RB 500 : I'm fairly in love with this mic

I have 2 RB500s, which are in constant use in my tracking sessions. I use them as drum overheads, on guitar cabs, bass cabs, acoustic guitars, vocals, violin, anything.

I'm not saying they're the best ribbon mics out there, but for the price they are absolutely brilliant. The sound, as is typical of ribbons, is big and smooth. The bottom end is so big that on everything except maybe bass guitar, I end up cutting a huge amount of it out. Then, as the top end tapers off above 10k, I might boost to get some brightness in, if I need it.

On bass, it's just very smooth. I don't really consider using anything else for bass!

On electric guitar, the tapered top end is great because it puts the guitars back in the mix a little, getting it out of the way of the vocal. People don't really dig the sound of it on electric guitar because it's not as bright as a dynamic or condensor, but I find it sits in the mix way better with a ribbon. That said, I think the way forward is to mic with a ribbon and a condensor or dynamic, and mix to taste.

On vocal again, the smoothness can be really lovely for a voice that you don't want to shove in the listeners face.

It takes time to get used to the sound of ribbons, but if you want to get away from the super bright character of a lot of pop music, these are a great place to start to develop your palette!