Why a Ribbon Mic, and Why This One?
I was interested in checking out ribbon mic because I wanted something with a smoother top end. I find that the top end of condensers (even my workhorse AT3035, which I love) can sometimes get a bit harsh.
Being able to get a smooth top end is great for many recording situations, of course, but in my case at least, it's important to be able to get this straight from the mic (i.e., not via EQ in post-production) because I spend most of my saxophone practice time (>95%) in my WhisperRoom, playing into a mic and monitoring via headphones.
Many ribbon mics have a substantial rolloff of the top frequencies, which can make them sound stuffy or tubby, IMO. I was interested in finding an affordable ribbon mic with a relatively flat frequency response that would smooth the top end without sounding like I'd stuffed a towel in the bell. The two that kept popping up in my searches were this one (the NoHype LRM-2b) and the SE Voodoo VR1. I went with the NoHype because it was substantially cheaper and had a lot of word-of-mouth praise online.
![103262]( "103262")
Price: €190 (about $226 USD)
The mic is pretty lightweight and compact for a ribbon. Not as compact as the Voodoo VR1 or Royer r121, but its weight and size are comparable to my AT3035 LDC.
I haven't formally measured the frequency response of this mic myself, but the frequency response curve provided by the manufacturer shows it to have a very flat response for a ribbon mic, and it sounds pretty flat to me.
![103263]( "103263")
Edit (11/12/2021):
I finally got my hands on a calibrated measurement mic and measured the frequency response myself. My measurements appear in the plot below. As you can see, it agrees broadly with the manufacturer's curve: a relatively flat response for a ribbon mic, but with a significant ( ~10 dB) boost below 50 Hz. All the comments below still apply.
![Image]()
It has a smooth top end, but without any tubbiness or stuffiness. However, as indicated in the frequency response curve, it has a significant boost in sensitivity at low end, this boost is at frequencies too low to matter for saxes (at least S/A/T), but it means that you have to be careful about mechanical transmission of vibrations (i.e., this mic must be used with a suspension mount).
Speaking of which:
I don't like the included suspension mount. This is probably the only feature of this mic that I don't like. The suspension band tension is pretty slack (and can't be adjusted without cutting and shortening the band), the pivot joint is difficult to tighten securely so that it doesn't move, and unless the mic is mounted plumb vertical, the fact that the included suspension mount attaches to the very end of the mic exacerbates both of these problems (due to the cantilevering of the mic).
![103265]( "103265")
Used with a Fethead inline preamp (which adds about 27db of gain), sensitivity is about 5 db greater than the AT3035. Using it with the Fethead on my MOTU M4 and recording from 2-3 feet away, I have to set the gain dial at about 8 o'clock (around 17%) to prevent clipping.
I finally got around to measuring the frequency-impedance function (I used the voltage-drop method, with 100 frequencies sampled along a log grid).
Here's the result:
![103632]( "103632")
One thing worth noting is that, across all measured frequencies, the microphone's output impedance is higher than the nominal impedance of 250Ω claimed by the manufacturer. I point this out for completeness. It shouldn't be a concern unless you plan to use this mic with really long cable runs.
Of course, the reason for measuring this function in the first place was to determine how the relatively low input impedance of standard consumer audio interface preamps might color the mic's response (by attenuating the signal via loading). So I computed the expected attenuation for a typical (2kΩ) audio interface preamp below (blue curve):
![103633]( "103633")
I've also included the attenuation function for the Fethead (gray curve). My conclusion is that using an audio interface preamp will color the sound, but that the effect will be very subtle (note that the maximum difference in attenuation across frequencies is only about 1.5 dB, which should be just barely perceptible).
The Recording Path
To provide a sense of the NoHype's sound, I made simultaneous recordings on it and on my usual standard LDC mic, the Audio Technica AT3035.
I've included eight sample clips recorded on alto saxophone. I'll amend this post in the future to include more instruments and samples, depending on what readers want to hear. I started with the alto samples (though I'm primarily a tenor player) because it's on alto that the harshness of the condensers most often bothers me.
The eight clips include two different styles-ballad vs. fast blues- and two processing treatments-dry (no effects) vs. wet (with a small amount of reverb) on each of the two microphones.
To use examples that are natural-sounding but repeatable, I'm sticking to solo transcriptions/excerpts. The "fast blues" example is a Bird solo from Now's The Time, while the "ballad" example is Karolina Strassmayer's solo on the melody of If You Could See Me Now from this WDR Big Band recording.
I like the recorded sounds of both mics. They are obviously different, but each has its strengths. However, for monitoring while practicing, I find the smoothness of the LRM-2b much more pleasant and less tiring.
Listen to the clips below and let me know what you think of the LRM-2b.
I was interested in checking out ribbon mic because I wanted something with a smoother top end. I find that the top end of condensers (even my workhorse AT3035, which I love) can sometimes get a bit harsh.
Being able to get a smooth top end is great for many recording situations, of course, but in my case at least, it's important to be able to get this straight from the mic (i.e., not via EQ in post-production) because I spend most of my saxophone practice time (>95%) in my WhisperRoom, playing into a mic and monitoring via headphones.
Many ribbon mics have a substantial rolloff of the top frequencies, which can make them sound stuffy or tubby, IMO. I was interested in finding an affordable ribbon mic with a relatively flat frequency response that would smooth the top end without sounding like I'd stuffed a towel in the bell. The two that kept popping up in my searches were this one (the NoHype LRM-2b) and the SE Voodoo VR1. I went with the NoHype because it was substantially cheaper and had a lot of word-of-mouth praise online.
