- Voice-over for both male and female voices that tend to have a bit of sibilance and are not especially dark or deep
- Violin and other acoustic higher register instruments such as mandolin that tend to sound harsh when recorded
For these two main groups, the Golden Age Project R1 Mark III Active Ribbon microphone performs really well, much better than equivalently priced large diaphragm condenser microphones. In fact, because these are the two main things I record, this is my go-to mic almost all of the time and my two other condenser mics and dynamic mics are seeing a lot less use.
Why? Two reasons:
- Bass response--this mic has a warm low end that flatters most voices and most of the higher register stringed instruments like violin. Additionally, you can back the mic away from the instrument a little bit more and still retain the low frequency capture, unlike most affordable large diaphragm condenser (LDC) mics which tend to lose low frequency response pretty quickly once they're moved back from the source.
- High Frequency roll-off--This mic differs from almost all of the less than 500 USD LDC mics in that it does not seem to have a "presence peak"--that annoying "feature" of most affordable LDC mics where the higher frequencies get a pretty significant boost which often results in highlighting sibilance (that annoying "ssss" sound in some peoples' voice) or making an instrument sound shrill.
Because the R1 Mark III is phantom powered (thus the "Active" in its name), it is easy to use with pretty much any pre-amp. This is a unique and welcome feature because ribbon mics typically require pretty beefy pre-amps with quite a lot of gain to work well.