DIY Ribbon Mics - THEY WORK!

I figured I should do something useful with my self so I built two Austin style ribbon mics out of some brass tube. The only thing I bought pre made was the transformer from Edcor and XLR connector. They’re kind of in between an SM57 and a small diaphragm condenser. Have a listen for your selves.

Building these was the most fiddley thing i’ve ever done. It took me a total of about 5 hours just to get the 0.6 micron think aluminum leaf cut right and maneuvered into place. It took like 15 tries per mic.

The design was taken from a really mint guide that a guy called Rick Wilkinson made up (http://www.rickshawrecords.com/ribbonmic/). It consists of some 1 1/2 inch brass pipe with some grill holes cut out, with a ribbon motor made from acrylic rod mounted in the middle with some weather proofing tape. This then connects to an output transformer and out through the XLR connecter.

All in all, i’ve spent about £55, which for two pretty good sounding ribbon mics isn’t bad at all. Due to the ultra thin ribbon and the transformer - the output is also alot greater than chinese import things. This means i’m not going to have to get special preamps. Don’t get me wrong, they’re certianly no Royer killers, and the craftmanship is no Ben Askem, but they do the job nicely.

Have a listen (excuse playing…):
Mic tests

Stereo overheads on drumkit in my middle room
Stereo on acoustic guitar about 2 feet away.
Mono on transistor fender stage 100 amp, center speaker, 2 inch away with telecaster, clean then distortion.

No processing on any of them.

Have a look:
One of the mics (gaffa only temporary):
Mics

Ribbon Motor:
Ribbon Motor

3 Responses to “DIY Ribbon Mics - THEY WORK!”

  1. Nice Work Max :)

    Tom Barker said this on September 9th, 2008 at 4:52 pm

  2. wow! i’ve not got decent speakers at the moment, so i can’t tell how they compare quality-wise, but the fact that something you’ve hand-made records actual real sound is awesome! good work

    Ben said this on September 9th, 2008 at 5:27 pm

  3. Hey Max, I’m glad you had a good experience with my DIY plans. Your guitar samples demonstrate the sound quite nicely, and compare nicely with the samples on my website. I hope you get lots of use from these. (I’m using some of my homebuilt Austins to record a band this weekend!)

    Also, nothing like a weak US Dollar to cut costs… In the states £55 (~$100 USD) buys enough parts for your first mic. You would have to spend half-again for 2 mics here.

    I can’t wait to hear a stereo recording from both of your creations!
    Please feel free to ask me questions if you have any,

    - Rickshaw

    Rickshaw said this on September 9th, 2008 at 8:16 pm

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