Ribbon Mic Summit

Aug 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Gino Robair

           

Ten top engineers share their favorite techniques.

Vocal Tracking

Since the days when crooners ruled the airwaves, ribbon mics have been used to round out singers' voices. “For vocals sometimes I'll use an RCA 44, but it depends on the song,” Steve Churchyard (www.stevechurchyard.com) says. “They've got a very smooth top end, so with just a little bit of EQ they really come to life. But it has to be the right song and the right singer. It doesn't always work, so usually I'll have a condenser running simultaneously, and I note as we're doing sound check if it's working for the song. Typically I'll set up two mics: a tube Neumann U 47 and a ribbon mic alongside it. The singer stands 8 or 9 inches from the mic. You don't want to get too close, and you want a really good pop shield as well.”

Nashville-based engineer Chuck Ainlay (http://chuckainlay.com) also uses a 2-mic approach on vocals. “Sometimes I'll use a condenser mic with a ribbon mic right beside it or underneath it, and blend the two. I probably wouldn't use a ribbon as the only microphone on a vocal, because it usually doesn't have the air that I'm looking for. But sometimes it helps to fill out the sound, because a condenser can sometimes be too harsh on things, such as a female vocal.” (For an in-depth view of Ainlay at work, see the article “Mix Magic on Music Row” at www.emusician.com.)

Bruce Swedien (Quincy Jones/Duke Ellington/Paul McCartney) notes that he used ribbon mics to record Michael Jackson's backing vocals. “Michael sings all his own background parts, and they're really well sung: pitch and articulation and everything. After I do one pass with Michael singing the first harmony, I'll move him back 4 feet for the second pass, so there are more early reflections in the sound. And then I raise the level of the second pass so that it matches the first. It enriches the content of the early reflections and makes a gorgeous sound.”

Eddie Kramer (www.kramerarchives.com) gained his signature sound with Jimi Hendrix by taking advantage of the hypercardioid pattern of the beyerdynamic M 160. “When I started recording Hendrix, I used the dual-ribbon M 160, and it saved my ass because I could record him singing live in the studio while he was playing, without much leakage.

“Not only did it work well for the vocal, I started using it on his amp,” Kramer continues. “And I discovered this beautiful silky sound. What it did was it took some of the harshness of the Marshall away.”

Totally Amped

Using a ribbon mic on a guitar amp is extremely popular. The most common application is to put the mic close to the speaker grille, pointing directly at the cone. But everyone I interviewed agrees that finding the exact position is key to getting a sound that works for the song.

Like many of the others, Kramer takes it further by augmenting the ribbon sound with other mics. “My normal miking will be right up close on the grille. I like that presence and the crunch — right in your face. But I will experiment depending on what the guitar player's doing. If he likes a lot of crunch and a lot of air, and there's a lot of woof from the amp, I might back the mic up a foot away. But I like to go dead center on the middle of that cone. I want to get that edge.

“I use four microphones quite often on a Marshall amplifier. I use the beyerdynamic M 160 when I can, but it's rarer now. Ninety percent of the time I use a Royer R-121, a Shure SM57, a Sennheiser 421, and a Neumann U 67. Each one has its own unique characteristic. Think about it: 57, dynamic cardioid; 421, dynamic, but with a totally different tone attached to it; the Royer ribbon at the complete opposite end of the spectrum; and a U 67, totally the other end. And when you combine those in a specific manner, you get all the variety and impact that's available to you.”

But Kramer notes that inevitably you get into a situation where multiple miking techniques do not work. “So you just pull each mic down until you find the one that does work. I often find that the killer combination is usually either a single Royer, a single 57, or a 57 and a Royer. And that's the sort of de facto guitar tone.”

Churchyard is also a fan of that combination. “The R-121 makes the guitar sound like it does to the guitarist in the room. It doesn't have the exaggerated midrange that the 57 has. If I combine the two, I might put the 57 right on the cone, and offset the ribbon to one side, on the same speaker, slightly apart, so the phase is coherent. If I use the Royer by itself, I'd probably put it dead center.”

FIG. 1: Like many engineers, Ross Hogarth combines several different mics on a electric guitar speaker to create a tone to match a particular song. His typical setup includes (L. to R.) a Sennheiser 421, a Royer R-121, and a Shure SM57. [photo by John Jennings]

“I've been using ribbons through my whole career, starting with RCAs, beyers, and Coles,” Hogarth says. “With Motley Crüe, we were using RCA 77s and 44s on the Girls, Girls, Girls record. But now, with the advent of the Royers, which you can shove right up on a speaker and not blow them up, I haven't done a guitar in about ten years without a ribbon mic right up on the speaker.”

Hogarth combines three mics on guitar amps: generally an SM57, a 421, and an R-121 (see Fig. 1). “It's always a balance. If I'm doing metal or really heavy guitar, I will use less of the Royer because it's going to get too big on the bottom: what ribbons give you is the fatness. Also, there's a midrange push to ribbon mics that you don't get out of either condenser or dynamic mics. But depending on where the guitar needs to be placed in the mix, you're going to have to balance between the microphones. That's why I like to use extra microphones instead of adding EQ or taking frequencies away. I use the microphones like EQ.”

The style of music largely dictates how an amp is miked, and Dusty Wakeman (www.maddogstudio.com/dusty.html) offers an alternative to the previous suggestions. “I love the sound of a ribbon mic about 2 feet back from the amp. I do a lot of roots music: I'm not going for a huge, modern-rock guitar sound. When you're back about 2 feet, point the mic toward the center of the cone, because you're getting plenty of room sound at that distance. Moving the mic forward or backward will really change the balance of the direct to the ambient signal. You have to be in a good-sounding room to do that, though. You can't do it in your closet because it'll sound like a closet.”