Recording - January 2015 - 25

mics as overheads when I do live sound, but
Citizen Way's drummer David Blascoe is a
master of self-mixing and one of the few
drummers I know who plays to and with the
sound of any given mic. (Check out our
January 2012 issue, where I highlight his
technique in the article "Drumming,
Drummers and Mics-Oh My!".)
For a pop band, David's setup is slightly out of the ordinary. He often plays with
little more than a 3- or 4-piece Pearl Birch
kit (usually just one floor tom) with a pair
of 17" hi-hats (yes, 17"!), 20" K Custom
dark ride, 22" Constantinople medium
ride, and a 20" oriental Crash of Doom,
all Zildjian. He likes his drums and cymbals to be thick and huge, with tons of
dark decay and sustain-he even
describes his snare as a floor tom with rattles. Ribbon mics are his main preference
in the studio and the N8 gave him exactly what he was after for a live sound.
I set them up completely parallel to the
kit, about 2-3 feet above the ride and
crash cymbals, moved in just enough to
grab the kit pieces. It was a very natural
and unhyped sound that blended nicely
with the individual drum mics (Telefunken
M80, M81, and M82).
Other than some slight low-end rolloff
to avoid mud and rumbling feedback,
along with a touch of 12 kHz for some
added clarity, the sound was full and natural and needed very little EQ across the
mids. David later said that this was the
most pleasant, effortless, and natural
sound he had ever had in his in-ear monitor mix. He really loved the N8!
The N8 in use: studio
Moving to my studio, I put the N8, both
alone and in pairs, to work on further
drum overhead duties, room mics (both
spaced and stacked in a Blumlein configuration), acoustic guitars, lead and backing vocals, bass cabinet, percussion, and
electric guitar cabinets.
In each instance the N8 was as big, full
and open as it claimed; it does share a
lot sonically with the R88. I did some
comparisons with older recordings and
test files I made with both the R84 and
R88 on similar sources. I found the R84 a
tad richer and ever so slightly more rolled
off in the top end, and the R88 mk2
sounded a bit bigger. Keep in mind, however, that these were not direct side-byside comparisons, so there's some room
for interpretation. All in all, though, it was
obvious that these three mics are from the
same gene pool!
A return to distance and space
The N8 is the sonic yin to the N22's
yang and the two work together beautifully. Luckily AEA sent me an N22 along
with the pair of N8s, and I would recommend this trio wholeheartedly.

The N8 has an identical off-axis rejection to the N22, but unlike the N22,
which has fairly similar front and rear
lobes, the rear lobe of the N8 is slightly
less bass-heavy and big. Of course the
N8 has a much more pronounced proximity effect than the N22 by design, and
I did notice that the N8 was about 4 dB
hotter than the N22.

My absolute favorite use of this combo
was on electric guitar cabinets: a big
4x12 Marshall half stack, a small single
12" Peavey Classic 30, and a vintage
15" Fender Vibro-Sonic. I had forgotten
how much I liked the N22 up in the
speaker cone of an amp! Add a single
N8 perfectly in line and in phase 3-6 feet
back, throw a Shure SM57, Audix i5, or
Telefunken M81 into the mix, and you get
guitar cab sonic nirvana-just a great
balance of crispness, punch and depth.
The N8 also does great about 1' back
on bass cabinets, coupled with a Shure
SM7 in the grille. The N8 captures a full
natural low end; the bass player felt that
it sounded just like the amp in the room
and not altered. A pair of N8s also
makes a stellar choice for the side and
overhead mics in a Glyn Johns mic setup.
Ribbon to ribbon
Lastly I did some comparison testing of the
N8 side by side with other ribbons: a Royer
R-121, an sE Electronics Voodoo VR-1, a
Cloud 44-A, and a Sandhill 6011A. From
here I layered up an entire song with all of
the abovementioned sources to see how
each mic stacked and to discern each mic's
overall tone and feel.
Each mic held its own with the Royer
sounding familiar and classic, the VR-1
being the most modern and bright, the
Cloud the most rounded and vintagesounding, and the Sandhill offering the
biggest bottom end extension. It was fascinating to me that within this cross section of high-end ribbon mics (most more
costly than the N8), AEA seems to have
achieved its goal of making the N8 one
of the most open and natural of the ribbons on the market, rivaled only by the
company's own R88 mk2.
Nuvo riche
The N8 carries a street price of $1098,
right in line with most other models in AEA's
line. So the question is, which one do you
buy? All the AEA models sound great, and
ever since my 2012 review the R88 mk2
has been on my short list of must-haves as
the "set it and forget it" room mic.
However, I am now thinking the N8
may be the better choice in the long run.
It offers more versatility and placement
options thanks to its smaller size and light
weight, and I love how it pairs with the
N22... Oh, decisions, decisions!

For many of the above sources, like
acoustic guitar and hand percussion,
using the N22 up close for clarity and
focus, along with one or both N8s at a
distance of 3-6 feet away, allowed me to
mix in depth, volume (not the loudness
kind) and space to taste. The result was a
very coherent sound because of how sonically balanced the N8 and N22 are with
each other.

Price: $1098
More from: AEA, www.ribbonmics.com
Paul Vnuk Jr. (paul@recordingmag.com)
is a recording engineer, live sound engineer, producer, and musician, living and
working in the Milwaukee area.
RECORDING January 2015

25


http://www.ribbonmics.com

Recording - January 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - January 2015

Contents
Recording - January 2015 - Cover1
Recording - January 2015 - Cover2
Recording - January 2015 - 1
Recording - January 2015 - 2
Recording - January 2015 - 3
Recording - January 2015 - 4
Recording - January 2015 - 5
Recording - January 2015 - Contents
Recording - January 2015 - 7
Recording - January 2015 - 8
Recording - January 2015 - 9
Recording - January 2015 - 10
Recording - January 2015 - 11
Recording - January 2015 - 12
Recording - January 2015 - 13
Recording - January 2015 - 14
Recording - January 2015 - 15
Recording - January 2015 - 16
Recording - January 2015 - 17
Recording - January 2015 - 18
Recording - January 2015 - 19
Recording - January 2015 - 20
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Recording - January 2015 - Cover3
Recording - January 2015 - Cover4
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