To be clear on using ribbons this close - These N22s are well protected inside and you can't see the ribbon just by looking. This protects the ribbon and they are design to be up close. There are many ribbons that I would NOT do this with, but I know the AEAs can handle it.
i have some cheap ribbons the alctron 210 and the SE x1r. both have high max spl like 140+ but they can still be damaged by wind blasts? like the spl is not as important?
The mics sounded great to me. To my ears it sounded like the mic was hugging the drums, especially the floor tom. The presence was really strong and warm.
Yeah... those mics look and sound great. I believe that side mic snare sound would be good to have on a track to blend in for color, or whatever. I like the idea of having a few “trick mics” or whatever you wish to call them, available for blending for character addition. Enjoyed this post very much. Thanks!
Watched your Glyn Johns video and got to wondering about using a figure 8 mic halfway between the kick and snare bottom for augmenting the overheads. This video showed me a little of what that might be like. I will have to experiment whenever I get my drum set assembled in my tracking room. Thanks for the creative videos!
Very nice. Fun to see the null in action (cymbals) on the toms. We just took 2 sE Voodoos, stood them on end (MS) and simultaneously recorded a piano, steel string gtr, electric gtr, electric bass, male vocal, and cajon all strategically place (along with gobos) around the mics. The results were surprisingly good. Ribbons are fun to play with. Your toms sound killer here. Thanks for sharing.
Yeah, these ribbons are really well protected when you look inside. I had a first position that I tried and it was too close for comfort, so I backed the mics out and angled them up
So good man. Was always dying to use ribbons on drums at school but was too scared of blowing up their R-121s haha. Reminded me a lot of the drum sounds on John Mayer's Born & Raised record
I love a ribbon on kick out, super wooly and deep. I’ve been using my SE VR1 for this and room mics on kits (it’s very nice on bright guitar amps too) and it is an absolute gem of a microphone for the price! I would recommend it to anyone!
You may be on to something here, with the placement of the mic at the middle of the snare. I like that. I'm on the fence about the toms. Do you want your birch toms to sound like maple? This sort of coloration is probably not typically desirable. This may not be the mic doing it. It may depend upon the preamp pairing etc.
Great sound on kick drum and snare bottom, also loved it on guitars on your other video! a bit expensive for those sources though, since you can get great sounds from cheaper dynamic mics. But if you have them in your locker, I would definitely use them on kick and snare bot!
i wish somebody tested that. but there are only a handful true figure 8 condensers. large dual diaphragm condensers with changeable pickup pattern don't offer the smooth off axis response that a ribbon has. there is a quite affordable small diaphragm figure 8 in shures beta 181 lineup, i wish somebody tried them on toms, so far i didn't find anyone.
Hey Sensei, what do you think - specifically for purposes of tracking vocals without having the choice of either making vocalists wear headphones or having monitors running and getting bleed - of "bone-conduction" headphones? Have you ever tried any? I know bluetooth isn't a good thing to be using while tracking, but there's a couple companies that are making wired sets, and remarkably cheap. They go on your cheekbones or behind your ears and vibrate the bones of your face, transmitting the signal straight to your eardrums while allowing you to hear what's going on around you (if you're at work and want to listen to music but need to hear the forklift that's about to take your head off if you don't move, etc) directly, as your ears are completely uncovered. They also supposedly are very good with not being audible to people around you. I'm cautiously hopeful that this may be a very useful thing. Your thoughts?
Hi Ryan you sound great! Do you use Emperor or Ambassador front heads ? What preamp are your aea mics going trough (sorry for my english, I'm french) ? Thanks!
Usually ambassador coated on the batter side of toms. Same on snare top. Clear ambassador on the bottom. Powerstroke 3 on kick front and back. Pre is the WA412.
Hey Ryan. In terms of output, does this mic have decent output, or are you compensating with more gain or a ribbon-specific pre? I have and love an old RCA Varicoustic ribbon, but the output is very low. Even the relatively robust mic amps in my desk aren't quite enough, and I'm considering a Cloudlifter. Do you have this kind of issue or are the AEAs hotter mics than vintage ribbons? Thanks!
Oh and these are active mics so it's not a specific ribbon mic preamp. Just a wa412 at 600 ohms. Pad on pre is on and it was about right for gain needed.
