the t.bone RB 500 Reviews

Cool for drum room mics

Used them as room mics on my drum room, they take smashing with compressors & saturation nicely. Fat and full bodied sound. A bit too fat for close miking, but when they are on a distance they get more balanced. Great tool to have in your arsenal!

Big, smooth and great on Guitars

Well made solid feeling mic. I've been using it on guitar cabs, pairing it with a Sennheiser E906, which is quite bright. The results are great and give spectacular results. It's a fixed figure 8 pattern, it doesn't have a pad or filters so feature wise it is just that, but that's OK. Sounds great and value for money

Amazing sound, OK build

Haven't had the chance to thoroughly test my pair of these by themselves yet, but I did recently throw them in the deep end on a full album recording session in a professional studio. They performed just fine as an M/S pair of drum room mics, and a single one on acoustic guitar gave me the rich, earthy sound I was looking for when other mics came out too thin and twangy (C414, M160, U47!) or too dark (Coles 4038) with this guitarist. This was just one specific case, but still! For this price, it's amazing that this mic could do better than those high-end mics in any situation at all! I did also try it on vocals and it was really not right for the job, so it has its limits. I'm looking forward to trying out drum overheads and electric guitar. Build-quality has a few imperfections. It's not as heavy as you'd expect for such a big microphone (not inherently a bad thing). The screws holding the mic to its frame are loose by default, and not that easy to tighten to a good tension where the mic is still adjustable but will stay in place. The worst part is the in-built XLR cable. It's non-detachable, too short for a lot of use cases, too long to fit in the accompanying duffel bag, has a cheap-feeling XLR connector, and is attached in such a way that it prevents you from swivelling the mic in one direction on its frame. A simple XLR output on the side of the mic would have been way more practical in most cases. Can't comment on longevity yet, as I've only owned these mics a couple of weeks.

You can't go wrong with a good ribbon microphone!

....And the RB-500 is no exception. I bought 3 of these mics, and I'm very happy with how they perform. I get the warmth and bottom end I'm looking for in my overheads and cabinet recordings easily. Build quality is great! I have had no issues with mine, and I treat them like gold. For the price, these mics absolutely can not be beat. I would buy another in a heartbeat!

Great mic for the price!

It’s my first ribbon mic, it did the job well. Tried it on multiple sources such as vocals, kick, room, acoustic guitar, guitar amp and it behaved as a ribbon would, rich in the bottom and smooth in the highs. I would recommend it, great deal from t-bone.

One thing that I noticed is that the grill is not as heavy duty but it does the job (4 stars for the quality)

Another thing to point out is the cable, I’d rather have it very short and somehow fixed to the frame like a typical mic.

best drum room mic

I was looking for a cheap ribbon mic to use primarily as a drum room ( ill get a second one soon to get stereo rooms) and its also great on strings, next i'll try it on guitar.

Amazing sound

can't get much better for the price

it's pointless comparing the t.bone rb500 to ribbon mics 10x its price. it's a great entry mic into the world of ribbon mics. the case with that cable hanging out the whole time is not really handy, could use some improvement there. the sound is a bit dark, so be careful about the room choice and the placement while recording. other than that like said, for the price you surely won't get anything better. this mic will definitely see more use in my studio.

Amazing Sound

I use this as a drum overhead. Such a full warm sound. Will definitely be buying a second one.

Nice

Great microphone for the price

Is that my voice?

Straight into the face, for breathing exercise and microphone technique, this microphone is very suitable and immediately punishes if I accentuate the vowels too hard. Ideal mic for lessons!

Ribbon on a budget

For the price this is a nice microphone to have in your collection.

Its a darker tonality than some of my other ribbons. But definitely has it's uses in my studio.

On overheads where trying to calm down overly bright cymbals without any additional processing, acoustic guitars and guitar amps sound great with this mic.

It's a nice build quality and a fairly large mic.

The only down side to this is the fixed cable and that's only a minor thing really.

well... a ribbon for this price range

if you don't exactly know how a ribbon mic should behave... well get one of these. For this price range you just can't go wrong! it's quite applicable for many things, but dont expect miracles without a bit of EQing

Sleeper mic, these belong in your locker

Unbelievable how useful this mic is. I have access to two of them. They make great drum overheads or room mics. I've also experimented with them on vocals, and guitar cab with an sm57. They also make a fantastic kick out mic about two feet from the hole. So subby.

The fact that a 100 euro ribbon mic is this usable is insane. You will definitely find uses for these in your studio. For people running a budget studios that have different projects coming and going, selection is so important. Having one expensive mic isn't much good to you if you need to get different sounds. But having a large diaphram condenser, a budget pair of ribbons, sdc's and some dynamic mics will mean that you can actually choose how you mic things and play with the sound in this way. While I don't use these ribbons all the time, when I want them, they are so valuable to have. And SOOO affordable.

Great overhead mics

Using 2 of them as overheads, nice vintage sound and not so harsh. I recommend them if the cymbals are too bright and loud,such as mine (Paiste Rude,2002 series). The things I don't like...the cable is attached to the mic and is too short.

Great sound though!!!

amazing mic

Absolutely love this mic. Amazing on acoustic guitar, drums, vocal (try placing 2-4 feet from singer). So happy with it

Great mic for overheads, room, vocals

Great mic, using it for drum overheads as a pair, very roomy and full sound, well balanced and captures all the parts of the drum kit well. Using it for vocals also, and for vocals it's really pro sounding and warm, recommend!

The best ribbon mic I've owned!

I wish I could go back in time and instead of spending thousands of dollars on Ribbons, I could've gotten this instead! Excellent quality and durable.

Great warm tone

I’ve always loved the sound of classic analogue recordings, everything from Delta Blues to Sun Records. I was on the look out for a mic that would help get me in that ballpark and the RB500 certainly does that. So far I have used it to record vocals, acoustic guitar and resonator guitars. I have been very happy with the results either direct into my Audient iD14 or adding a tube preamp into the signal path for that extra warmth.

It has the look and the sound of the classic recordings.

Just beware not to put 48v phantom power through this mic or it will damage the ribbon.

Great drum overheads

I use a pair of these as drum overheads and I’m very happy with them. The snare and toms sound full and punchy while the cymbals are present but not harsh. Overall a great budget mic

Ribbon!!

It almost sounds like a Coles 4038. The sound is open and detailed. I use it on a 4x12 cab. Combining this microphone with a Shure sm57 makes you smile.