the t.bone RM 700

We all know the struggle - the guitar sounds great from an amp, but once recorded, its almost flat. Why? Probably because you haven't invested into one of those ribbon mics :)

I use this one at the same time with Shure SM57 and that gives me the quality & dynamic range my guitars deserve. SM57 is very precise, but IMHO flat when used by itself.

The RM 700 adds the warmth & bass that counter-balances the precision of the 57. Together they form a duet that will kick some serious a**.

Would I use it by itself? Probably not, but I don't believe anyone should record amps with only 1 mic.

In terms of build quality - Wow! Sound quality - wow! Even the wooden & metal cases will fool you into thinking it is a $400-1000 mic.

Basically, if you are serious about your sound, this is a no-brainer. Just go for it & prepare to take your guitar recording to the next level.

I like the sound this mic gives me with several different mandolins. It sounds natural and very musical.

Previously I'd been using condenser mics, which are often tuned for vocals, with a peak in the upper frequencies. The condenser-mic recordings I made of mandolin were detailed but shrill, harsh, painful at times, and not really resembling the original instrument. I took a gamble on the RM700 as a low-cost introduction to ribbon mics. I was not disappointed - if anything it has exceeded my expectations. When I listen to recordings with this mic, there doesn't seem to be anything missing, at least everything I want to be there is captured, with none of the harshness.

The microphone works pretty well straight into my recorder (Tascam DR100III) though the gain has to be turned up quite high. Adding a preamp of the 'cloudlifter' type would help - I went for a very low-cost option and it seems ok. Even without anything extra, the recordings are loud enough to not have any obvious preamp noise.

The only sense in which it is slightly inappropriate for my needs is the generous low-frequency response, going down to subterranean frequencies, but that is easily handled with a bit of low-cut. The Tascam is helpful in that respect, offering several different settings.

Overall, I'm pleased, I like the sound of the RM700 with my acoustic instruments.

Ribbon microphones have a 8-shaped directivity pattern which picks up sound in a different (and often very musical) way from the usual cardiods. The low end of this one is deep and full and extends right down to below human hearing, and it feels very clean and natural in the midrange.

But then it starts rolling off already at 5 kHz!

Having a pair of these is definitely an asset to your microphone cabinet, and you'll find lots of good uses for them. But you wouldn't want this one as your first and only microphone! A large membrane condenser for vocals and a stereo pair of small condensers is the basics. Only when you already have those you might considering weirder options like this.

I still love them though! In some situations the lacking frequency response in the treble can even be for the better, such as when using them as room microphones for drums, or in combination with other microphones when recording guitar or bass cabinets. It can sound good for brass instruments and saxes too, depending on what kind of sound you're shooting for.

I like this thing. Have been using it for a year, trying it on voice, guitar and clarinet. Bought another one to try out Blumlein array. You have to learn using and positioning this mic, sometimes it sounds great in another context it does not and you better use something else. Sometimes you have to eq and it works. I havn´t fully understood it. The self noise of this mic is really really low. I love that. It does not react as crazy sensitive on floor vibrations as its larger brother RB 500. That makes it much more easy and universal to use. The price is incredible low. Perhaps one of the best cheap ribbon mics you can get. Shockmount box and case just perfect.

I'm new to home recording and to ribbon mikes, I'm predominantly a guitar player and have some boutique valve amps capable of great sounds at 'home' volumes and wanted to be able to capture that on my basic DAW. I tried an SM57 and a LDC mic, not bad but not what I was after.so after reading a lot on the Internet I thought I'd try the RM700. I don't know how these are made for the price, packaging is great and the mic itself has a nice weight and feels solid. Sound is great, deep and rich. Ribbons are typically a bit lacking in upper frequencies but I didn't find this to be a negative thing with this mic, also it seemed to have plenty of output, I certainly didn't need to crank the gain too much (using a focusrite saffire6) so noise wasn't a problem either. All in all, I'm delighted with this so far.