Royer R-121 (Dull Satin Nickel)

The Royer R-121 (Dull Satin Nickel) is the world's first radically redesigned Ribbon Microphone and Royer's flagship product. Like most Ribbons, the R-121's polar pattern is Figure-of-8, its sensitivity is roughly equal to a good Dynamic Microphone, and it exhibits a warm, realistic tone and flat frequency response. The R-121 completely redefines Ribbon Microphones, highly regarded as a sleek, light, extremely versatile microphone that is easy to use and wonderfully musical.

An R-121 hears things the way your ears hear them. Many Microphones are effects in a way; some add top end sizzle (like many Condenser Microphones), some push the mids and roll-off everything else, some respond to nothing but low end. They all serve a purpose and have their place in recording and live work. But if you've ever heard that incredible Guitar, melodic Trumpet, sweet Flute or deep Kick Drum and found that getting that sound to tape or hard drive was impossible, you owe it to yourself to try a Royer Ribbon. On playback you'll notice that the recorded sound is natural and alive, with a panoramic, ambient feel much like what you heard when you were standing in front of the instruments you recorded. An R-121's response is flat and well balanced; low end is deep and full without getting boomy, mids are well defined and realistic, and the high end response is sweet and natural sounding, never edgy or sibilant.

The R-121's maximum SPL rating is >130dB which, in practical terms, means you can put your R-121 directly in front of a high-output Marshall Amplifier and turn it up to full volume without Microphone distortion or doing any damage to the Ribbon. This is not advisable for other Ribbon mics, but the R-121 is capable of achieving this.

At distances of two feet and closer, the back of the R-121 is brighter than the front side. The difference in the sound is somewhat like blending 10% of a Condenser mic in with your Ribbon mic signal. This can be extremely useful when you record Acoustic Guitars, Vocals, and other sound sources that you may want to hear a little more top end on.