There is really something about this #mic that brings with it a “right there in the room” sensation. Really, anywhere you’d use a stereo pair of RCA 44s, you will love this mic (and benefit from the holographic imaging of its perfect coincident-stereo array). We love the R88 on string ensemble, background vocal ensemble (with the vocal group positioned in a ring around the #microphone), drum overhead, and acoustic grand piano-provided you take care with positioning the mic’s inherent phase zones. There are no in-band resonances to clutter things up. Condensers and moving-coil dynamics almost always require much higher self-resonances, which can influence the mic’s performance.Ī good ribbon renders transients and midrange in a very natural and effortless way, and the low tuning is a big part of why. The ribbons in the R88, for example, are tensioned at a precise 16.5 Hz-below the lower limit of human hearing. One of the unique advantages of ribbons as a #microphone technology is that the ribbon element can be tensioned with a very low self-resonance, away from #audio frequencies of interest. The R88 is a stereo microphone that’s designed to perform very similarly to a pair of RCA 44BX in #Blumlein configuration, and it is truly outstanding. While we love our sizable collection of vintage ribbon #mics, we also rely heavily on a few modern standard-bearers like this AEA (ribbonmics) #R88 #stereo ribbon.