Hey Ryan. I've been following your channel for a good while now, and your content is still top notch and improving every day. There is one little thing though... There was a point a while back (I can't point out exactly when) where your speaking started to sound more tired, like a little less passionate about what you're saying. Maybe it's just my impression, maybe something is affecting the way you speak (be it less passion, too little sleep or whatever else you might be going through in your private life) or maybe it's something you changed gradually without realising. Either way, I wanted you to know I noticed this. It won't stop me from watching your great videos, but I thought you might appreciate the feedback. Cheers from Argentina!
I can´t believe you forgot the best thing about this! Nulling out the hihat of of a rock drummer by putting the ribbon directly underneath it, or maybe sideways to the Hihat facing down to the snare!
Those sound really awesome, although I get nervous just seeing a ribbon mic that close to drums. For that awesome feat you deserve a lifetime supply of powerful allergy meds.
Should be a phase reinforcement. The positive and negative sides of the ribbon are going with the waves of the drum. So yes it would cancel, but the ribbon is doing the same thing. That's the idea at least. Can't say it's a perfect technique or that it's my favorite sound.
well, right, sub kicks are easy. Sometimes they can just be a small guitar amp combo that has a 1/4 inch out. Ribbons capture the low end on a whole other level though.
I’m always so torn when it comes to using “good” mic’s as batter side mic’s on drums. Lots of great sounds to be had, but the risk of damage is just too deterring for me. Hard to risk $1000 or more on a tom mic of all things, even if it does sound awesome.
They do sound good - but considering I can have 9 or 10 57s for every N22 it's doubtful Ill be using them any time soon - but good to hear what I'm missing LOL
Ribbons are pretty forgiving mics, and pretty good on lots of sources but can be a little dark sometimes. These are not dark. I havn't tried them on everything yet, but just a few things.
Hi Ryan, another first-class video on your part! The fat tone and cymbal rejection is awesome, but I am missing that attack. If you were to add another mic to blend with the ribbons you would just end up trashing the cymbals. Maybe this could be fixed by side-chaining and triggering a sample, only retaining some of the high frequencies from it, that would be cheating of course LOL. I might add a warning to you, be very careful of using your M88 inside the Kik drum. M88's cannot handle high SPL transients over repeated time spans. The diaphragm will start to sag and will get very dull sounding over time. I learned this the hard way. Great video!!! Can't wait for the next one.
Yeah ribbons are fast mics so it's gotta be more about a tone. For the m88 I would be curious on what load the mic had. I've never had a problem and my mic still has almost too much 3 and 5k and been using it for around 8 years exclusively on kick.
Creative Sound Lab Yeah great for certain genres for sure, and with some added saturation even better! You should still try that shotgun mic inside pvc pipe for snare I mentioned to you a while back 👍
To be clear on using ribbons this close - These N22s are well protected inside and you can't see the ribbon just by looking. This protects the ribbon and they are design to be up close. There are many ribbons that I would NOT do this with, but I know the AEAs can handle it.
You just HAD to do it....... If I was a ribbon mic, I'd be terrified of you!
i have some cheap ribbons the alctron 210 and the SE x1r. both have high max spl like 140+ but they can still be damaged by wind blasts? like the spl is not as important?
They are protected in terms of SPL? But can the handle being hit with a stick? That's what I would be most worried about.
The cymbal rejection is really amazing on the toms!
It's incredible how whatever the mics are the further you can afford to get away from the toms the better the tom sound. :)
You are a good dude man! You deserve more subscribers for the content you put out.
Thanks man. It's picking up.
Wow! I wasn't expecting this amazing cymbals rejection!
Thanks for the (daring) insight.
Sounds excellent
I'd love a full song's worth of drum tracks with those mics. They sound DELICIOUS.
The mics sounded great to me. To my ears it sounded like the mic was hugging the drums, especially the floor tom. The presence was really strong and warm.
Yeah man. Really liking the sound. And at a distance like that.
Great video! I've been catching a few videos of yours here or there and finally decided to sub.
Yeah... those mics look and sound great. I believe that side mic snare sound would be good to have on a track to blend in for color, or whatever. I like the idea of having a few “trick mics” or whatever you wish to call them, available for blending for character addition.
Enjoyed this post very much. Thanks!
