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In 1998, the then-new Royer Labs pro-duced a microphone that reawakened therecording world to the sonic virtues foundin ribbon microphones. This, of course, wasthe Royer R-121, and if you do any guitaramp recording at all, you have probablyheard of it or have hopefully used one. In2015, the R-121 has become as ubiquitousas the Shure SM57 when it comes to cap-turing great guitar amp tone.

As legend has it, David Royer created theR-121 after hearing and becomingobsessed with the sound of Bob Speiden’s1980s ribbon mic designs (of which onlyabout 120 were made). David tweakedand tinkered in his garage in Fullerton, CA,until he was happy with his new design,and the R-121 was born. The R-121 bor-rows heavily in look and design from1955’s BeoMic BM3 mic from Bang &Olufsen, down to its characteristic “ears”.

David also decided to resurrect andupdate Bob Speiden’s original designs.Nowadays, Royer Labs offers two distinctribbon lines: David Royer’s R Series, whichis a bit more mid-weighted and modern,and the Speiden-inspired / Royer-designedSF Series, some of the most transparent andnatural-sounding ribbon mics on the market.

R we ready for a history lesson?Like most classic ribbon mics, the R-121

is a passive microphone with a figure-8 orbi-directional (front/back) polar pattern.Internally its transducer, called a motor,makes use of a corrugated, offset design(patented by Royer) with a 2.5-micron alu-minum ribbon that is 0.1875" x 1.75" longand is suspended between two rare earth

Neodymium magnets. In fact, the “ears” onthe sides of an R Series mic are the outsideedges of the large motor frame that con-tains the magnets. The motor assemblyslides into the low-carbon steel body, givingthe mic its slightly Cyberman appearance.

We reviewed the original R-121 shortlyafter its release, in 1999. In 2002 the lineevolved to include the R-122, the ground-breaking phantom powered ribbon designthat’s spawned dozens of imitators on themarket. Next came a tube-amplified varia-tion, dubbed the R-122V, that we looked at

in October of 2007. Most recently for the Rseries, in December 2010 I took the R-101,an entry-level mic with its own sonic signa-ture, out for a spin. Now it’s time to look atthe R-122 MKII.

Unlike many updates and revisions wherea company tries to make a mic “better” (anddoesn’t always succeed!), everything thatmade the R-122 sound great remains thesame. Along with the pair of R-122 MKIImics I was sent, Royer also provided an orig-inal R-122 for comparison, and I can verifythat the two designs are identical in sound.

So what’s new in MKII?The new model now offers two new

features: a –15 dB pad and a low cut(highpass) filter, accessed by a pair ofrear-mounted, recessed switches. Fromthe front, the R-122 MKII looks identical tothe original, aside from the new MKII des-ignation etched into the body.

The R-122 MKII starts with the same off-set 2.5-micron aluminum ribbon assemblymentioned above. Offset refers to the factthat the ribbon is slightly closer to the frontgrille of the mic than the back. Since themic is bidirectional, you can use either sideto pick up sound. Offsetting the ribbonimposes distance and gives the rear lobe atouch less proximity effect (the bass buildupas you move closer to a mic’s capsule) andmakes the rear side seem a touch brighter.

This offset design also gives the elementmore room to move. By giving it someextra space, it is able to withstand higherSPL; that’s a primary reason for the micro-phone’s success on guitar cabinets,among other things!

Like the original, the R-122 MKII mea-sures 8.11" long and 2" in diameter. It isavailable in either a nickel or black finish,and comes in one of Royer’s classicwooden boxes with a felt sleeve that youshould put on the mic if you intend toleave it out after a session. This protectsthe mic against blasts and puffs of air—every ribbon’s greatest enemy. The micincludes a standard mic mount; Royeralso offers the RSM-SS1 Sling-Shock,reviewed in our December 2013 GiftGuide, for an additional $275.

Specs and performanceThe R-122 MKII has a stated frequency

response of 30 Hz–15 kHz, a maximumSPL of 135 dB, a self noise of less than18 dBA, and an output impedance of200 ohms.

