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Author Topic: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse  (Read 13871 times)

gar-p

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Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« on: December 09, 2005, 03:55:08 PM »

I'm using several different ribbon mics every day and in nearly every situation ... My fav pre's (with nearly all mics) are v672 telefunken's but i didn't tried all (just a lot !) I'm lost in the middle of nowhere (south of France , countryside ... ) and i'm having trouble to get some decent ribbons specialy for the Melodium's 42b (... i've made some by myself , but more infos and maybe adresses will help me a lot ... if anyone here is using (and loving !) ribbon mics i'll be very pleased to get any additionnal info !
regards
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fj

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #1 on: December 09, 2005, 05:38:32 PM »

I'm very happy with the Coles 4038, having had success  on trumpet and acoustic guitar solo, so far.
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Coco

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #2 on: December 09, 2005, 06:02:21 PM »

Beyer M160's are pretty neat. Cleaner sounding than your average ribbon if that makes sense (cardioid not fig. 8 like most ribbons ). I have some Fostex M88-RP ribbons that I like a lot on guitars. Old Oktava ML-16 is a cool old ribbon too and can be had for pretty reasonable price on ebay. Never trid my ribbons with my telefunken pres yet. I usually just put them through a Chandler TG-2.
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Colin G.

kraster

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #3 on: December 09, 2005, 06:49:46 PM »

The Royers also deserve a mention. Astounding on Electric guitar.

fj wrote on Fri, 09 December 2005 22:38

I'm very happy with the Coles 4038, having had success  on trumpet and acoustic guitar solo, so far.


I haven't been able to get acoustic guitar to sound right with the coles. I find the bottom end too strong. Out of interest, where do you position the coles? OT, Personally, I love Gefell M582s on acoustic.
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Dave Martin

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #4 on: December 09, 2005, 10:54:43 PM »

kraster wrote on Fri, 09 December 2005 17:49

I haven't been able to get acoustic guitar to sound right with the coles. I find the bottom end too strong. Out of interest, where do you position the coles? OT, Personally, I love Gefell M582s on acoustic.


I don't have the Coles, but my ribbons work best on acoustic when they're placed a few feet away from the instrument, so that the proximity effect (which is a heck of a lot more pronounced with ribbons) is minimized. And my M582's are my second favorite stereo pair on acoustics, behind a pair of Shure KSM44's... I DO want to try the Josephson's one of these days, though.
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RMoore

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2005, 06:39:09 AM »

Telefunken also made a tube V77 preamp for ribbons with 75 db or whatever of gain,
I have a pair I picked up in Germany & use on ribbons, sounds great 2 me,
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RMoore

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2005, 06:43:38 AM »

 Ribbon mic repair for obscure French ribbon mics? - maybe try the service department Funky Junk in Paris or London?
In the US you've got Clarence Kane and a few others but I think that's more RCA mic oriented,
At Coles in the UK I think there's a few left who have the skill to repair ribbons, again probably limited to their own products,
What I heard but don't know if its true is its basically one old lady who does the ribbons there...??

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People's Republic of Ryan

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JGreenslade

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2005, 07:07:18 AM »

Coles have offered to look at non-Coles ribbons for me before. The impression I got was that they'll service any ribbon, even obscure ones.

There is only one way to find out if they'll look at your mic...

Justin

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gar-p

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2005, 11:52:31 AM »

Thanks for the links ... but the 42b has a larger ribbon at least twice as long as the Coles (15cm) ... i doubt they are in the mood for "custom" ribbons ... maybe Aea is a better source even if it's very far from my home ! I've seen that a chinese factory is producing ribbon mics (with "long" ribbons too from what i saw in some blurry pics of the guts ...) maybe they  provide parts and sevicing in europe ... It's also hard to get "real" infos about those mics, did somebody tried them ? What about the "new" Oktava's ml52 and 53 ?

