royer r-121, my verdict

[ElektricEyez]

I have tried to gather as much info on MW and his usage of ribbons - this is what I read/heard and saw

he places the royers dead center on the cone, at the position where normally the grill is - he has stripped all the cabinets of the grille saying this gives him a much open sound. the r121 goes into a chandler TG2 - where he sets the impedance to 300 ohms - which is technically incorrect but this way it rolls of some lowend. the amps are pretty bright as well. I read he runs as much 5 faders sometime - combining different amps and blending in the DI tone from the randall cabinets. he uses the randall rack mounted preamps a lot.

so MW's guitar tone is based on the royer but there is much much more to it.

Yup you pretty much nailed it. Of course there is much more to it, but theres enough info there to get you started. Once we applied similar techniques our guitar tones went up quite a notch. Put the 57 in the sweet spot with an API 512c and the royer in a very similar position with the angle. I find that the angle MW uses helps to roll of some of the low end. Then we run the R121 through a Great River pre with the 300 ohms impedance into a Lynx converter. Usually with a splawn quick rod head and splawn cabinet we get a pretty serious guitar tone. But that little bit you posted on MW's technique is what what we learned a few months ago and started to incorporate some of those techniques and it just took the guitar tones up a notch.

 

[morpheusmultimedia]

Yup you pretty much nailed it. Of course there is much more to it, but theres enough info there to get you started. Once we applied similar techniques our guitar tones went up quite a notch. Put the 57 in the sweet spot with an API 512c and the royer in a very similar position with the angle. I find that the angle MW uses helps to roll of some of the low end. Then we run the R121 through a Great River pre with the 300 ohms impedance into a Lynx converter. Usually with a splawn quick rod head and splawn cabinet we get a pretty serious guitar tone. But that little bit you posted on MW's technique is what what we learned a few months ago and started to incorporate some of those techniques and it just took the guitar tones up a notch.

Since I don't have a pre where I can switch impedances I have to compensate the lowend bump by moving the mics backward. I also throw an 57 in phase with the royer to add some bite.

 

[Loki Laufeyiarson]

Interesting. I own a Sontronics Sigma and was thinking about using it on electric guitars, mainly rythm parts so this topic comes in right handy now. Used it on acoustic guitars and vocals in the past and I was really pleased with it. The figure 8 is quite handy when it comes to noisy computers in the room as well, just make sure it is in a 90 degree angle with the computer and it hardly picks up anything. I even recorded stuff with it when my monitors were still turned on in the same room and even that wasn't picked up by the mic.

 

[morpheusmultimedia]

So what's better than a royer and a sm57 ?
a royer and a senn md421

I was recording a progressive metal band last week, and ended up with my maxon od820 into a laboga mr.hector to a mesa 4x12 cab. I exchanges the sm57 for the md421 and I f*cking love this combo.

did 2 reamps for another projects I am mixing now using the same mics. the md421 blends really good with the royer.