A matched ribbon microphone pair made for live performances requiring hi fidelity.
With the Royer R-121 ribbon microphone from the Live Series, you get twice the durability in the ribbon element, allowing you to use it anywhere on stage you'd like with complete confidence. This matched pair of R-121 Live microphones lets you get studio quality sound at any venue.
How
After extensive testing, Royer found new ribbon thicknesses for the R-121 microphone that allowed a significantly increase durability with minimal reduction in gain and transients response. The sonic difference is negligible, and the increased durability lets anyone use Royer ribbons in a live environment.
Royer Live Series microphones are identified with a red Royer logo (studio models have green or black logos). Live Series mics can be converted to Studio mics with a simple re-ribbon and logo replacement. There is no cost difference between our standard Studio mics and Live Series mics
A figure-8 microphone on stage?
Surprisingly, figure-8 ribbon microphones are an excellent solution for bleed. Bleed can be a real problem with many onstage mics—not just the amount of bleed but the quality of the bleed. Here's how Royer handles the problem.
Rejection
The Royer R-121 ribbon mics are figure-8, picking up sound from the front and rear of the microphone, and rejecting sounds approaching from a) the left and right sides of the mic, b) the top of the mic, and c) the bottom of the mic. These are extremely effective dead zones that engineers use to isolate instruments by positioning the mics in such a way that the dead zones face, and cancel, offending sound sources.
Case in point: Aerosmith used R-121's in the studio to record the electric guitars on their 2002 CD Just Push Play, but didn't consider them for live use. While rehearsing for their follow-up tour, the bleed in the electric guitar mics was driving the FOH engineer crazy. It was suggested they try using their R-121's and, after we assured them we'd replace the ribbons if they were damaged onstage, the band set up R-121 ribbon mic's on Joe Perry and Brad Whitford's guitars. The mics eliminated the bleed problem so effectively (and sounded so good) that R-121's have been Aerosmith's live (and studio) electric guitar mics from that day forward. In over five years of extensive use, they've only stretched one ribbon. An engineer on the crew told us that their Royers had a better reliability record than any of their other touring mics!
Off-Axis Coloration:
There's a lot of sound on a live stage and you can't entirely control for off-axis information getting into microphones, even ribbons. Most microphones color off-axis information in highly unflattering ways, which is why bleed can sound so nasty. Ribbons don't color off-axis information, so any bleed that manages to get into your onstage Royer R-121 mics will sound natural, not harsh or colored.
