Thanks for the thorough treatment of ribbon microphones. I hadn't considered them before but now I want to hear one.
Theo On the subject of microphones and gurdies, just to be inclusive, if you ever have a chance to use a good ribbon microphone(you'll probably not have bought one in your price range), but, if you've ever the chance to use one, do it. Only a couple may safely be used outdoors, and they are not only very dear(expensive), but they are very fragile. If you blow into a ribbon mike, you can blow out the element. With all those caveats out of the way, ribbon mikes are far and away the best mikes I've ever used for any string instruments. They require a powerful preamp, 75 db at the outs, or more, as their output is low, and phantom power will ruin(most) of them, BUT, if your sound guy happens to have, say a BeyerDynamic M160, or a Coles 4038, and sticks it in front of your gurdy, smile to yourself, and play away, and you will understand what I mean here. My M160 on a fiddle is absolutely heavenly, and it requires no EQ in the mix. That big capsule shaped mike that Larry King has on his desk is a typical old time Large Ribbon Geometry RCA design. Very dated(from the 1930's), and the sound is very wonderful. You may remember how they were featured in the movie 'O Brother, Where Art Thou.'(if in larger, slightly caricatured forms) The Beyer M160 is probably the best candidate for potential iffy outside situations,,but they are built for it, the street price being about $650 new, and also, another tough one is the Royer 121, which streets at about $1100. I just wanted you to know about them, and you never know,,you may run into a situation where someone has them and doesn't mind having them used. Their sound needs no explanation, and they speak for themselves, as only ribbon(velocity) mikes can do. I avoided getting any for some years(I have two now), because of their fragility, and after I finally got a couple, I was kicking myself for not having gotten them sooner. They put my two $1000 plus condenser mikes to shame, soundwise. And those two are_good_condenser mikes, too. If you've read this far, also, very good Large Diaphragm Dynamics are good too, and tough as nails. Three come to mind,,the Sennheiser 421 (don't have it), the Electrovoice RE20(have one,,great), and the Shure SM7B(have one,,,great) please don't confuse the last with the ubiquitous Shure SM57, which also is not a bad choice in a lower (your) price range. Pat
