(Mic Shootout) Apex 460 vs Apex 210 - Tube vs Ribbon 

I would say that's low for capturing quiet instruments such as acoustic guitar - you'll probably get a lot of noise. However, for electric guitar or vocals, it may be enough. Apex also has the 787 - an active ribbon, which is still affordable, but will work with any preamp that has 48 volt phantom power.

no, the tube is so better in anythink, they are made for digital recording, the ribbon for analogs tapes

@@ricardoantonio2124 I agree in this case, the tube articulated better to my ears, but eq could make all the difference

needs a cloudlifter

+Ian Kurz hi, both Mics are nice for Acoustic Guitar. For me the choice depends from a lot of factors: type of music, type of guitar, your picking style, recording studio, etc… with this Martin D28, Aplex 210 is very neutral, I like very much :)

+Ian Kurz ... look Andrea Fusano's answer ... it's me :)

They sound very similar to me. I've tried them for vocals. I think the 460 is a bit smoother, but not a lot of difference really to my ears.

+Ian Kurz mmmh, no :) 210 and 460 are two very very different microphones for me (Audiomela is a Mastering Studio). 460: very easy to use, multipurpose, suitable for Project/Home Studios. 210: neutral on the low frequencies, with a nice rolloff in HF, ideal for guitars, amps and percussions … always to use with a HiEnd MicPre (API, Neve, Avalon, etc..) no direct to Audio Interface.

I do like the 410 on guitars too. I can't afford high-end pre, but I use an ART Voice Channel. And I lied (I was mixed up), I have not tried the 410 on vocals, but rather a 435. Those are the two mics I find to be more similar, the 460 and 435. Maybe I just need to develop my ear more.

+rgxZ121 generally speaking a Ribbon Mic (210) have a more natural response, unfortunately the Figure 8 is very influenced by untreated room ... I recorded this video in my professional studio (That was very well treated)

+rgxZ121 the complete mastering channel was: 2 Mics direct into my (2) API512s preamps and just a little ambience was created with a TC VSS3 Reverb (System6000) … a very very soft limiting for both 2 takes.

Mike F your post screams that you are poorly informed, and most likely a narcissist.

Mey Mike, I think you mean noise floor. Mics don't produce white noise, white noise is mathematically generated giving it a constant power spectral density at all frequencies. as for "better" highs and lows... this is a little bit silly, as "better" is very subjective, beyond that extremely source dependent, and obviously dependent on what you are going for. Having said that I have a pair of DPA 4006 which are extremely accurate, objectively giving me a higher resolution of transients and stereo image, and I could argue they are the "best" mics I own... But I would never do so. I love using ribbon mics on bright instruments, especially brass, where the resulting recording sounds much more similar to the instrument in the room than. I also like using small 20 dollar contact mics and sm57 dynamic mics for many applications. I hope this helps you to understand that your perspective is factually incorrect and judgemental for no good reason.

@@martysquire1054 Nah, it's ironically narcissistic to try and speculate that about my character though.

@@GingerDrums Nope.

Insulting those who disagree with you, and who seem to make up more than half of the commenters, is rather rude and decidedly arrogant. You assume everyone here are inferior to you. Nice. Possibly you should reword your comment to at least pretend that you don't think your opinion is vastly superior to that of most other humans. The apex 460 is incredibly bright and distorted in it's high frequencies, and has a rather muddy bottom end. But it happens to work well on certain pop lead vocal tracks to give a very pre-processed, and rather inaccurate, recording. It works well in a mix as is with it's very uneven response. Lead vocal mics are often chosen for their flaws, not for their accuracy, as the human voice can often benefit from microphone distortions. The Apex 210 is a ribbon mic, known for it's accuracy but soft top end, but which takes HF boost very well if desired. The 210 model has some issues with high end compared to it's replacement, the 205, but it's still a very good ribbon mic at a super affordable price. The 205 even moreso. There's good reason why so many of the world's most legendary classical music recordings (easily one of the most challenging, and revealing, musical styles to record) were made with ribbon mics, not tube LDC mics.... the ribbon's accuracy, smooth frequency response that can easily be modified to be flat (if desired), and very very low distortion. Drawbacks of ribbons include low output level (which requires more preamp gain, and in a noisy setup that results in more background noise).... and they don't artificially emphasize the 5k to 10kHz range like LDC condensors do (which is why LDC condensors are considered to good for lead vocals on pop music recordings).

ah ah ah You are very funny, thanks for the advice. Because there was need of an expert like you to know that a ribbon mic has figure 8. ... I’m a mastering engineer only for 23 years :) If you speak of Golden Age in this application, means that you do not know the mid-freq focused characteristics of API 512, for your “tonal issues” I normaly use Avalon V5 or Neve 1081 ... your "Golden Age" is only a poor imitation of this. At the end of the day: the distance, the room, you make many many words for a Youtub video. If you don’t like you can skip right?

@@audiomela lol. I chuckled when he referred to Just Take My Heart by Mr. Big as "classical." Good playing! I have a question since you are Italian. I was looking into different Ribbon mics and came across the Proel Eikon Rm8 active ribbon. I heard it was an Italian company and was wondering if you heard of it or came across this mic? Have you ever tried the sE xr1 ribbon? Thank you.