Hello, my name is James Ivey and I'm a microphone-aholic. I'm not sure if that is a real word but I think you get what I mean. Ever since I first starting messing around with recording in my bedroom aged 11, I have been obsessed with microphones. I realised very early on that the microphone is one of, if not the most important, part of the recording chain. The mic can obviously make a huge difference to the tone and quality of the recording but I think there is more to it. Yes call me a mic snob if you will, but there is something about performing into a quality mic that can draw something extra out of an artist. 

My friend Adam at UK pro audio dealer Funky Junk recently asked me if I would like to try a new matched pair of Royer Labs R-10 ribbon microphones. The R-10 is Royer's most cost-effective mic starting at around £450 ex-taxes for a single mic and only £780 ex-taxes for a matched pair in a solid flight case. Think of the R-10 as the little brother to the more widely known and highly regarded Royer R-121 and you won't go far wrong.

Construction

Royer were founded in 1998 by David Royer and since that time they have produced some stunning sounding, yet very easy to use ribbon mics. The R-10 carries on this tradition. There are no switches or settings to tweak just put the mic in the clip connect an XLR cable and hit record. The R-10 is whats called a passive ribbon meaning it does not require 48v Phantom Power or any external PSU.
Ribbon mics of old required a mic pre with a massive amount of gain due to their low output level,  but Royer pioneered the development of ribbon mics so now any 'quality' mic pre with a modest amount of gain will be able to boost the signal to a recordable level without massive amounts of hiss or distortion.

This is a sold microphone, handbuilt in California for the studio or live use. The housing is solid steel tube that is cut in a water bath using a high voltage brass wire that never touches the mic chassis cutting or burning the required openings and leaving the edge smooth and bur free.

The business end of the R-10, it's 2.5-micron think (or should that be thin) aluminium ribbon element is formed using Royers patented direct-corrugation process. The ribbon is in turn protected by a 3-layer windscreen system. The ribbon transducer is wired in the same way as an electric guitar humbucking pickup to reject electromagnetically induced noise.  

The R-10’s built-in windscreen provides protection from air blasts and plosives which can damage the ribbon. It also has the added effect of reducing the proximity effect so guitar cabinets and acoustic instruments can be close-mic'd without the worry of bass buildup. The R-10’s internally shock-mounted ribbon transducer isolates the ribbon element from shocks and vibrations, increasing the ribbon element’s durability and life in the studio or on the road.

The final key element of the design is a David Royer custom designed transformer which helps minimize saturation at even extremely high sound pressure levels of up to 160 dB @ 1 kHz. Royer say you can never overload an R-10!

The included shock mount is also a quality addition. Again it is simple to use and solid. What more do you need?

Acoustic Guitar

I wanted to try the R-10 on a number of different instruments and recording setups. Royer states on their website that the R-10 is particularly good on sound sources that produce high sound pressure level (SPL) such as electric guitar cabinets, drums and brass instruments but they also work well on softer acoustic instruments like violin, woodwind and acoustic guitar. 

I set the mic on a stand about 5 inches from just above the sound-hole on my Patrick Eggle acoustic guitar and slowly moved the guitar around the mic to find a natural, open sound then hit record. The recording example below has no processing on it (no EQ or Dynamics) to give you an idea of just how easy it is to get a great acoustic guitar sound. 

Electric Guitar

Some of the greatest electric guitar tones have been captured using combinations of ribbon and dynamic microphones and in many cases the ribbons being used were Royers so I wanted to try the R-10 on a full tilt electric guitar track. 

I attached the mount to one of the bars in my Grossmann cabinet in line with the centre of the speaker just off to the side of the dust cap. This position has worked well on this speaker before so I had no fear that this was not the position to use. 

What you can hear in the audio example is a simple rhythm guitar part recorded using my Les Paul Studio guitar and Chandler Limited GA-19T amp. In my opinion this is one of the best distorted guitar tones I have ever recorded. I have a session on this week and I can't wait to let the R-10 do its magic on the guitar parts. This is where, to my ears, the R-10 really holds it's own against not only other ribbon mics but other more expensive mics in the Royer range.

Stereo Drum Overheads

As I'm sure many of you who watch or read my Production Expert articles are aware, I spend a great deal of my time playing and recording drums, so when I read that the R-10 can be used on drums I wanted to try them as an alternative to the most common ribbon mic that you see being used on drum overheads in studios all over the world, the Coles 4038. 

As you can see in the picture I set the mics up on a bar about 150cm above the centre of the kit between the snare drum and floor toms. The intention here is to capture a good centre image of the kit as I also have close mics on the rest of the drums. The overheads are to create an image and pick up the cymbals.  

One of the facts about most ribbon mics is that they have a figure of 8 polar pattern. This is down to the physics of how ribbon mics work but you can see that the mics are quite close to the ceiling of my drum room.  I was worried about reflections from the ceiling rebounding into the back of the mic and causing phase issues but as you can hear from the recordings this gives the mics a nice rich dark tone which I really like.  Royer ribbon mics are not known for having that tradition ribbon sound but to my ears, the R-10's in this position sound really think but with just enough top end bite to work well on a pop, latin or jazz track to let the shine of the cymbals stand out. 

The first audio example you can hear below is a full drum mix of a latin track I have been working on. There is a little EQ on the drums but nothing on the Overhead tracks. 

The second track is just the stereo Royer Labs R-10 mics so you can hear what they are adding to this drumming party. 

Conclusion

I have had this pair of Royer Labs R-10 ribbon mics for about 3 months now and I have to say I love them. They are well built, solid and sound great on just about anything you ask them to record.  As I said before, the R-10 on in my Grossmann 1x12" guitar cab sounded stunning. Like a "proper" guitar recording done in a "proper" studio. 

I like how the R-10 sounded on acoustic guitar. It would not work for every kind of music but I think if you are going for that folky dark not to bright, natural acoustic sound then the R-10 could be a very good mic to choose. 

The pair of R-10s as drum overheads was a very different sound to what I am used too, but I really liked it. For the latin track that you can hear in the demo, it was just the "right sound". 

In short, if you are looking to increase your mic collection with a ribbon mic or two you should take a serious look at the Royer Labs R-10. It packs a punch without denting your bank account to hard. 

For those of you who are interested, the good folks at Royer Labs have produced a video all about the design, construction and implementation of their R- Series ribbon transducer, such as the one found in the Royer R-10.