the t.bone RB 100 Reviews

Not great, not bad

I personally would invest a bit more and get the RB-500. The RB-100 sounds a bit muffled, smells pretty bad out of the box, and isn't an overall well usable microphone. The best thing I can say about it is that it works, it picks up sound, and it looks cool because its based on the Royer R-121, but soundwise its not that special.

Great Ribbon mic

No messing around just a good ribbon mic for not a lot of $$$, if you want a better one you have to spend 10x more and even then its not a huge difrence.

Better than expected

I use it mainly on guitar cabs. I love it on distorted small combo amps (8 & 10 inch speakers).

Really great midrange! Mix this with a SM57 or E906 and you have a truly killer sound.

66€...Amazing!

Hi!

I am a FOH engineer, bought this mic because I wanted a ribbon mic for a guitar amp, but didn`t want to spend fortune. It turned out, I didnt`t have to. This mic is amazing. I understand that a "real" Royer would be much better, but for 66€ that I spent, it does a great job.

I use the mic on a guitar amp, it dilivers a smooth warm sound I was looking for. Used on a fender 5e3 tweed and Orange tiny terror, the crisp mids we wanted to cut out became soft and warm, lots of low end and smooth highs.

Definitely buying another one, to have a set for two guitar amps.

I also tried it on bass amp, great natural overdrive, but you have to be carefull, not to put it to close to the speaker...about 10cm from the grillcloth was ok.

Again, in my oppinion, great mic, especially for the price.

Sleeper budget royer?

From the specs and size, this is a royer-121 copy and it is beautifully crafted. I love everything, from the wood box to the dark, warm sound. If you do get this microphone but do be careful. You never want to add phantom power to a passive ribbon mic and never drop them.

Great value for money

Got this to try out ribbon mics and used it for recording acoustic and nylon strung guitars in jazz trio. Results were absolutely amazing giving a well balanced and natural sound. Can't go wrong for this money.

a bit on the dark sound, even for ribbons mics. but i did a good recording of a Gretch Jim Dandy with this and it sounded not bad at all. used on the right sources it can be good. I still have to try it out on drums and electric guitars. But for this kind of money it is a fun lithle thing to have in your arsenal. Costs less than a few rounds with beer, and it will probably make you have more fun in the long run.

It needs a good preamp though, since it is very low output. if you dont have a in line gain booster or have a good preamp already that can handle very low output mics, you should probably look elsewhere for a ribbon mic. (the T.bone lollipop ribbons, are easier do use than this one in that regard).

Ribbons for under ¤100? :s

Since I can't compare this microphone to high-end products from the likes of Royer etc., I'll just take a look at it and judge it on its own merits.

Like most ribbon mics (so I've heard), this one needs a lot of gain, so like others already might have pointed it out, it needs a quiet preamp with lots of gain. I've only tried it with a Behringer XR18, recording a classical guitar, vocals and an amped (clean and distortion) electric guitar. I think the mic did well on all these sources, but the amped electric guitar sounded great right out of the box. I'd rather use a LDC on vocals and classical/acoustic guitar though, although I loved the low frequency response on the classical guitar. It's smooth, takes eq well and sounds natural. The same goes for the high frequencies which are not as prevalent, but can be tweaked with eq without added harshness.

I'm still planning on testing this as a drum overhead and kick mic and might purchase a second one if I'm satisfied with the results.

So in short, at this price, the mic is a good purchase if used on the right source, with the right technique (distance, direction ..)

Great on percussions. Used it also as a drums overhead with very good results, punchy vintage sound.

Very decent mic, GREAT for the money

I've been pairing the RB 100 with an SM57 when recording guitars. It is a bit dark by itself but it compliments the SM57 beautifully, really filling out the low end. The only con is that the included shockmount doesn't allow the microphone to be placed right on the grille, so other mics have to be pulled back to achieve phase coherence.

Great mic!

Great mic, I'm using it for guitar amps on stage, great sound on clean and distorted sounds. Much less harsh than SM57, nice warm low and middle, easy to EQ.

Mic is very solid and in it's price it's good choice. I'm going to buy another one in future.

I don't know how it works in studio application because I've never used it that way.

Surprising results for the price!

I was looking to expand my microphone repertoire and decided to go for a ribbon microphone. I spent a long time trying to settle on one and, due to budget restrictions, ended up buying the RB 100.

It?s not a very versatile mic even for a ribbon one; the highs are quite attenuated and the mid-lows are quite accentuated. This frequency response makes it nicely suitable for recording guitar cabinets, especially those that sound harsh in the higher frequency range, the mic naturally smoothens out the highs but adds a nice warm punch in the lower mids. This also sounds really good if you use it as a drum ambience mic; it gives the drums that extra ?Unf!? without the deafening frequencies of the cymbals in the way, especially when placed near to the ground in front of the set facing between the snare-drum and the kick.

The figure eight polar pattern can be problematic for full band live recording situations, as it will capture anything behind it. On the other hand, if used for overdubbing or isolated instruments it can give them a nice colour and organic feel, unobtrusively capturing the size and sound of the room, but unless you are clear on the sound you?re looking for, I?d only use this mic along with others and use the RB 100 to add colour and room to the mix.

