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Thread: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

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    Default Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    In your experience, which of these microphones would give the best close-miked solo or in-the-mix sweet, mellow sound for a variety of styles: Royer R-122 MK II, AEA KU5a, or AEA A440. Or maybe something else?

    I have an Se VR2 (with a Great River MP-2NV preamp) with my Collings MT-O. It’s a nice mic, but I’m still having to cut some in the 2-4kHz range or so.

    My standard mics are Schoeps CMC6 MK4s in a spaced pair, which sound great, but I’d like to try something softer in the high end and maybe not have to EQ. I have to mic close due to acoustic issues in my apartment studio.

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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    I have that VR2 ribbon mic but not that nice preamp. Where are you aiming the mic? I have mine pointed at the body/lower ff hole behind the bridge or at my picking hand. I have it 12 to 18 inches away from the mando. If it's pointed at the neck/body joint, it's too bright. I generally don't have to EQ it if it's pointed at the body a bit behind the bridge. Still plenty of presence.
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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    I'll try aiming near the bridge -- great idea. I've had great results doing that with a resonator guitar, which is typical for that instrument; but for some reason I never thought of miking the mandolin that way. The Collings is an oval-hole, but I imagine the principle's the same.

    About 9" off the body fret is where I've mainly pointed the VR2, which, as you say, is too bright.

    I'll try your suggestion and report back. Thanks!

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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    Back in my recording engineer days one thing we used to do to take some brightness off mics, was put a pop-shield on the stand, then peg various types of tissue paper to it to get different styles of mellowing as required. We also did it to protect the ribbon mics from higher SPLevel stuff.
    Eoin



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    Registered User foldedpath's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    A few years ago when I was doing more recording (of other musicians), my go-to setup for mandolin was a "best of both worlds" approach combining a Royer R-121 ribbon mic and a small diaphragm condenser mic, usually a Neumann KM-184 but sometimes a Mojave tube small condenser.

    I've always liked recording instruments in stereo whenever possible, but this also allowed using each mic's characteristic sound instead of EQ; dialing in a little more "air" from the condenser if I thought the ribbon mic was too dark, or dialing in more body from the ribbon mic to thicken up the condenser mic sound. A ribbon mic alone sounds a bit too dark for my taste on mandolin, your mileage may vary on that.

    The physical setup was both mics on a spaced-pair bracket about a foot apart, with the bracket oriented vertically, not horizontally as usual. The ribbon mic on the bottom angled up slightly and the condenser mic on the top angled down slightly.

    A vertically oriented pair lets me aim at a more precise location on a small instrument like a mandolin. Usually just below the picking hand at the lower F-hole to avoid pick noise. With a spaced stereo rig you have to be careful to null-check for cancellation but I never had any issues with that.

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    Registered User bbcee's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    I have a NoHype Audio LRM-2 I like a lot - high-quality and affordable:
    http://nohypeaudio.com/nhaproducts.htm

    Sounds like you know already, but don't forget ribbons pick up as much in the back as in the front. If your recording space is lively, it could be a nice addition to the sound, or totally annoying!

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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    I'll check into the NoHype (most of the mics I've looked at have been No Hope).

    For that reason, the hypercardioid pattern of the AEA KU5a appealed to me, though it's frequency plot looked too hyped to me.

    I use a GIK Portable Isolation Booth (PIB) behind the microphone to reduce room ambience. I was naively hoping the Se V2's figure 8 side rejection pointed at our sliding glass patio door would help mitigate traffic noise coming through -- but no dice -- presumably because the noise is more diffuse than directional.
    Last edited by rwhitney; Dec-11-2022 at 6:28pm.

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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    I've similarly had great results with a spaced pair of Schoeps cardioid SDCs, though oriented vertically from just below the mando, which I copied from the setup seen on Chris Thile's Goat Rodeo recording sessions on YouTube.

    I've just ordered a Royer R-122V tube ribbon, and will definitely try combining it with one of the SDCs.

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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    Sometimes these old-school methods produce the best results. In addition, may the pursuit of the ideal tissue delay my impulse to buy expensive ribbon microphones!

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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    +1 to the AEA KU5a I've got one and it's a smooth, warm sound with low noise. Great for voice, guitar and mandolin.

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    Mandolin User Andy Miller's Avatar
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    Default Re: Ribbon Microphone for Recording Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by foldedpath View Post
    I've always liked recording instruments in stereo whenever possible, but this also allowed using each mic's characteristic sound instead of EQ; dialing in a little more "air" from the condenser if I thought the ribbon mic was too dark, or dialing in more body from the ribbon mic to thicken up the condenser mic sound. A ribbon mic alone sounds a bit too dark for my taste on mandolin, your mileage may vary on that.
    I love this approach - just let the microphones do their thing. Of course it helps quite a bit if you already have a variety of microphones on hand! I've been playing around with a Shure KSM313 ribbon close to the mandolin body and one of several condensers (KSM137, Beta 27, KSM42) a little further back for a little more high frequency information without that super close-up condenser immediacy.

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