Just a correction here, a transformer doesn't amplify (makes a signal stronger). It's purpose in audio is to match the low impedance of the ribbon mic to the higher impedance of the input of the pre-amplifier. This is the same as taking the low voltage that the microphone produces and increases it to a level that the pre-amp can use. The transformer allows the microphone to work at its best efficiency with the premplifier. True amplification as is done in a transistor or tube increases the power in the signal which is volts x amps = watts.

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Yes you're 100%. I think someone commented the same a while ago. I was still learning about basics of diy and how transformers work. But thanks for the reminder that transformers like this step up the voltage!

The transformer does current to voltage conversion, so less current, more voltage - like a gear box.

@diyrecordingstudio

4 жыл бұрын

Great Explaination Prince! Thank You.

5:48 for Audio Examples!

I'm excited to learn about these ribbon mic kits through your excellent video.

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks Larry. I've recently bought and built my 2nd one of these ribbons to use as a stereo blumlein pair.i have a video on it coming soon. They're an awesome microphone.

@larryatha3221

3 жыл бұрын

@@diyrecordingstudio - yes, after learning about them from you and going to Bumbleebeepro's website - as soon as I can afford/manage (I just bought a second condenser mic this week as I am an amateur luthier trying to learn about stereo recording - A/B, X/Y and ORTF).But after I try these techniques out in a few weeks I want to get one of these to try to do M/S recording and then I will build a second one to try Blumlein. I had no idea such a nice mic would be a DIY system and affordable. The single take Blumlein recording of the Firal Band by Karlus Rava linked on Bumbleebeepro's website sounds really good to me. I want to record my guitars and my daughter and I singing. I think this Blumlein pair sounds so good. thanks again - how lucky am I to have found your post last night. Take care and stay well.

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

@@larryatha3221 oh that's awesome to hear. I like experimenting with mic pairings. I like mid side but recently trying blumlein, I think I prefer it a lot. Very natural sounding. Good luck with the recording. 😊

Great video! :)

@diyrecordingstudio

5 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much Artur. I look forward to doing much more with this mic in the future.

Just built myself one of these and really digging it as well. FWIW, technically, a ribbon mic is *also* a dynamic mic.

@diyrecordingstudio

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah they're a really great product, I've built the Mic Booster as well, very handy to have. Yup totally acknowledge the fact that it's a Dynamic mic, it just makes it easier when explaining the differences, to separate it from moving coil dynamics because of the Ribbons working in a such a different manner. Which Ribbon did you build, the RM-5 or one of the others? I hope he does a Stereo Ribbon soon.

@alanshewitt

4 жыл бұрын

The DIY Recording Studio so far just the RM-5, which I’m loving on guitar cab, blended with a Senn e906. I already had a Cloudlifter (Z-i) which I love-secret weapon, it’s all about that variable impedance. Frankly, I’m blown away by the bass response on the ribbon. Thank goodness the mic takes EQ so well...

@diyrecordingstudio

4 жыл бұрын

Yeah definitely great on Gtr cabs. Have you tried it paired with an SM57 yet on cabs? I find that combo gives a huge sound on guitars every time.

@alanshewitt

4 жыл бұрын

The DIY Recording Studio that’s indeed the classic pairing (at least with a Royer 121), but I have recently changed up using a 57 for a Senn e906 (*not* 609). And I find the additional presence (over a 57) works especially well with the darkness and LF response of the RM-5.

@diyrecordingstudio

4 жыл бұрын

That's interesting. I might have to try that pairing. I have a couple of e906s. Do you just have the mic response set to flat on the e906?

Great information!

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Thanks for stopping by Steven. Are tou looking to get any ribbon mics.

@StevenParente

3 жыл бұрын

@@diyrecordingstudio Yes, I'm interested. There are a few guitarists using ribbon mics and I really like the tone they are getting.