The mic comes presented in a sturdy well-padded wooden box and a very decent shock mount that I?d be tempted to buy separately for other narrow mics.

If you?re looking for a clean versatile ribbon microphone this isn?t the one for you, but if you?re looking for a microphone with a lot of character, warmth and punch to give your mix that little extra push, this is what you want. Good mic at a good price.

For this price this microphone is very nice

I'm using this microhone mostly guitar cabs, equally as live and studio. With sharper guitar sound this mic really helpful and grateful. For this price this wooden box and suspension is best buy.

Good for the money

Not as sweet as an expensive riboon but at the price you can't complain. I wish it had more bass.

Cool little ribbon mics for the money

Mainly bought these for room mics, guitar cabs and they do just that well. Not looking for mega expensive ribbon mics as they are prone to damage more and I tend to use them as secondary mics. Nicely built comes with a cool little wooden box case which I don't really use tbh and pouches for the mics. Shock mounts can be fiddly but nothing extreme as I usually leave them on.

Quite a low output so it needs to be either really hot going in without damaging the ribbon or buy a external preamp

A lot of bang for the buck!

I had recently decided to expand my mic locker and one of the things on my shopping list was a ribbon microphone. Ribbon microphones are an old concept, but it seems they have been out of fashion until a couple of years ago, and I too got curious on how they perform.

I did not want to spend too much right off the bat, so I did my research on what brands and models in the lower price range are worth a shot. A lot of people told me to check out T.bone, and in the meantime a friend of mine bought a Rb100 of his own, so I got to try it before buying mine.

Despite the low price, this is a great microphone. I have a couple of older T.bone mics and they're pretty much all duds, but this one delivers what it promises. It comes in a nice wooden box and a very aesthetic velvet-like pouch.

Being a ribbon mic, it does have that nice, rich low end and it really excels on punchy and deep sound sources, such as drums, classical guitars and bass cabinets.

The mids are a little bit boxy to my ears, but nothing a good EQ won't filter out. Did i mention it takes EQ very well? That's my favorite part as it can take some excessive EQ'ing like a champ and you have to push it really hard to make it sound unnatural. It does lack a bit of top end detail, but EQ in some of that top sparkle and brilliance and it works like a charm.

I've been using it on a lot of things but I think these mics excel on drums. The figure 8 pattern is really useful for MS techniques and room mics. I really like them as drum overheads, but keep in mind they will not give you the same detailed response as small or some large condensers. If you are like me and prefer warm and punchy drum overheads, this will do the trick.

However, this brings me to the only real downside I've come to find: consistency. As said above, I've been using a pair on drums (along with the one my friend owns) and there is quite a difference between the two. I know that expensive microphones come in matched pairs and cost a metric ton of money, but I own quite a lot of cheaper pairs (or quads) of microphones that do sound very close... There is a noticeable difference in gain needed and one does sound slightly more "muffled". The difference is not worrying me and I still get great results. I would encourage you to buy yourself one of these (or maybe two). Worth mentioning: both of the mics have a bit of flimsy bodies, as the top cap keeps turning a bit loose, but they both feel sturdy otherwise. Also, keep in mind that these mics need a LOT of gain and some cheaper pre-amps on some interfaces might not deliver... Works well with some of the rigs, but my home unit, which is one of those small, portable interfaces, gets too noisy at required gain.

Anyway, it's a great mic for the money and it is certainly something to have in your "arsenal". Have to try some of the other models in the future!

Very useful

These really shine as drum room mics. Ribbons mics in general convey the punch of the drums better than dynamics or condensors in my opinion. I feel for the best drum sound a mix of all three is preferable. These are not "HiFi" mics they will not convey the souce in pristine clarity, they will impart their own sonic footprint onto any recorded material. Whether this is a good or bad thing is entirely dependant on the source and production values sought. They can sound slightly tubby and muddy due to their reduced high end response but clean up well with EQ. I have used them on vocals where they were serviceable but I prefer LDC's here anyway. They are amazingly well built and solid, they come with some serious wooden cases and velvet bags. I love this in the application I use them in.

Great

For the price this is possible the best ribbon mic you can buy, sounds great on drums and guitar amps but I would also use it for vocals, acoustic guitar and a bass amp if paired with a low frequency mic or if the bass was d.i'd as the mic does not capture the very low frequencies very well. comes in a very nice wooden case with velvet styled lining. I would definitely recommend this to anyone on a budget or just looking to try some different mics

Inexpensive and great guitar cab mic.

I bought this mic out of curiosity, but found it to perform very, very well on guitar cabs. I've tried it on vocals, too, and if smoky, dirty, dark sound is what you're after, this mic can deliver it. I tried it also on other acoustic sources, but I'd say that the domain of this mic is guitar cabs and drum room. It is built sturdy, but of course one should be careful not to introduce too much shock to the body as ribbons are fragile. The supplied shock mound does the job well. The whole package looks quite elegant I must say.

Well...

? it's a cheap mic. And that's what you get: a cheap sounding ribbon mic. It just isn't as natural sounding as what you'd expect from a ribbon mic. But it's a great platform to start your mod's though.