If a ribbon mic needs 20-40db more gain than a condenser, the noise will come up proportionally.
maybe a small diaphragm like the Oktava MK2. These are fairly versatile, good value mics that will give you an opportunity to learn about mic placement, room choice, etc...things that matter MUCH more than the actual mics themselves (within reason).
By any chance, for someone who prefers distant miking, is it best to get a mic with a bright sparkly high end? I think that high frequencies drop fastest with distance, do they not?
In the Neumann digital microphones, the signal from the capsule is digitalized without being amplified. The gain setting available in the control software is a numerical gain that does not impact the AD conversion, which covers the full dynamic range of the microphone (~130 dB). Preamplification is a requirement from full analog recording era.
I personally would find it extremely hard to record piano with ribbons (if I interpret your inquiry- piano recording is your aim?), because, in order to keep a decent s/n, the mics would need to be very close to the piano strings, which is not an ideal position for a good blend of harmonics or any type of natural piano sound, therefore negating much of what you are aiming at by wanting to record with ribbons.Because of the extremely low gain of a ribbon mic (in the neighborhood of -70db, which is about 30-50dB lower than the output of classic or current-generation condensers), some new ribbon mic manufacturers have combined the ribbon element with a built-in transistor amp, to boost the level up. This type of passive and active hybrid is an interesting idea which, in my opinion waters down some of the purity of a ribbon mic's timbre and purpose.
And: to what extend does this dilute the beauty of the ribbon mic? After all, if the internal mic pre must be fed into an external mic pre/board, for further processing, would that not mean a further dilution of the original pure ribbon sound into a mish-mash of the passive ribbon + (low priced?) fet + transistor/op-amp processor?
You're not spending much of my money.. the standard mics are $10/day. (The vintage mics are much more.)
Well Mark (marik) I for one think your mics sound wonderful! Keep up the good work.