Turtlerock Forum

I dropped a 121 last night - should I be concerned? The mic cable was snagged and pulled the mic from the clip and it plummeted about three feet to to the floor-boards, landing on its head. I tested it and it's still working thankfully, but my only other ribbon is a Coles and I know they are pretty delicate so thought I'd ask here if anyone's dropped their Royer.

I recorded tambi with the mic straight after the fall, so it sounds like everything is okay, though who can tell from a tambi.

Cheers
Dave

As far as ribbons go, the 121 is pretty durable, I reckon. Never dropped one, but the learning institution at which I work has 2, and letting students use them day in, day out is as good as droppping them. Just record some vocals or something with it and if it still sounds good and as you'd expect then I'd just forget the whole thing ever happened.

Forget the whole thing never happened = best solution. Thing is I've only used it for the first time this week since new and only on guitars, so I haven't exactly amassed a great knowledge of how it normally sounds. I'll try the same guitar set-up and if it sounds like I remember it did (wow) then I'll move on. Cheers

I would not worry about it - the great thing about passive microphones (ie dynamics and ribbons) is that there is precious little to go wrong with them.

In the case of a ribbon, it's either the ribbon busted or internal wiring. You generally hope that the internal wiring is well made, so it's just the ribbon itself that can go bad.

If you drop it and it still works and sounds OK, then I'd doubt you did any damage at all. You couldn't say that about condensers, particularly those with tubes inside.

Chris

Linear wrote:I would not worry about it - the great thing about passive microphones (ie dynamics and ribbons) is that there is precious little to go wrong with them.

In the case of a ribbon, it's either the ribbon busted or internal wiring. You generally hope that the internal wiring is well made, so it's just the ribbon itself that can go bad.

If you drop it and it still works and sounds OK, then I'd doubt you did any damage at all. You couldn't say that about condensers, particularly those with tubes inside.

Chris

My main hope was that it air wasn't forced onto the ribbon as it fell, but I think you're right - it is a solid beast and a height of 3-feet likely gave it buckleys chance of getting up enough momentum to take any sudden air. Certainly no more than a speaker cone pushing air towards it anyway! Okay, I feel better about it. It's just that 'new car' thing, it happens with good mics, too.

you should know if it is damaged or not. Ribbon mics either work properly or are completely dead( ribbon broken ) or they sound very dull, low(er) in level and make crunching noises on loud signals or when moving them about. These are the symptoms when the ribbon is stretched. I've repaired quite a few R121's over the years so they can be broken / stretched, but is usually wind blasts that do it.

I bought two cheap Nady ribbons...to try em out ...having never used a ribbon mic previously. They were cheap as chips, something like 50 bucks each.

Anyways, I preceeded to immediately (not on purpose) apply phantom power to one, and then drop the other.

Both mics survived......


I felt suitably stupid....and learned my lesson (I hope).

I expected from what I had read previously about ribbon mic fragility...for them to explode in flash of white hot light...or something similar.

Moral of the story....probably best not to apply phantom or drop them...but it doesnt have to be the end of the world.

cheers

Wiz

(founding member of the lets check the floor bounce acceleration spec of our ribbon mics club...)

I don't think phantom power would hurt a ribbon mic unless there was a wiring fault. Some boards, like the Studer 169, only have the option of phantom power universally on or off, so if you wanted to use ribbon mics alongside condensor mics then phantom power would be going to the ribbons as well. Having said that, I think it's generally good practice to only make or break a connection to any mic with phantom power switched off.

This is a good video on that topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmHgPbSqhAE

The thing with ribbon mics and phantom power is that the ribbon is a 'motor' in a magnetic field and if there is any voltage difference between the two ends, current will flow and it will be deflected and could stretch and if there is suficient current the ribbon becomes a fuse. Since it is a very low resistance it doesn't need much voltage difference to have an effect.

yet then again, all ribbon mics have a transformer between the ribbon and the output socket. This prevents any DC on the output socket ( phantom ) from getting across the ribbon itself. What does get through are the AC transients that occur when an DC is applied or removed from the output socket in a non common mode manner, ie when one leg is pulled to ground and the other leg has phantom applied. This can occur in some patchbays as the patchlead is inserted. It doesn't occur when a phantom power on/off switch is thrown, if the switch is wired in the normal and correct manner.

Agreed absolutely, Rob, which is why I said voltage difference at the ends of the ribbon. This is more likely to be as a result of someone trying to measure the resistance of the ribbon, in situ, with a 9V powered multimeter than by phantom power.