greetings Earthlings in a very happy holiday to you today I am back with a review of a
ribbon microphone wah so today we're looking at this guy the MXL are 144 which is a budget
ribbon microphone if you are interested in this microphone kit it will set you back around $100
like always I'll throw some links down below and for this review I have the microphone
connected directly to the Focusrite 18 i 22nd gen with the gain set at 100% and i will not
do any kind of post-processing but I may have to boost the audio and post so check the doobly-doo
to see what I did lead it'd but bandru why are you recording in a different location
well well well because this is how it sounds when I'm recording in the same location I record all
my reviews that you can tell immediately that it sounds absolutely terrible because my voice
is bouncing off the monitors behind the mic and reflecting into the rear of it and it sounds as
though it's kind of phase canceling each other out it sounds thin the reflective reverb e boxy
all around terrible that's why now let's talk about what comes in the box first everything
comes in a nice plastic storage box you'll of course get the microphone a shock mount with
a 5/8 to 3/8 inch microphone stand adapter a microfiber cleaning cloth documentation
then as far as the build quality the exterior of the microphone feels perfectly fine it has
an all-metal body as well as a metal mesh grille which has just a tiny bit of give to it and it
weighs in at around 400 grams but I do just need to note that ribbon microphones simply
by design are incredibly delicate devices putting a plosive directly into the ribbon accidentally
running phantom power through it or dropping one can destroy the microphone so regardless
of how good the exterior of a microphone feels if it's a ribbon microphone you need to treat it
with extra care next up as far as the specs this microphone has a figure eight polar pattern which
is standard for almost all ribbon microphones a frequency response of 20 Hertz to 17 kilohertz
a sensitivity of around negative 56 decibels a max SPL of 130 DB an impedance of 250 ohms and a
ribbon length of 47 millimeters with a thickness of 1.8 microns now I am spinning around the are
144 to rejection and coloration will continue around the microphone to 180 degrees you'll
notice that it doesn't sound the exact same in the rear as it does in the front the rear of
the ribbon seems to have a little bit more of a presence boost it's a bit brighter and some
people may prefer that but we'll continue around to the second continuing around and ending at
the front of the microphone now let's go ahead and test some plosives I'm not gonna do one I
told you already a plosive directly into this microphones ribbon can dislodge it or tear it
or just break it so I am NOT going to break this microphone for the sake of testing plosives if
you're using a ribbon a microphone either have really good microphone technique or get a pop
filter now I am right on top of the are 144 to demonstrate the proximity effect on this thing
about 6 inches off of the microphone with it pointed at the corner of my mouth about 1 foot
off of the microphone 2 feet off of the microphone for now I am typing on a keyboard with cherry MX
blues to see how much of my voice versus how much of the keyboard a picks up and for you leet gamers
who would be insane if you buy this microphone to livestream games I am typing on these sad W
keys now in order to see how effective the provided shock mount is I will bump my desk
Wow and I will tap on the boom arm that's a lot of noise if you if you're kidding
this microphone do not use it on a boom arm that has Springs cuz listen to this
you
that's insane don't do don't know stop here is how the microphone sounds in a well treated
room and here is how the are 144 sounds in a completely untreated room now for the sake
of being as complete as possible I want to do a very quick comparison for spoken word first
I will speak into the microphone without any kind of treatment surrounding it and then I
will throw on one of these reflexion shields to see how it effects the sound and if it is
an improvement and now I have a reflection shield placed around the microphone you can
hear that there is quite a bit less of the room tone because the rear of the figure-eight polar
pattern is being blocked out and this is how it sounds now for the electric guitar test I
am going to be doing something slightly different I will be playing the guitar directly through the
r-1 44 then I will play a quick sample with the sm57 and then I will blend the two microphones
together to see what kind of blended tone we can get and the reason that I am doing this
is ribbon microphones are very often paired with the sm57 due to the big presence boost
and somewhat recessed to lower frequencies and ribbon microphones have a very full and warm
low and so the sm57 in a ribbon microphone seemed to complement each other very well
it may be too cliche but I've gotta say Happy Holidays I hope you get a lot of mics or audio
interfaces or outboard gear or guitars or whatever it is you want happy holidays everyone all right
so I think that there are two things that I can say about this microphone for certain first thing
is there's a ribbon inside of it and secondly it costs $100 and first up in terms of pros the
price it is a relatively cheap ribbon mic so if you're looking to dip your toe into that market
and play with blending a ribbon mic with a 57 or a small diaphragm condenser without having to worry
about going bankrupt if you accidentally drop it or around phantom power through it or if you
want to play around with learning to rewritten microphones and work on this type of microphone
$100 it's a great entry point and then in terms of cons I am a little bit hesitant to list all
of these as cons because their inherent to most ribbon microphones so just take this with a grain
of salt first you need to be very selective with your microphone placement because the rear lobe
of sensitivity is very sensitive and it will affect the sound as you saw when I was sitting
down at a desk with reflective surfaces directly behind the microphone also this microphone just
like the majority of ribbons is very dark and I think a lot of people will be turned off from
that because we've become accustomed to a very bright very detailed modern sounding microphone
this is not that additionally due to the nature of ribbon microphones it is extremely delicate
so you need to handle it with extreme care and on that note it is very susceptible to plosives
and you can actually damage the microphone if you put a gust of wind or air directly into the ribbon
and lastly I'm not sure if this is something that is apparent on every ribbon microphone but
this ribbon microphone picks up every bump of the desk or bump of the stand and that can absolutely
destroy a recording and then as far is my overall thoughts on this thing on the electric guitar it
is dark it is smooth it is warm it sounds like a ribbon microphone but I would say that this
microphone has somewhat of a Whoopie tone in the low mids and lower frequencies just a type sound
to it but when you do mix it with an sm57 it gives you a much more impactful sound than a 57 on its
own then on the acoustic guitar I think it offers a very authentic tone to it and I don't mean that
it is an accurate representation of what the acoustic guitar sounds like because it's not it
just offers a smooth and warm and lovely sound to it which is something that I have always imagined
a classic acoustic guitar would sound like then for singing it gives you a very warm and dark
sound I know I sound repetitive but that's the characteristic of this microphone and I don't
think a lot of people are going to be looking for that if you're going for a 1940's vintage
style recording absolutely this is a great entry point but if you're doing modern pop or rock or
punk music it doesn't have the detail and clarity that people expect so I think you would be better
served with something else like a condenser or a dynamic and lastly for spoken-word I know a lot of
people swear by ribbon mics for that application but in my opinion no it's just too dark too smooth
too warm and it lacks the detail and clarity and articulation that I think is essential for a good
and easy to listen to spoken word recording so what I recommend this microphone it is a
soft maybe from me if this is going to be the only microphone in your studio absolutely not
I don't think it's versatile enough to be the only mic in your mic Locker I think you would
be much better served by a dynamic like the 57 or a condenser like the at2020 but on the other hand
if you already have a mic Locker built up and you're just looking for a ribbon mic to blend
with some other mics you already have like a 57 or some small diaphragm condensers then I think
for $100 this is a really nice entry point and I think it can be a lot of fun to play around
with without the added concern and anxiety that comes from playing with $1,000 ribbon mic and
there you have it that was the r140 for the very first ribbon microphone I've reviewed on
this channel I wanted to start with something more entry-level and affordable before diving
into the insanely expensive boutique or just higher-end ribbon microphone market so let me
know what you thought of this do you want to see more ribbon microphones or is this just something
you're not interested in let me know in the comments down below but if you found this video
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thank you so much for listening happy holidays happy winter I'll talk to you next time bye