sE Electronics and sE Rupert Neve Ribbon Microphones
Ribbon mics are somewhat of a ‘dark art’ to many people. We all get told that their great on guitar cab, or for making grungy samples… but these are limited applications and tell only a fraction of the story.
The real beauty of ribbons is that they are uniquely realistic and natural in their recording of source material. Where condensers sound very ‘in your face’, ribbons sound natural, like the performer is actually in the room with you. So, for anything acoustic… like jazz, classical, string parts, drum overheads, folk, or acoustic guitars on less ‘poppy’ records, they are perfect.
The problem is that they have always required a lot of skill to get the most from, since all ribbons, until sE came to the scene, rolled off HF dramatically at around 10-12KHz, meaning that almost half of the audible frequency range of the source material is either entirely missing, or greatly reduced to the point of being unusable. This is why the general perception of ribbon recordings is that they are ‘dark-sounding’ and of limited use unless you have the ability to mic them simultaneously along with a condenser and then phase correlate the 2 sources… not an easy job even for a pro!
So, we at sE set out to produce the world’s first full frequency response ribbons, that anyone can use straight from the box, just like a condenser, and get perfect results every time. The VR1, VR2 and RNR1 are all such mics with frequency responses almost flat to 20KHz on the Voodoos, and an incredible 25KHz on the RNR1.
This means that for the first time you can get the ‘ribbon sound’ on ANY source material, very easily; from lead vocals, to piano, drums, guitars, strings… basically anything you can use a condenser on, you can use these three ribbon mics on. But while they are uniquely easy to use and much more versatile than any other ribbon brand on the market today, the real beauty is that you can now get that natural sound full frequency without having to rely on a condenser for the top end. Anything recorded using these mics will sound more open, airy, realistic and silky smooth, than any condenser (including our own mics!).
One final note… beware! Some manufacturers claim ‘full frequency response’ on their ribbons, while they roll off past 8-12KHz significant levels, i.e. 6dB or more. This is NOT full frequency response, since to EQ a response curve like this flat would mean introducing high levels of noise, rendering this art of the recording unusable. Be very sure when we say, sE Electronics make the ONLY true full frequency response ribbons available on the market today. We invented them, and they are still cutting edge technology with patents covering the diffuser technology used in the Voodoo range.
When investigating which sE ribbon is best for your recording situation, please do not hesitate to contact sE directly, your local distributor (if you are outside the UK) or your local sE dealer, and ask about our Free Loan Service.
If you are already a sE ribbon mic user and wish to share your recording experiences via the sE Matrix - our interactive microphone applications guide - visit sE Matrix and join the sE community.
