We lent 3D Audio's Lynn Fuston an R88 to review. Also, read his review in the January 2005 issue of EQ Magazine.
by Lynn Fuston
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I typically use my R84s together as an MS pair overhead on strings, but the simplicity of the single R88 made it an obvious alternative. So I tried it. The result?
Amazing. I've mentioned before that I love the smoothness and full, "film score" kind of sound that the ribbons impart. A glorious image with brilliance but no scratchy high end (rosin). This session was 16 strings (8-3-3-2) and they wanted a big lush string sound. Nothing too up close (that's the Nashville way-one mic per each pair of players, no more than three feet away from any instrument) and they wanted fc to sound like they were in a big room (the last album's strings were done at Oceanway) but without the big room expense.
The producer has lots of really nice mics so I had him bring over two M49s, his Elux 251, and a C24. So the set up was:
2 Neumann 249's for violins (one first, one second)
1 Neumann U87 for violas
2 Royer R-122's for celli
2 Elux 251's one for each bass
2 AEA R84's one for each bass
1 R88 for room pickup, in MS configuration
1 C24 in XY positioned alongside the R88
The R88 as overhead went into the Cranesong Flamingo and then was bused through the SSL. I know the producer loves the sound of the C24 on strings so I bused it separately from the R88 and printed them independently, so they could decide at the mix.
Well, even with all that lineup of great mics, the R88 by itself provided probably 80% of the sound. When listening to the spot mics by themselves, the group seemed to shrink to about half the size. When listening to the 88 without the spot mics, it sounded glorious, large and very full.
When I showed the producer and arranger what the 88 sounded like all by itself, they were shocked. Then I compared it with the C24 and they thought it sounded small and thin by comparison. They were hard-pressed to believe that one mic could make that big a sound.
After the session, several of the players (who have been recording in that room for nearly 20 years) came in and were amazed at the sound. One of the players even asked how much for the mic and wanted to get one for his home studio. He was shocked that it didn't cost $3000. Even the arranger, who has worked in that room lots of times, admitted he had never heard the strings sound like that in that room before. I didn't think a lot of it until I was working with him the following day in another room acrosss town and he asked if I thought he should get one to take with him to all his string tracking dates around town so he could get that sound on all his string projects. That got my attention.
Needless to say, I was very impressed with the R88 for strings. All the things I've said before about the R84s virtues on strings still applied, but I didn't have to do nearly as much top end lift as with the 84s. For my money, it's about the best string room mic out there. Next up the list would be a pair of M50s, but at $8-10K each, that's a big step up in price. For $1700, the 88 is a steal for that quality of string sound.
I'm hoping that when I get the R92s, I can use them together like the R88. If not, then I may have to buy even another ribbon, the R88.