List of ribbon mics (in working order) i have :

B&o Bm5 x 2
Melodium 42b x 5
Melodium LIP
Beyer m160 m260 m500
ElectroVoice V2
RCA 44
Coles 4038 x2
Lustraphone (unkown model)
Reslo

List of the Pre's :

API vintage 312 x 10 (mix of Huntington Farmingdale and Melville era)
Telefunken v672 x6
Telefunken v676 x4
Telefunken v76
Phillips 1960 dicrete class a x 4 (expect ... balls !)
Yamaha pm1000 strips x 2
Osa api (mainly used to test Trannys and op amps ...)
Radio France 1960 Tube Mic pre's + line drivers x 6 (awesome sound !)
Radio France end 1960 solid state class a mic pre's + line drivers x 4 (similar to neve design)
Bruel and Kjaer 1960 tube mic pre ( linear 2/35000 hz ! Shocked !)
Universal audio 2/610
Focusrite isa 428
Manley dual tube mic pre 50 db
Studer 189 strip x 2
Spectrasonics strips (from Motown console) x 2
Avalon 737
Ampex 351
i must forget some ...

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kraster

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2005, 11:57:00 AM »

gar-p wrote on Fri, 09 December 2005 20:55

I'm lost in the middle of nowhere (south of France , countryside ... ) and i'm having trouble to get some decent ribbons specialy for the Melodium's 42b (... i've made some by myself , but more infos and maybe adresses will help me a lot ... if anyone here is using (and loving !) ribbon mics i'll be very pleased to get any additionnal info !
regards



Have you tried posting on Klaus Heyne's forum? What he doesn't know about mics you could write on a matchbox.
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bigaudioblowhard

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #10 on: December 12, 2005, 02:59:42 AM »


There was a gorgeous Melodium on eBay lateley, nearly new.  AEA recenently did my RCA's and I was very happy with the work. I know they do NOT do B & O. What is the tube in the Radio France pre, love to see a photo ?

gar-p

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #11 on: December 12, 2005, 09:00:41 AM »

The tubes on the Radio France micpre's are 2 x EF86, and you need to connect the line amp ( 1 x ef86 and 1 el84 ! Yes you can make great 3W amps with them !) to get a line level output ... the rack is ready to drive 2 x Neumann U67 (tube power supply on the left for Ac701k mics) The Mic pre has no gain control as it is on the line amp ... the three switches engage passive eq presets (low cut, mid and high boost usefull with the 42b's!)made by huge high quality selfs (visible on the pics) I of course have all schematics if interested ... I have lot of different tube mic pres from same Constructor/era with slightly different designs (all with ef86 , some with 6au6 on output ...)
and a wonderfull tube console also ...
All those designs were lately (mid/end 60's) "upgraded" to class A solid state i also own and that can be compared to same era Neve designs (power transistor on output) One of the greatests sounds i've heard on pre's ! Here are some pics :http://colourbox.free.fr/Radio france 2.jpghttp://colourbox.free.fr/Radio france 3.jpghttp://colourbox.free.fr/Radio france 4.jpg

And here are pics of my "colourbox" in situ !
http://colourbox.free.fr/colourbox.jpg

if you want some pics of the Melodium 42b ... let me know
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The colourbox : Hi end West coast sound coloured 8 pre's + summing box + monitoring system exact replica of the well known 2488 sgnal path in a compact 8 tracks version ! OOOpsss !

Ronny

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #12 on: December 13, 2005, 01:43:05 AM »



Holy mackeral, your pics look like billboards. Brand new monitor I just hooked up this morning, I guess I need to adjust it.

Where in the hell is the submit button?   Laughing  
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gar-p

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #13 on: December 13, 2005, 08:34:07 AM »

Obscure guy in front of an obscure Mic ...

http://colourbox.free.fr/melodium42b dizzy.jpg


Believe me ... or not , those mics blow every ribbon mic i have ... and i have tested 'til yet ... if you call them "obscure", i hope it's just because they are quite rare and ... dark coloured ! (maybe a bit "dark" sounding too !) or maybe because they have been "forgotten" these days !
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The colourbox : Hi end West coast sound coloured 8 pre's + summing box + monitoring system exact replica of the well known 2488 sgnal path in a compact 8 tracks version ! OOOpsss !

Mike Cleaver

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Re: Ribbon Mics as dayly workhorse
« Reply #14 on: December 13, 2005, 04:34:29 PM »

AEA does do Coles ribbon replacements.
They also do RCA and you can ask if they can handle your Melodiums.
There's also Enak, Clarence Kane, mostly known for RCA ribbons but it never hurts to ask.
Go here: http://www.k-bay106.com/mics.htm and check out the microphone repair and reconditioning page.
There are some others who may be able to do this work for you.
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