Watched your Glyn Johns video and got to wondering about using a figure 8 mic halfway between the kick and snare bottom for augmenting the overheads. This video showed me a little of what that might be like. I will have to experiment whenever I get my drum set assembled in my tracking room. Thanks for the creative videos!
Very nice. Fun to see the null in action (cymbals) on the toms. We just took 2 sE Voodoos, stood them on end (MS) and simultaneously recorded a piano, steel string gtr, electric gtr, electric bass, male vocal, and cajon all strategically place (along with gobos) around the mics. The results were surprisingly good. Ribbons are fun to play with. Your toms sound killer here. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks man. Yeah really dig ribbons. Could have just about only ribbons and be ok.
Aaaayeesh please don't hit my ribbon mics with your sticks or it'll be straight back to SM57s for you
Yeah, these ribbons are really well protected when you look inside. I had a first position that I tried and it was too close for comfort, so I backed the mics out and angled them up
So good man. Was always dying to use ribbons on drums at school but was too scared of blowing up their R-121s haha. Reminded me a lot of the drum sounds on John Mayer's Born & Raised record
I wonder if you had mounted the mics horizontally on the Tom test if you could have gotten even less bleed?
Sounds great!
No gate on the Toms when close miced? Pulling that Bleed out of the Mix would have been cool to hear. Cool mics and video.
Man, I really like your videos. Good work!
Thanks man!
Top job!!
I love a ribbon on kick out, super wooly and deep. I’ve been using my SE VR1 for this and room mics on kits (it’s very nice on bright guitar amps too) and it is an absolute gem of a microphone for the price! I would recommend it to anyone!
This is the first time I've really tried it on kick.
It sounds really great man!
Gotta try this some time. I am overly paranoid about snapping one of my school's expensive Royers though...
Yeah, these mics are well protected inside, so this may not be a good choice for all types of ribbon mics.
You may be on to something here, with the placement of the mic at the middle of the snare. I like that. I'm on the fence about the toms. Do you want your birch toms to sound like maple? This sort of coloration is probably not typically desirable. This may not be the mic doing it. It may depend upon the preamp pairing etc.
Great sound on kick drum and snare bottom, also loved it on guitars on your other video! a bit expensive for those sources though, since you can get great sounds from cheaper dynamic mics. But if you have them in your locker, I would definitely use them on kick and snare bot!
Ha yeah for sure. These are a mic that would be a judgment call on who's playing that day.
It sounds absolutely brilliant. :-)
Thanks!
Wow. Absolutely wow. So alive and true on the toms... or mostly the higher tom. Aaaand expensive. :D
Yeah the n22s are great. They have a really nice low mid texture. And yeah they are not cheap:(
I like the tom application. The figure 8 null seems to work well with it. Ever tried figure 8 on condensors on toms?
i wish somebody tested that. but there are only a handful true figure 8 condensers. large dual diaphragm condensers with changeable pickup pattern don't offer the smooth off axis response that a ribbon has. there is a quite affordable small diaphragm figure 8 in shures beta 181 lineup, i wish somebody tried them on toms, so far i didn't find anyone.
Hey Sensei, what do you think - specifically for purposes of tracking vocals without having the choice of either making vocalists wear headphones or having monitors running and getting bleed - of "bone-conduction" headphones? Have you ever tried any? I know bluetooth isn't a good thing to be using while tracking, but there's a couple companies that are making wired sets, and remarkably cheap. They go on your cheekbones or behind your ears and vibrate the bones of your face, transmitting the signal straight to your eardrums while allowing you to hear what's going on around you (if you're at work and want to listen to music but need to hear the forklift that's about to take your head off if you don't move, etc) directly, as your ears are completely uncovered. They also supposedly are very good with not being audible to people around you. I'm cautiously hopeful that this may be a very useful thing. Your thoughts?
Hi Ryan you sound great! Do you use Emperor or Ambassador front heads ? What preamp are your aea mics going trough (sorry for my english, I'm french) ? Thanks!
Usually ambassador coated on the batter side of toms. Same on snare top. Clear ambassador on the bottom. Powerstroke 3 on kick front and back. Pre is the WA412.
Two questions: How do you like the WA412 for drum mics ? Also have you tried taking a figure 8 mic and micing both rack toms with one mic ?
