Royer Labs R-12

This is my first serious ribbon microphone. I own the t bone rb700 but I’ve never found any real use for it. Not with the R-12. It sounds very smooth, with a pleasant bass and nice clarity/air in the upper range so it can be used as a vocal mic. It capture the detail in quiet recordings in a good way. The pad and hpf switches makes it very versatile and compensate for proximity effect. I’m using it in acoustic guitars and vocals and I’m very happy with it. I own various condensers but I’m now a big fan of the ribbon sound as it softens the transients making the recordings sound real, just as we hear it requiring less processing.

There are other ribbon mics with more top end or bass but in my case this mic is giving me a very good sound and it’s a good complement to my other mics.

Pros:
- Smooth frequency response with enough clarity. Tames transients very well.
-The active circuit is very clean. It still needs a fair amount of gain from your preamp but noise is acceptable.
- Versatile with hpf/pad switches and different frequency response on each side of the mic.
- Robust build quality.

Cons:
- There are other ribbon mics with more top end but also more expensive or more hifi sounding with less character.
-Nothing more the mic is great!

I highly recommend it if you want a smooth yet detailed microphone with a round sound that it’s not tiring. Royer Labs is a seasoned company when it comes to microphones and this seems like a winning product.