Ribbons rule. Have both an RB100 and the musicstore version of the rm700 and would totally get another pair of better ribbons. I use them all the time for M/S and they often get pulled out when something else just isn't working. I've used them on pretty much everything, acoustic guitar, bass, vocals, electric guitar, drum room, cymbals. Gotta try using one between the snare and hats next.

 

[metalhead3ecr]

I really really want a Fathead II ribbon mic with the stock tranny.

I just bought the Fathead I ribbon pair!! stock tranny.

 

[Sloan]

Can someone get a cheapass Nady and do side-by side construction and sound comparisons? I am unaware of this being done anywhere so far? I'm not dishing out the cash for the fathead anytime soon...

 

[metalhead3ecr]

Can someone get a cheapass Nady and do side-by side construction and sound comparisons? I am unaware of this being done anywhere so far? I'm not dishing out the cash for the fathead anytime soon...

+1

The Fathead II is the same as the Fathead I ...but built a little tougher. So as far as build quality, the Nady and the Fathead I shoulnd't be too far off. I think Cascade takes these "cheap" chinese ribbons and tries to re-brand them and clean things up soundwise with the transformer and duribility wise with the new cascade microphone housing.

But yes, a sound comparison would be nice!

 

[Sloan]

+1

The Fathead II is the same as the Fathead I ...but built a little tougher. So as far as build quality, the Nady and the Fathead I shoulnd't be too far off. I think Cascade takes these "cheap" chinese ribbons and tries to re-brand them and clean things up soundwise with the transformer and duribility wise with the new cascade microphone housing.

But yes, a sound comparison would be nice!

That's the impression I get as well. I'm sure it makes a noticeable difference. Not sure why nobody has taken the time to do this yet since people were buying these cheap ribbons like crazy a few years ago when they hit the scene...

 

[xTomx]

+1

The Fathead II is the same as the Fathead I ...but built a little tougher. So as far as build quality, the Nady and the Fathead I shoulnd't be too far off. I think Cascade takes these "cheap" chinese ribbons and tries to re-brand them and clean things up soundwise with the transformer and duribility wise with the new cascade microphone housing.

But yes, a sound comparison would be nice!

It's been covered on the forum before but the Cascade are favoured more because they inspect every mic by hand so their quality control is top notch.

The same can't be said for most of the other cheap ribbon mics (e.g one bothced mic in the Recording Hacks article)

 

[metalhead3ecr]

sweet! Mine should arrive monday. i'm stoked