Price: €190 (about $226 USD)
- Note: This price above is for the version with the stock transformer, which is what I ordered (you can optionally order it with a Lundahl transformer for an additional €100).
- Note: If you plan on using this mic with a Fethead, you should order it from NoHype at the same time, since it's cheaper than buying it from online retailers. E.g., €55 (about $65) from NoHype vs. $90 from Amazon.
The mic is pretty lightweight and compact for a ribbon. Not as compact as the Voodoo VR1 or Royer r121, but its weight and size are comparable to my AT3035 LDC.
I haven't formally measured the frequency response of this mic myself, but the frequency response curve provided by the manufacturer shows it to have a very flat response for a ribbon mic, and it sounds pretty flat to me.
Edit (11/12/2021):
I finally got my hands on a calibrated measurement mic and measured the frequency response myself. My measurements appear in the plot below. As you can see, it agrees broadly with the manufacturer's curve: a relatively flat response for a ribbon mic, but with a significant ( ~10 dB) boost below 50 Hz. All the comments below still apply.
It has a smooth top end, but without any tubbiness or stuffiness. However, as indicated in the frequency response curve, it has a significant boost in sensitivity at low end, this boost is at frequencies too low to matter for saxes (at least S/A/T), but it means that you have to be careful about mechanical transmission of vibrations (i.e., this mic must be used with a suspension mount).
Speaking of which:
I don't like the included suspension mount. This is probably the only feature of this mic that I don't like. The suspension band tension is pretty slack (and can't be adjusted without cutting and shortening the band), the pivot joint is difficult to tighten securely so that it doesn't move, and unless the mic is mounted plumb vertical, the fact that the included suspension mount attaches to the very end of the mic exacerbates both of these problems (due to the cantilevering of the mic).
- I replaced the included suspension mount with this one, which works much better for me.
Used with a Fethead inline preamp (which adds about 27db of gain), sensitivity is about 5 db greater than the AT3035. Using it with the Fethead on my MOTU M4 and recording from 2-3 feet away, I have to set the gain dial at about 8 o'clock (around 17%) to prevent clipping.
- The MOTU's preamps provide a maximum of 60dB of gain, which is pretty standard for consumer-level audio interfaces. This means that you shouldn't need an external preamp when using this mic to record saxes.
- Phantom protection. I often use this with an Helicon voice reverb pedal that has always-on phantom power. It's also just good not to have to worry about plugging it into a phantom-powered input.
- To prevent the audio interface preamps from coloring the frequency response of the LRM-2b. I'm not yet sure whether this is a problem for my MOTU M4, whose preamps have about 2kΩ input impedance, but it's definitely not a problem with the Fethead whose input impedance is an order of magnitude larger (22kΩ).
I finally got around to measuring the frequency-impedance function (I used the voltage-drop method, with 100 frequencies sampled along a log grid).
Here's the result:
One thing worth noting is that, across all measured frequencies, the microphone's output impedance is higher than the nominal impedance of 250Ω claimed by the manufacturer. I point this out for completeness. It shouldn't be a concern unless you plan to use this mic with really long cable runs.
Of course, the reason for measuring this function in the first place was to determine how the relatively low input impedance of standard consumer audio interface preamps might color the mic's response (by attenuating the signal via loading). So I computed the expected attenuation for a typical (2kΩ) audio interface preamp below (blue curve):
I've also included the attenuation function for the Fethead (gray curve). My conclusion is that using an audio interface preamp will color the sound, but that the effect will be very subtle (note that the maximum difference in attenuation across frequencies is only about 1.5 dB, which should be just barely perceptible).
The Recording Path
- AT3035 (with 10dB pad and low cut both switched off) is plugged directly into one of the two MOTU M4 audio interface preamp.
- NoHype LRM-2b is plugged into Fethead, then into the other MOTU M4 audio interface preamp.
- The mics were mounted on a stereo bar about 3.5 inches apart (center-to-center), positioned about 2.5-3 feet away from the saxophone, about a foot above the bell, and aimed toward the middle of the horn.
- The MOTU M4 has lcd level meters on the front, and I used these meters to set the inputs equal to each other. I didn't modify the input levels in the DAW (Reaper) itself.
To provide a sense of the NoHype's sound, I made simultaneous recordings on it and on my usual standard LDC mic, the Audio Technica AT3035.
I've included eight sample clips recorded on alto saxophone. I'll amend this post in the future to include more instruments and samples, depending on what readers want to hear. I started with the alto samples (though I'm primarily a tenor player) because it's on alto that the harshness of the condensers most often bothers me.
The eight clips include two different styles-ballad vs. fast blues- and two processing treatments-dry (no effects) vs. wet (with a small amount of reverb) on each of the two microphones.
To use examples that are natural-sounding but repeatable, I'm sticking to solo transcriptions/excerpts. The "fast blues" example is a Bird solo from Now's The Time, while the "ballad" example is Karolina Strassmayer's solo on the melody of If You Could See Me Now from this WDR Big Band recording.
I like the recorded sounds of both mics. They are obviously different, but each has its strengths. However, for monitoring while practicing, I find the smoothness of the LRM-2b much more pleasant and less tiring.
Listen to the clips below and let me know what you think of the LRM-2b.
