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The Ribbon Microphone

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Re: The Ribbon Microphone

#61

Post by beAbU »

bluGill wrote: post #60
beAbU wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds just like any other mic, with subtle differences audible only to the most trained ear. Their frequency response is probably well characterised and documented, so you can simulate one by putting an appropriate EQ over a "normal" mic and the outcome will be indistinguishable from the real thing.

Trained ear means one where you have good speakers (headphones may be better) and listen to the same thing on several different microphones. It isn't hard to train your ears if you want to spend the time.

Do you listen to the music, or do you listen to the mic that it was recorded with?

Re: The Ribbon Microphone

#64

Post by bluGill »

beAbU wrote: post #61
bluGill wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Trained ear means one where you have good speakers (headphones may be better) and listen to the same thing on several different microphones. It isn't hard to train your ears if you want to spend the time.

Do you listen to the music, or do you listen to the mic that it was recorded with?

When I'm making the music it is important to get the details right. When I'm listening to what someone else made it doesn't matter.

Re: The Ribbon Microphone

#65

Post by femto »

nosolace wrote: post #51
huhtenberg wrote: post #35

If the author's reading this, the site renders like this in a recent Firefox - https://i.imgur.com/lazMsqx.png

the author is in fact reading this and will make some changes edit: haven't managed to replicate the absurdly huge image; what version # & os are you on?

I'm seeing this effect with Firefox 115.9.1esr (64-bit), running under Debian 12.

Re: The Ribbon Microphone

#66

Post by femto »

01100011 wrote: post #53

Seems like you could get many of the benefits of a ribbon by using a laser to measure the vibration of the ribbon vs measuring the voltage. Of course the ribbon won't vibrate the same without a magnetic field applied so you could still supply that. You'll also just be picking up the vibrations at one point of the ribbon instead of the summation(?) of it's movement. But you won't have to worry so much about noise and…

You might be able to use a laser, with a video camera as the sensor. Even though the frame rate of the camera is much less than the sampling rate required for audio, it potentially has a high enough spatial resolution that there are multiple pixels per audio wavelength, giving enough bits of information per unit time. Some smart maths, effectively modelling the ribbon and matching its response to the observation, would be required. In this way, the vibration of the whole ribbon might be measured.

Re: The Ribbon Microphone

#67

Post by paulorlando »

telesilla wrote: post #50
paulorlando wrote: post #27

It also led to the ability to sing in a quieter, more natural way, and gave birth to the "crooner" style. The earlier popularized carbon button microphone (invented in 1878) didn’t enable this personal singing style. If you look at one you might mistake it for the receiver of an old telephone handset (which in essence it was).

It's a fascinating topic, how technology forms new genres of music. The microphone is often overlooked for its importance in 20th century music evolution.

Music changed so much from tech like better mics, recording, and inventions from Les Paul (reverb, echo, delay, and more). It took a while for the musicians to catch up with it, but when they did, that new tech led to decades of new genres.

Re: The Ribbon Microphone

#68

Post by buildbot »

01100011 wrote: post #53

Seems like you could get many of the benefits of a ribbon by using a laser to measure the vibration of the ribbon vs measuring the voltage. Of course the ribbon won't vibrate the same without a magnetic field applied so you could still supply that. You'll also just be picking up the vibrations at one point of the ribbon instead of the summation(?) of it's movement. But you won't have to worry so much about noise and…

You could probably do so with something like this right now, pointing it at the ribbon: https://pki-electronic.com/products/audio-surveillance-equip...

Or just a sheet of glass in front of the singer.

Re: The Ribbon Microphone

#69

Post by mystified5016 »

femto wrote: post #66
01100011 wrote: post #53

Seems like you could get many of the benefits of a ribbon by using a laser to measure the vibration of the ribbon vs measuring the voltage. Of course the ribbon won't vibrate the same without a magnetic field applied so you could still supply that. You'll also just be picking up the vibrations at one point of the ribbon instead of the summation(?) of it's movement. But you won't have to worry so much about noise and…

You might be able to use a laser, with a video camera as the sensor. Even though the frame rate of the camera is much less than the sampling rate required for audio, it potentially has a high enough spatial resolution that there are multiple pixels per audio wavelength, giving enough bits of information per unit time. Some smart maths, effectively modelling the ribbon and matching its response to the observation, wou…

You don't need a video camera, you just need a photodiode which can be made much faster than a full video sensor.

Re: The Ribbon Microphone

#70

Post by huhtenberg »

nosolace wrote: post #51
huhtenberg wrote: post #35

If the author's reading this, the site renders like this in a recent Firefox - https://i.imgur.com/lazMsqx.png

the author is in fact reading this and will make some changes edit: haven't managed to replicate the absurdly huge image; what version # & os are you on?

Adding this solves the problem:

    figure img { width: 100%; }
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