RM-7: The Active DIY Ribbon Mic Recordings

Most of the demos below were recorded using a Blumlein pair technique

The videos below show the performance of RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mic in different applications. The RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mics are mostly intended for acoustic recordings – this is what we’ve designed them for and this is what they truly excel at. Therefor, we’ve opted for making the demos of acoustic recordings in different genres to show off the variety of possible sounds and uses.

Acoustic mantra music that features male vocals, acoustic guitar, flute and percussion. The recording has wide dynamics – from a very quite beginning to an intense culmination.

The recording of a harpsichord made by a customer from Japan. Kanji Daito plays J.S.Bach French Suite No.4 in E flat major. The RM-7 mics with 1.8u ribbons were used.

RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mics - Outdoor Recording Session

Two songs below feature a very unusual use for ribbon mics – a remote recording with Zoom H4n. The weather was very still that day until we set up all the equipment and started recording. Then, as typical, the wind started blowing right away. The wind protection didn’t block all the blasts, but we still decided to keep the tracks, as they sounded cool. Performed by my friends Anzela Serkevich and Alexander Yudakov.

RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mics with 1.2u ribbons were used for these recordings. The Blumlein setup was narrowed down in DAW to 20% left and 20% right. The post-processing included a multiband compressor and some digital reverb. No EQ was used.

Louis Armstrong – Wonderful World

Richard Leigh – Brown Eyes

RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mic - Ambient Music

Two ambient tracks created by our customer. There are minimalist synth pads in these compositions, however the mixes are mainly focused on the featured talents – an ethnic female vocalist and a flutists playing a folk flute. These are the finished productions rather than plain demos, so some creative processing was used – compression, delay and reverb typical for such genre.

The unhyped nature of the RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mic blends perfectly with a melancholic, dark and calm atmosphere of the ethno-ambient music. Both tracks were recorded with a single RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mic with 1.2u ribbon.

Ancient Armenian song by Hasmik Bagoyan.

Folk flute improvisation by Alisa Klimanska.

RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mics - Dark Blues Duo

Another great atmospheric genre is the acoustic blues. The unhyped and slightly darkening character of the Bumblebee RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mics compliment very well to the dark feeling of traditional acoustic blues. Both tracks were recorded with Blumlein pairs of RM-7 DIY Ribbon Mics with 1.2 micron ribbons.

The post processing was a usual one – narrowing down the panorama, multimand compression and some digital reverb. Traditionally, no EQ was used for demo purposes.

Bobby Troup – Route 66

Little Woman, the bass is played with bow here.