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

@@StevenParente awesome! You wont be disappointed with a ribbon on guitars. They also sound amazing when pairing them with a 57 on guitar amps. Ribbons are kind of just magical on a lot of sources.

@StevenParente

3 жыл бұрын

@@diyrecordingstudio You did a great job with your drum samples. I tried ordering a Byerdynamic M160 Double Ribbon Microphone from Amazon last year, after hearing the results of how Justin Johnston mic'd his resonator. I have a resonator acoustic and I also play Strats and telecasters. I ordered twice and the companies selling cancelled both times. I live in Hawaii, but haven't had that problem before. I've been also looking at Royer ribbon mics. When I found your KZread channel and the Bumblebee kits, I was really interested. I've been checking out your videos and they are really cool. I'm into DIY, maker type gear. You also said you are making these kits for sale? How much are you selling for? I'm assuming that you are satisfied with Bumblebee?

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Oh wow, that's a real bummer. The Royers are great, but very pricey. I can tell you this, the Bumblebee mics compare favorably to the royer mics. I'm not selling the kits myself, but you can purchase them here; www.bumblebeepro.com/ I'm super happy with how they sound. You can build the kits yourself, or they can build them for you. Either way, you end up with a great mic.

Ribbon mics also are the best to record Trombones an in general contralto to low brass.

@diyrecordingstudio

4 жыл бұрын

Yes definitely. Great on all brass as well as strings and other acoustic instruments.

@TiqueO6

3 жыл бұрын

Use them on virtually everything! They're the only "real" microphones, all other designs have backing plates that restrict the free movement of the element. Ribbons not only capture 'character' and 'warmth', they also capture the Shape of the sounds, the effect done properly is truly "tactile".

Any pointers for someone experiencing crazy amounts of room noise with a similar ribbon mic? Cheers!

@diyrecordingstudio

2 жыл бұрын

Interesting, what type of room noise? If it's just room reflections you're hearing, then you probably need to acoustically treat your room. If it's hiss type of noise, you need more clean gain from your mic preamps. Not sure what exact issue youre having though. Hope this helps.

Very cool video of course! Great work on the mic! I would point out that people need to rethink that "condenser mics being "flat" frequency response and they're definitlely hyped in the high frequencies even as compared to the human ear. Especially as compared to what we hear they have way too much "ear-candy" on top. That used to be an advantage before we had basically 'lossless' signal paths as far as high-frequency-loss is concerned. Back in the tape days we had plenty of high end loss to deal with and had to per-emphasize them to hear them in the final product. Mics and boards we're extra bright but didn't really change that much as time went on so we're now accustomed to hearing unnatural top-end which can and does mask out the delicate things going on up near that range. Do "All-Ribbon" sessions and you'll see that it's all fine!

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Yes! Awesome point on condensers and also their use with tape.

What kind of transformer do I have to use

@diyrecordingstudio

2 жыл бұрын

Hi there. A transformer with a turns ratio of 1:35 is what you need. Toroidal transformers are supposed to be the best.

Excellent video. Yes, fhinner than a human hair, as mentioned. But how much thinner? An average human hair is 100 microns and an average ribbon thickness is 2.5 micron. So thin thst if you drop a ribbon it does not fall, it floats to the table or floor like gossamer wings. I love ribbon mics and own a bunch of the vintage RCAs. I am still trying (for years) to master replacing them and then setting the tension to the exact resonant frequency. This video was awesome. Thanks for the effort Sir! Well done!

@diyrecordingstudio

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you Curt! I really love ribbons mics too. You're very lucky to have vintage RCA's, that's very cool. How do you go about getting the ribbon tension tuned correctly? I always wonder about that.

Where can I buy the ribbon mic kit?

@diyrecordingstudio

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Ben, not sure how I missed this question, you can get these ribbon kits from Bumblebee Pro. www.bumblebeepro.com/rm-5-diy-ribbon-mic-full-kit/ Great company, awesome quality mics.