Hey Ryan. In terms of output, does this mic have decent output, or are you compensating with more gain or a ribbon-specific pre? I have and love an old RCA Varicoustic ribbon, but the output is very low. Even the relatively robust mic amps in my desk aren't quite enough, and I'm considering a Cloudlifter. Do you have this kind of issue or are the AEAs hotter mics than vintage ribbons? Thanks!
They are hotter but not too hot. It's been a while since I had a variacoustic here but I wanna guess this mic is 10 to 12dB hotter. Maybe more.
Oh and these are active mics so it's not a specific ribbon mic preamp. Just a wa412 at 600 ohms. Pad on pre is on and it was about right for gain needed.
Hey Ryan. I've been following your channel for a good while now, and your content is still top notch and improving every day. There is one little thing though... There was a point a while back (I can't point out exactly when) where your speaking started to sound more tired, like a little less passionate about what you're saying. Maybe it's just my impression, maybe something is affecting the way you speak (be it less passion, too little sleep or whatever else you might be going through in your private life) or maybe it's something you changed gradually without realising. Either way, I wanted you to know I noticed this. It won't stop me from watching your great videos, but I thought you might appreciate the feedback. Cheers from Argentina!
I think I need to invest in some N22's
Yeah I'm really digging them.
I can´t believe you forgot the best thing about this! Nulling out the hihat of of a rock drummer by putting the ribbon directly underneath it, or maybe sideways to the Hihat facing down to the snare!
Those sound really awesome, although I get nervous just seeing a ribbon mic that close to drums. For that awesome feat you deserve a lifetime supply of powerful allergy meds.
Isn't there a phase cancellation here @5:00?
Should be a phase reinforcement. The positive and negative sides of the ribbon are going with the waves of the drum. So yes it would cancel, but the ribbon is doing the same thing. That's the idea at least. Can't say it's a perfect technique or that it's my favorite sound.
killer
Why would I get a subkick when I can put a ribbon mic on it?!
well, right, sub kicks are easy. Sometimes they can just be a small guitar amp combo that has a 1/4 inch out. Ribbons capture the low end on a whole other level though.
I’m always so torn when it comes to using “good” mic’s as batter side mic’s on drums. Lots of great sounds to be had, but the risk of damage is just too deterring for me. Hard to risk $1000 or more on a tom mic of all things, even if it does sound awesome.
They do sound good - but considering I can have 9 or 10 57s for every N22 it's doubtful Ill be using them any time soon - but good to hear what I'm missing LOL
Ha yeah. But any ribbons that you get a chance to pick up are worth trying out.
How can they sound amazing on everything
Ribbons are pretty forgiving mics, and pretty good on lots of sources but can be a little dark sometimes. These are not dark. I havn't tried them on everything yet, but just a few things.
Basically, Ryan Earnhardt wants to fill his mic locker with just AEA N22s and mic everything with them. A good choice.
Ha. Well the n22 has been great. I still like the n8 better for longer distances.
Hi Ryan, another first-class video on your part! The fat tone and cymbal rejection is awesome, but I am missing that attack. If you were to add another mic to blend with the ribbons you would just end up trashing the cymbals. Maybe this could be fixed by side-chaining and triggering a sample, only retaining some of the high frequencies from it, that would be cheating of course LOL. I might add a warning to you, be very careful of using your M88 inside the Kik drum. M88's cannot handle high SPL transients over repeated time spans. The diaphragm will start to sag and will get very dull sounding over time. I learned this the hard way. Great video!!! Can't wait for the next one.
Yeah ribbons are fast mics so it's gotta be more about a tone. For the m88 I would be curious on what load the mic had. I've never had a problem and my mic still has almost too much 3 and 5k and been using it for around 8 years exclusively on kick.
Do you get more bleed with the figure 8 pattern?
If the cymbal is behind the mic then yes. If out to the side then no.
*reads video title* monkaS
well.. now you don't need room mics
Pretty cool sounds, but genre dependent I think. There's not enough attack and definition for my tastes or the music I do. Great video again!
Yeah I could see that for sure. I thought these toms sound like a Wilco drum sound. Dark and vibey.
Creative Sound Lab Yeah great for certain genres for sure, and with some added saturation even better! You should still try that shotgun mic inside pvc pipe for snare I mentioned to you a while back 👍
You need some sunscreen, man. :)
First
Before watching you should first search for the pricetag, it's far too expensiveeeeee!!