Looking at its frequency graph, there is aslight low-end rise around 60 Hz followedby a gently scooped (1 to 1.5 dB) mid sec-tion from 80 Hz to 1300 Hz. Its upper midsare gently forward around 1.5 to 2 kHz,and it is otherwise flat and smooth, rollingoff around 12 kHz, 3 dB down at 16 kHz.

B Y P A U L V N U K J R .

Royer R-122 MKII Active Ribbon MicrophoneA modern classic becomes even more useful, if such a thing is possible

Excerpted from the September edition of REcoRding Magazine 2015©2015 Music Maker Publications, inc. Reprinted with permission.5408 idylwild Trail, Boulder, co 80301 Tel: (303) 516-9118 Fax: (303) 516-9119 For Subscription Information, call: 1-954-653-3927 or www.recordingmag.com

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As I mentioned, it is sonically identical tothe original R-122, which was overall simi-lar to the original R-121. That is, if youaccount for possible microphone preampimpedance issues, which do alter the soundand response of all passive ribbon mics.(The R-122 was designed to isolate the rib-bon from these effects.)However, impedance issues still came into

play with the phantom-powered R-122 whenused with low-impedance mic preamps.These can cause the mic to distort/clip onloud close-miked sources. That’s why the R-121 was often more popular than the R-122for screaming guitar cabinets, while the R-122 was better suited to sources at lower vol-umes.This is the primary issue that the new MKII

model fixes with its pad switch. Whenengaged, it lowers the sensitivity of the micto just below that of a R-121, thus giving theR-122 MKII a ton of clean headroom and abroader range of uses.The other switch activates a highpass

filter with a 100 Hz corner frequency andslope of 6 dB/octave. It not only removesthe mic’s low-end bump, but also lessensthe mic’s proximity effect and does awaywith a touch of its overt thickness andboom.Note that when engaged, the filter in

no way makes the R-122 MKII sound thinor bright, nor does it alter the mic’s over-all ribbon signature. It just makes the micever so slightly more open-sounding andmore controlled in the lows.In a recent chat with mic expert Matt

McGlynn from recordinghacks.com, wediscussed how it was interesting that inthis one microphone, Royer has nowtamed two of the biggest issues that haveplagued ribbon mics over the years. Theactive head amp takes care of the rib-bon’s comparatively low output, and theswitches mitigate the thick sonic signaturethat first-time ribbon users often perceiveas muddy.

A quick side noteI would also be remiss if I did not men-

tion the Nuvo N22 microphone from AEA(reviewed April 2014), as it may seemlike these two mics are competing prod-ucts designed to do the same thing—offera ribbon sound while cutting the low end.Yes, they both do this, but each micachieves this goal in a different way fordifferent reasons.The N22, in a nutshell, is purposely

designed for up-close uses as a vocal andprimarily acoustic instrument mic, a“singer-songwriter mic” if you will. Muchof its low-end control is achieved throughacoustic design and the screening aroundthe ribbon element. As a result, it offers lit-tle to no proximity effect to speak of,unless you are right up on its grille.The R-122 MKII achieves its bass control

through its active electronics, and its sound

when switched in is nowhere near as dra-matically sculpted and pronounced as theN22’s. Two mics, two different designswith completely different intentions... bothawesome in their execution and use.

And speaking of use...I received a pair of R-122 MKII mics

with a pair of Sling-Shocks at the begin-ning of an album project. For this album,the sonic goal was a collection of “jeansand T-shirt” style guitar-based rock’n’roll.Think Ryan Adams, Tom Petty, BruceSpringsteen... lots of classic Fender Amps,Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, Hammond B3 andLeslie (both real and not plug-ins!), 4-piecedrum kits, and big bass cabinets!

Along with a pair of Chandler REDD.47tube microphone preamps (reviewedJanuary 2015), I used ribbon and dynamicmics more than anything else on these ses-sions. The R-122 MKII was definitely a starplayer all around, thanks to its increasedversatility. Here are some particulars...

