AES NYC 2015 A Journeyman's Wandering #01

Jacob Javits Convention Center

We arrived in NYC at Penn Station Friday around mid-day to attend the Audio Engineers Association 2015 Convention at the Javits Center on 11th Avenue. I wanted to stop by the B&H Superstore first. They are not open on Saturdays due to religious observances.

Having been tipped off by PR Maven Howard Sherman that "The Microphone Room" at B&H's NYC store had been designed by Walters Storyk Design Group, I was more than a little interested in seeing the space and what was in it. John and Beth have done many spectacular projects over the years. How would they approach a mic room in a retail establishment?

Note: B&H help make this blog possible, but most people who know me at all are aware that I don't blow smoke. Someone had mentioned to me in the past that B&H's 9th Ave. store was pretty amazing. It was on my way to the Javits Center. OK, fine, Show me.  

In most big box stores, the audio department takes a back seat to the other gear. I entered the store and asked for the audio department was. I can't tell you how many square feet is deployed for audio, but it's SIZABLE. Aisles and aisles of glittering glass cases with mixers, headphones, recorders, mics, adapters, wind filters - all things audio, all JUST THERE in plain sight.

Impressive, but what about the microphone room? I was directed to it. Through the window I could see there were already people inside. You need to swipe a card to get into the room. I waited until the customers and B&H associate came out. I introduced myself and asked to see the room and was swiped in.

The space was a lot smaller than I expected, but the design was obvious - no parallel walls. Thick walls to keep the "walla" from the rest of the store out and windows to allow the mics to be seen and to keep those in the room from becoming claustrophobic. As the heavy door "smffed" closed, the room was very quiet.

I was flanked on both sides by double arrays of microphones - two long brackets ran the length of each wall and the mics were attached on their various mic clips and suspension mounts to the brackets. Not under glass, behind a counter, but nekkid and staring you in the face where you can touch them, fondle them or handle them to see which have controls and what the controls are. 

B&H Microphone Room Wall #1

Large, medium and small condensers, shotguns, dynamics, ribbons. OK, a massive display, but what about hearing them? As you can see from the shot below, there seems to be some rack mounted gear under the array on wall #2.

B&H Microphone Room Wall #2

And a closer look reveals a credenza full of preamps and a patchbay that lets you hear and compare each to these mics. You can click on each photo to see the gear in greater detail.

I suppose there might be another retail showroom that has this sort of display, but I've never seen or heard of one. Kudos to B&H for putting it out there like this for gear slutting audio people. If you are within traveling distance from NYC and are trying to make choices about microphones, it's hard to beat the idea of a road trip to this "oasis or microphones." Bring your favorite set of headphones so you can make good comparative decisions.

Oh, by the way, the audio monitor room was the next one over. Here's a peek.

I'll be posting info from booth visits on the AES Display Floor. Stay tuned! Copyright 2015 © Technique, Inc. All Rights Reserved
More at www.tyford.com

Rode NTR - A New Bi-directional Active Ribbon Studio Mic

The Rode NTR ($799) is an active, bi-directional ribbon microphone that surpasses vintage designs primarily because of it's sensitivity (-30.5 dB re 1V/Pa (30mV @ 94dB SPL) ± 2dB @ 1kHz) and tone. In side by side comparisons with Rode's NT1 studio condenser mic, the NTR was 3 dB more sensitive. That surprised me!

Your father's or grandfather's ribbon microphone required so much mic preamp gain that increased noise floor was inevitable. How did they manage back then? Really good mic preamps, usually with a special transformer on the input to step up the voltage, and placement of the mic itself. Plus, early "hi-fi" systems didn't have anywhere near as much bandwidth as a 24-bit recording (or even an mp3). 

How much ribbon you are moving also figures into the formula. That can be achieved by the length of the ribbon or how many ribbons were used in one mic. The Beyer M160 and RCA 77 series ribbon mics grabbed some extra sensitivity by having two ribbons. Think about it. You basically have a relatively fragile strip of aluminum floating in a magnetic field. A sound happens, the ribbon moves sympathetically and that movement within the magnetic field generates a small voltage. 

A lot of "magic" was invested in the early ribbon mics. The thickness of the ribbon was and still is important. The Rode NTR ribbon has a thickness of 1.8 microns. 

Each ribbon is run through a crimping mill that imparts a pattern on the aluminum. The crimp is a "special recipe." This is done to provide the ribbon with some structure to strengthen it and allow it to be tensioned properly. 


Longer ribbons generate more voltage, but longer ribbons are more fragile. The ribbon must be stretched to achieve a linear frequency response. As any ribbon mic ages, the ribbon material will sag and change the response. According to Rode Marketing Manager Scott Emerton, "Our engineers spent a lot of time optimising the ‘crimp’ of the ribbon to minimise any slack being introduced. Also there’s a multi-stage tension and relaxing process for each ribbon as it’s placed in its motor which increases that life."

Addendum: Rode covers you with one new ribbon for free. They also warranty the NTR for a year and for ten years if you register the mic at www.rode.com/warranty.

Here's an image of the crimping and tensioning jig with a new ribbon spanning across the gap and held in place by the two brass blocks. For a motion picture of this procedure, here's a YouTube link. 

NYC Mic and Mic Preamp Demo Room

People within a daytrip of NYC are pretty lucky. B&H has a positively scary mic and preamp demo suite at their Manhattan location. If you are mic and preamp hungry, how can you not say yes to this?

A Recent History of Ribbon Microphones

Audio-Technica AT 4080 and 4081

Ty Ford (written sometime in 2005)

The BBC cites 1933 as the year pressure gradient ribbon microphones were introduced. It also notes that RCA's Harry Olson applied for a patent on January 31, 1941 that was granted May 9, 1944 for ribbon microphones that converted sound pressure to electrical energy using a strip of aluminum between two magnets.