Do yourself a favor and do "all-ribbon" sessions! Trying to mix condensers with their highly exaggerated high-end response is like trying to taste a fine wine while eating doritos. People will mix "to the highs" first so masking out the less bright, more natural details captured by ribbons is all too common.

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

I have 2 ribbon mics, and they are lovely to use. I would definitely love some more. You're right, theyre amazing to use. I'm currently using them on rooms and overheads, and theyre very nice. I also use them on guitars a lot.

@TiqueO6

3 жыл бұрын

@@diyrecordingstudio It might be that the cheapest one with a nice light 1.8 µm ribbon is the MXL for 100 bucks or less. They claim 1.8 µm But those are harder to put in so it’s hard to know if they’re really taking that amount of care or just saying that. I suppose you could ask them that before you buy it but they’re a lot on eBay. Again be careful when trying to have them stand up to artificially bright sounding Mike’s like condenser mics. Easier just to record with all ribbons if you have enough around. Although you need very strong preamps so they’re not too noisy. So it’s a challenge but well worth it. Most of my clients and I only have a few projects going when things are going out of choice are here because of the sound of those mics.

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah cool. I don't know how I feel about the cheaper mxl ribbon mics and. So far I haven't heard an active ribbon I like either. For the moment I'll just be experimenting with the stuff I have, but more ribbons are on the cards.

@TiqueO6

3 жыл бұрын

@@diyrecordingstudio Well one thing about that shit Mike is there is a huge amount of distance comparatively to other mics between the ribbon and the magnet makes it easier to install apparently and also less chance of metal fragments collecting on those overly strong Neodymium magnets. It’s hard to know if that’s a good thing because those magnets are damp in the movement of the ribbon because they’re too strong compared to the old Alinco magnets. Stager Microphones has come out with an Alinco model. Interestingly I think it was Neumann came out with a condenser mic that said it was tailored to be more “natural” sounding like a ribbon mics. I think that’s pretty revealing. Other condenser microphones are changing the shape of their elements to try to avoid the internal residence that occur in any round thing, same goes for round microphone elements to create their own little residences, well not that little when we amplify them hugely like happens in Microphones. One design has a hexagonal or oddly shaped element the other I think it’s audio technical in one of their top-of-the-line uses for separate rectangular elements, very very difficult to do that Mike but apparently worth it, actually I’ve heard it on voice mostly and it is extremely smooth on the high end even if there is too much there.

"how to make a ribbon mic" and 10" of bla-bla-bla some small example and NOT ANY DIY.

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Hey there Tormy. Why you getting so riled up buddy? If you take 5 seconds to have a look at my channel vids, you'll see that I did a part 2 to this video where I show a step by step process of how to build this mic.

@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials

3 жыл бұрын

@@diyrecordingstudio it's not specified into anything rather than 5 seconds. Nor even into the title. You expect something practical in almost 10' video, and there's nothing else than some example (on any video on YT right the same) and NOT ANY CLEAR "do it yourself" stuff. It deceives any expectation. There is not, at this time, ANY reference on the descriptin box though. With wich spirit do you think I will be willin to watch a second video? With the risk to get the same?

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

@@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials Tormy.... Mate, I hope you see the irony that you spent all this time writing a reply, and then complained about me potentially wasting your time when you could click a link and then see the build. I don't who is wasting who's time here.....

@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials

3 жыл бұрын

@@diyrecordingstudio I just hoped you see the missing part of 9 minutes video. What I see, is just “I’ve made this video and all what I did is correct and fine” while: Title is misleading. Content has nothing to do with DIY No references (at the oresent time) on links.

@diyrecordingstudio

3 жыл бұрын

Tormy, buddy. Just go to my channel, click the most recent video. As funny as it would be in this situation, I promise you it is not a time waste. There's at least 50% more ribbon mic action, and 10% less of me talking. Pinky swear.