Electric guitar cabinetI should be able to skip this part, since

guitar cabs and Royers go together likePB&J! But two points need mentioning.First, I think the low cut switch makes

the R-122 MKII even better on guitar cab-inets than any of its predecessors. Thismay be personal taste, but it really does

a great job of lessening some of the low-end mud that I usually EQ out anyway.Second, the pad switch is essential

when tracking guitars. It’s no big deal ifyou are tracking your amps at moderatevolume (yeah, right), but if you crank upthe amp for cabinet breakup and areusing a high-gain mic preamp, like mostboutique preamps are today, the mic cir-cuitry will clip... and that is not a prettysound. Engage the pad and the problemis completely eliminated.As I mentioned, this is why most engineers

still favor the R-121 in said application, butthen you become subject to the impedancechanges of different mic preamps. The R-122MKII now offers just as much headroom asthe R-121—more, actually—but with thesonic consistency that the R-122 has longbeen known for.

DrumsI will start by saying the the R-122 has

never been my favorite drum overheadribbon. I usually prefer offerings by AEA,Coles, and the Royer SF Series mics; Iwant my drum sounds more open, laidback, and natural than the R Series tendsto give me. However, with the low cut inand the pad switch engaged, I was ableto do some vibey close-miked drumrecording with the mics just over the toms,giving rise to a very cool sound.Having said that, when I am not tracking

guitars, the R-121 in my studio sees itsbiggest use as a front-of-kit and monoroom mic. It does great when blended withtraditional condenser mics on the over-heads and the rest of the close kit mics,offering the smooth full balance of a goodribbon. The R-122 MKII excels in this areaas well, since I no longer need to worryabout using a high gain preamp or phan-tom powered mic booster to get a cleansignal as I would with the R-121, and thefilter helps lessen room rumble and buildupif need be.

Acoustic guitarBecause of its sound, I almost never use

a R-121 on acoustic guitar. Again, mypreference would be other ribbons, likethe SF Series, with a more open and nat-ural tone.However, for this album, we wanted the

acoustic guitars to exhibit a more con-strained, vintage thrust. We were lookingfor a classic, mono, in-your-face sound, likeone might find on a 1960s or 1970sRolling Stones album. Being able to get agood clean level thanks to the active circuit,lessening the acoustic guitar’s low bloomwith the filter, and using liberal amounts ofclassic compression via an ADR CompexF760X-RS compressor (which I reviewedSeptember 2015), we were able toachieve just that on several of the tracks.The sound was awesome, just drippingwith vibe.

Excerpted from the September edition of REcoRding Magazine 2015©2015 Music Maker Publications, inc. Reprinted with permission.5408 idylwild Trail, Boulder, co 80301 Tel: (303) 516-9118 Fax: (303) 516-9119 For Subscription Information, call: 1-954-653-3927 or www.recordingmag.com

Excerpted from the September edition of REcoRding Magazine 2015©2015 Music Maker Publications, inc. Reprinted with permission.5408 idylwild Trail, Boulder, co 80301 Tel: (303) 516-9118 Fax: (303) 516-9119 For Subscription Information, call: 1-954-653-3927 or www.recordingmag.com

PianoThe R-122 MKII worked great on baby

grand piano, placed in a spaced, lowstrings / high strings setup, again with thefilter engaged to avoid too much low har-monic buildup. We wanted a very for-ward pop-fullness to the piano that wouldboth anchor and cut through a mix, ratherthan an overly pretty jazz or classical tonethat could stand largely on its own.

I found that the Royers paired well withtwo small FET condenser mics to accom-plish this task. (I used the Roswell ProAudio Mini K47 mics, reviewed elswherein this issue.) In this side-by-side setup,much like with a R-121/SM57 setup on aguitar cab, I was able to nicely balancethe smooth fullness of the ribbon on thepiano strings, with just the right amount ofsolid forward thrust from the condensers.

Leslie cabinetI am tracking and mixing this album

LCR, i.e. all sources panned hard left, rightor center. As such, when it came to track-ing the organ parts through a real Leslie

through a Locomotive Audio 286A micro-phone preamp (review forthcoming). Notethat this song has gobs of lap steel guitartracked through a pair of vintage Fenderamps in stereo, each tracked with one ofthe R-122MKII mics as well.

I again engaged the low cut to thin outsome of the proximity effect, placed themic about an extended hand length be-hind a nylon pop filter... and was sur-prised yet again! The vocal sat nicely andcomfortably in the mix with a fantasticallysmooth, forward, even weight.

