With its waffle-iron looking swivel head, the 4038 is one of the most unique mic designs ever and still the favorite ribbon mic of many engineers. We felt it would make a great first tube/ribbon mic for someone seeking some tube character, with the advantage of having that big, warm ribbon lower mid-range. 10. As it was so dark, we also felt it shared some of its character with the Sontronics Sigma, and might make a good alternative for those seeking a very dark vintage-sounding ribbon on a very tight budget. The 4038 was an improvement on the Type A's frequency response, and was described as "less obtrusive". The Coles Electroacoustics 4038 is also known as: 4038 Studio. It would probably sound great pulled back a couple of feet and, like the GA R2, would make a good general-purpose 'warmer' for condenser recordings. The overall impression was one of providing an instantly-useable off-the-shelf sound, which would hold its own nicely as the only mic in a singer-songwriter acoustic guitar/vocals combo. The vocalist liked how she could 'hear everything'. In addition to the companies who lent us the microphones to try out in this feature, I'd like to say thanks to the following for the help they gave in the microphone auditions: Tom Brookhouse, Rob Blakeney, Rebecca Gilbert, Jan Ticket, Greg Chandler, KMR Audio, and Digital Village, Birmingham. In the mid-priced bracket, we have SE and Sontronics, who are both combining brand-new, bespoke designs with the cost advantages of using Chinese labour to make them. Indeed, we felt it was almost a little too hi-fi, bordering on the sound of a condenser mic — certainly not quite as warm as some of the other mics on test. ", Recording the acoustic guitar, for which the ribbon mics with an extended top end performed well. The impedance switch was interesting, and made quite a difference: in the 75Ω position the sound was very soft and smooth throughout the range, albeit a little lacking in detail; the 300Ω position brought in quite a lot of extra detail, and seemed to extend the high-frequency response, but at the cost of a little of that smoothness and a little warmth at the bottom. Big bottom end, but without being muddy. It’s bidirectional (figure-8) with a frequency response of 30Hz–15kHz and can take up to 125dB SPL—although we had to move this back to 11 inches for breakup factor. The Coles 4038 Studio Ribbon Microphone is a British Broadcasting (BBC) design for broadcasting and recording applications. The mid-range was lovely and the transient response generally was great, with a lovely punchy kick-drum sound. It has a shape unlike any mic I have seen before and has the sound to match it. The whole point of these tests for us at Artisan Studios was to audition a wide range of ribbon mics in order to try something new on a project we were about to undertake. "Big sound, with strong, clear mids and smooth high frequencies. Read about the research and design decisions that led to the 4038 in the BBC Engineering Division’s Monograph #4, The Design of a Ribbon Type Pressure Gradient Microphone (D.E.L. Why Are Some A-B Stereo Arrays Angled Outwards? The active version is a touch more flattering at both ends of the frequency spectrum, and isn't so fussy about the choice of preamp, but in other respects the two are very similar. The Sontronics Sigma was also good for clean sounds, and the R84 also sounded good on both clean and distorted guitars, if a little muddy. It was still our favourite all-rounder, though, and we thought it very classy. It was eminently useable, and a very nice contrast to the Oktava which, by comparison, offered all detail and no body. The panel thought it conjured up exotica jazz (think 'The Girl From Ipanema'), so if this is your bag it would certainly be worth auditioning. SE Reflexion Filters were used with all the mics, to minimise unwanted room sound, for the vocal test recordings. It is tuned to approximately 45Hz. At the 'outrageously cheap' end of the scale we have modified standard Far East production-line mics. Less proximity effect than some of the other ribbons makes it more suitable for closer miking. The Sontronics Sigma was also good for clean sounds, and the R84 also sounded good on both clean and distorted guitars, if a little muddy. The Sontronics Sigma had a pleasing, 'old style' ribbon character, and a good level of detail. While it is not so useful for the styles of music I work with, it is an impressive mic for its character alone. It is used in both sound recording and radio broadcasting. Like the Beyer, it exhibited a little bit of a nasal pinch in the upper registers, but this was made up for by the overall tone, which was really nicely balanced. Nice, detailed and smooth mid-range. Accented, but smooth high mids make this a good choice for loud guitar amps. Mastering Essentials Part 4 - Mastering EQ: Balance, Don’t Match. As a clue to what impressed me the most and is most suitable for the types of music I record, I bought the Royer R121 and now have the AEA R84 and Coles 4038 on my wish list!". We thought the R121 sounded very musical, though also quite coloured: it generally pushed up the upper mids more than any other mic on test, and we felt the sound was therefore quite spiky, though we also thought this might also help some vocals to cut through a mix more easily. www.soundonsound.com/sos/dec07/articles/ribbonmicsaudio.htm, Win! Prices include VAT. The Royer R121 and AEA R84 turned out to be my favourites from this test. The contents of this article are subject to worldwide copyright protection and reproduction in whole or part, whether mechanical or electronic, is expressly forbidden without the prior written consent of the Publishers. On guitar it was not my favorite. All rights reserved. Extended HF response but still very smooth. Despite this rather negative first impression, its character grew on us throughout the session. The 4038 is a classic Studio Ribbon Microphone designed by the BBC and originally manufactured by STC. The M160's on-axis response has much in common with the Royer R121, in exhibiting quite a 'lump' at around 4kHz, which, although unpleasant on this particular vocalist, is actually very smooth, and we felt would help some singers' voices cut through a mix. Coles, the outsourced manufacturer, bought the rights to the STC microphone line in 1974. At the cheapest extreme, for example, the R1 Mk2 comes with a mic-stand mount, a protective wind-glove and a good aluminium flight-case. Great for those wanting that sort of very vintage (dark) sound on a tight budget. The panel described the Mk2 as "even, smooth and with more presence than many of the mics on test." The Amp was an Engl Powerball, paired with a VR cabinet. In the same bracket, Groove Tubes have manage to price their Velo 8 extremely competitively, despite it being made in the West. This was definitely the most charismatically vintage in character of the mics on test. A Coles 4038 is on my list of things to get. Shorter and H.D. The 4038 showed a restrained control on vocals which we didn't hear with any of the other microphones — it was really very 'British'. The Coles 4038 also had the potential to be a favourite, and I'd like to have spent longer with it and got to hear it on more sources. See our comments for the R1 Mk2, below. It lacks versatility in that it only does one sound, but boy, does it do that sound well! Golden Age Projects R2, We found that the R2 sounded quite muffled but was not particularly charismatic-sounding either. It is easy to hear why the Beyers are so well-known for drums. If you buy a GA mic, you are buying GA's taste — which we rather liked on the whole, especially given the price. One final irony, which we couldn't help but notice, was that the quality and quantity of the accessories supplied with each of the mics were almost perfectly inversely proportional to the cost of the microphones. We loved this mic on acoustic. The Crowley & Tripp Studio Vocalist turned out to be our favourite for the test vocalist. Despite its great showing on the vocal tests, this mic sounded phasey and too coloured on our drum kit, with splashy, sibilant cymbals. 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