From the course: Microphone Techniques: Essentials

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Ribbon operating principle

Ribbon operating principle

From the course: Microphone Techniques: Essentials

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Ribbon operating principle

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- [Bill] Ribbon microphones were very popular in the early days of recording. In the 40s and 50s, the RCA 77-DX and RCA 44 series were very popular because they had a full warm sound that worked well with the recording mediums of the day and with radio broadcast. These mics never completely lost their appeal but as the analog multi-track recording industry grew, most engineers wanted to make sure that they recorded the tape with plenty of high frequency content. Because if the highs needed to be turned down on a track or on many tracks, that resulted in a decrease of noise and tape hiss in the final product. Low frequencies were easy to get back in the mix if needed. But turning up the high frequencies during mix tone simply meant turning up noise. For that reason, these early ribbon mics lost popularity because of their warm tone and less strident high end. As the digital era took over, the noise became much less of an issue. It was clear that there was no longer a need to print…

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