I have not gotten there yet, but I look for-ward to trying out the R-122 MKII on per-cussion, shakers, group backing vocals,and more, as tracking wraps up.

ConclusionsThe best compliment I can give to the R-

122 MKII is that this is hands down the mostversatile microphone that Royer Labs hasproduced to date! From here on out I expectit to be Royer’s most popular model.

This is now the true workhorse of the Royerline. I fully expect engineers to be extolling itsvirtues 20 years from now and beyond, justas we currently do with the R-121. Royer hasreally knocked this one out of the park.

Price: $1850

More from: Royer Labs, www.royerlabs.com

cabinet, I knew that wide stereo on the ro-tors would probably not be the way to gofor every song. I didn’t want things to betoo psychedelic or even seasick!

Here Royer’s John Jennings clued meinto the technique used at Ray Charles’ stu-dio when tracking Billy Preston on “HereWe Go Again,” Ray’s 2004 duet withNorah Jones. The technique is simple: Ijust placed one R-122 MKII on the upperrotor and the other over the bass end. Atmy studio I got the best and fullest soundwith each mic horizontal vs. vertical, withno filter or pad. It was instant, smooth clas-sic rock organ tone.

Vocals and moreThis is another area where I don’t often

use R series mics. On a project like this,I’d usually prefer an RCA-style big ribbonlike the crooners would have used. Still,the R-122 MKII was successfully tacklingso many other duties on the record, I de-cided to try it on vocals for one song.

On this particular song, I have usednothing other than ribbon mics, all tracked

Royer R-122 MKII

More fun with Royers—introducingthe Ross Hogarth drum mic technique

As I was driving through Nashville a fewmonths ago, I received the invitation to stopby Royer’s Nashville office (the company’smain headquarters is in LA), and what wassupposed to be an hour-long breakfast stopturned into a 3-hour tour of Royer South,ending up with Royer’s John Jennings load-ing up my car with even more mics to tryjust for fun. (I love my job. Have I men-tioned that I love my job? I love my job.)During a breakfast chat full of technique

comparisons and war stories, John askedif I’d ever tried the Ross Hogarth drum mictechnique. While I have met and talkedwith Ross a few times at trade shows, Inever knew he had his own mic technique!

As it turns out, the Royer site has a greatvideo of it (royerlabs.com/library/lukas-rossi-and-kenny-aronoff/). As describedthere, it involves the use of very specific mi-crophone models, but I’ll bet it would bepossible to adapt the idea to other mics.Where many of us often use a single monoroom or front-of-kit mic, here there are es-sentially three microphone elements cap-turing an LCR style setup all at once.

Ross’s setup starts with a mono Royerlike an R-121 or R-122, placed in front ofthe kit at the distance of your choice, fac-ing straight on. Then a second Royer mic,a stereo SF Series design like the passiveSF-12 or active SF-24, is placed upsidedown, directly above the mono mic. Thisset up gives you three (six, counting rearreflections) planes of capture, and all ofthem will be perfectly in phase.

On its own, it’s a very natural, open “youare there” sound. Often stereo mics canseem too wide, and we must collapse thepanning a tad to rein them in. Here, how-ever, the mono mic fills in the center nicely,and being an R series mic it adds a gentleforwardness to the sound. By altering thebalance of stereo to mono mics, almost as

you would in a Mid/Side recording, youcan vary the stereo depth and perception.

I used this setup on much of the albumdescribed in the review. I then took it astep further (as described in the video) andused the SF-24 and an R-122 MKII as theroom mics, plus an SF-12 as a perfectly in-phase stereo drum overhead mic. I thenadded kick, tom, snare, and even close-up spaced cymbal miking with a pair ofAEA N8 mics (did I mention I’m in a bigribbon phase right now?).

I should also note that the stereo SF-24mic made multiple appearances in thetracking sessions, for example as a roommic on the Leslie cabinet, and a just-inside-the-lid mic on the grand piano recording.I’d like to thank John for the extra mics toplay with, and both John and Ross for thiscool miking technique.—PV