| Mix, March 2001 Royer
Labs SF-1 Two years ago,
Royer shipped its first ribbon microphone --the R-121--and the mic became
an instant hit with studio pros. At the time, Royer began building stereo
ribbon mics based on Bob Speiden's SF-12, which has gained favor with
classical and scoring engineers. Now Royer debuts the SF-1, a mono version
of the SF-12 priced at $1,075--exactly half the price of the stereo model.
Housed in a 1-inch
diameter, 5.6-inch-long cylindrical body and presented in a velvet-lined
wood case, the matte black chrome SF-1 is both beautiful and impeccably
machined. The side address mic body contains the SF-1's cross-field motor
assembly ribbon transducer which includes four Neodymium magnets and Permendur
iron pole pieces surrounding a low-mass 1.8-micron aluminum ribbon assembly.
The SF-1's iron case forms the magnetic return circuit for the transducer.
The polar pattern is a classic figure-8 and the mic handles SPLs of up
to 130 dB. Using the SF-1
requires little more than opening the mic's storage box: There are no
pads, rolloff switches, etc. It's plug and go, but with a few caveats.
As with other ribbons, the mic is extremely sensitive to air motion and
can be damaged by excessive air movements, but other than avoiding blowing
into the mic, "cleaning" the ribbon with compressed air or putting
the mic inside a kick drum, the SF-1 is rugged and durable--hardly fragile
at all. Hey, I don't drop my U87s onto a concrete floor either! I began testing
the SF-1s as a Blumlein (coincident) pair on a 4-string dulcimer track.
The mic has a fairly low sensitivity (in the -52 dBv range) and really
needs a quiet high-gain preamp, which in my case was the Millennia HV-3.
The gain issue is less of a consideration with close-miked or high-SPL
sources, but on this dulcimer track, I wanted a more distant ambient sound
with the mics about six feet away. Here, the SF-1s did a remarkable job
of capturing the sound of the instrument, with plenty of zing, a smooth,
unexaggerated top-end and a nice blend of the room color. On another session,
used close up on a clarinet overdub, the result in the control room was
exactly what I heard in the studio - rich and woody, and free of any edginess
caused by the upper-HF rise common to most studio condenser mics. Interestingly,
the SF-1's same lack of an upper presence boost that was great on clarinet
led me to choose a condenser when cutting male vocals and where I wanted
that extra boost to help the voice cut through a busy rock track. However,
I liked the SF-1 on female vocals, where the mic's proximity effect added
a nice, warm fullness to the lower notes, with smooth mids and absolutely
no brittleness in the highs. Also the SF-1's pattern is extremely consistent
from front-to-back and off-axis coloration was nonexistent. I gave the SF-1
a workout using a trick I heard from Mix contributor Barry Rudolph. For
guitar overdubs, I placed two Marshall 4x12 cabinets facing each other
with the SF-1 placed between them. As the back side of a figure-8 mic
is out-of-phase with the front, I wired one of the Marshall bottoms out-of-phase,
and---after a little experimentation with mic-to-cabinet distances - I
wound up with a huge guitar sound; high SPLs were not a problem. Although the SF-1's
flat, wide response, fast transient tracking and high-SPL handling would
make it a good candidate in such instances, the mic's inherent figure-8
pattern limits its use to tracking drum overheads when no other instruments
(loud guitars. etc.) are present. In such cases, the SF-1s - as spaced
or coincident overhead pairs - offered a nice balance of cymbals, toms
and snare, requiring only a supplemental kick mic. Due to multiple
internal reflections within piano cases, the only way to avoid muddiness
and cancellation with figure-8 mics on piano is to remove the lid. This
precludes use of the SF-1s for most live or multi-instrument piano sessions,
but for (lid-off!) overdubs or solo piano recordings, the SF-1s offered
an unhyped, natural reproduction that matched what I heard in the room.
Overall, I loved the SF-1. Its low sensitivity does require a high-quality/high-gain preamp and its wide, flat, uncolored response lacks the in-your-face presence boost common to most studio condensers and even found in Royer's R-121 ribbon model. However, users seeking an accurate, transparent studio mic may want to add one (or more) SF-1s to their mic lockers. Copyright 2001 Primedia Business
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