My shoot out video of JRR's new Panther ribbon mike.

Hope you enjoy:

JRR NOS Panther Ribbon Shoot Out! - YouTube

kcat

Since nobody bothered to comment I thought I would take a shot. I really appreciated that all the parameters were given in the beginning. He said the EQ was rolled off at 100 and a notch at 160 was used. Most reviewers wouldn't bother with that kind of information. It made me believe that he was sincere and was going to give an unbiased presentation. I was getting a pretty huge 3D effect from the acoustic guitar listening through headphones. Perhaps all mic shootouts should be done this way. An acoustic instrument, a voice, loads of passion and no BS.

thx fataudiotech !

you may have noted in the shot with the blumlien that I have treated my room but I still have some mid to low resonance problems, When I was listening to the group buss I put on the FF pro-Q with the notch up about 5 db looking for the troublesome spot and when I got in the 160 range the freq literally resonated; wild and not good !!

so, I thought the fair thing to do was buss all the guitar tracks and only have that hpf and notch on the buss so you are able to hear the individual tracks eq'd identically

last thought was old school, use the mike as an eq device so I wanted people to have a chance not to pick a winner and losers but to realize that each of the mikes are completely usable but have a different pick up pattern, so it would come to your judgement as the engineer/producer and what you did with them in the mix ( listen carefuly to the voiceovers with the blumlien, I did them all individually at different distances and you can hear that the panther is very sensitive)

bascially, i feel the panther is like a contemporary ribbon; with a little lift in the low mids; you just have to think; good for the source and how will I use that to my mixes advantage

btw I talked to CineMag yesterday and they do have 2 transformers ready for the Panthers; what do you think should I drop some in and do another shot out ?; the totally retro modern ribbon shot out; an american retro design, manufactured in china with modded classic american old school transformers; my gear head head is spinning !!

Cat5 should I go with the encased transformers for the extra shielding ?

If you do, make sure you a detailed before and after recordings. It could prove to be valuable information to those who are also considering modding their Panther mics. It may be difficult to hear the subtle details a transformer upgrade will bring on a youtube video so including higher res wave files would be a big help. Who knows, you could start a trend and the Panther could end up being the "must have" affordable Ribbon mic. A bit like the Oktava mics were/are before GC buried them.

good points, actually the entire stereo mix for the current video is up at soundcloud kcatthedog 24@44.1, if you download

Yes if I order the transformers, I wil do one mike and then do the shoot out with one modded one unmodded. I will also do a DIY tutorial showing how to do the mod.

I have a tutorial diy build up at gearautophsy .com about doing a stereo link for the Warm Audio wa76; check it out.

@Kcatthedog - Well done!

Seems like a good mic for a decent price. How would you compare them to other ribbons in that price range? Curious about how these would sound with louder sources like guitar amps and drums. Wish there was some more info on these out there though. They're not quite cheap enough to buy without seeing a spec sheet or knowing more about them.

Nice playing btw.

Comments

n1kk666 said:

Seems like a good mic for a decent price. How would you compare them to other ribbons in that price range? Curious about how these would sound with louder sources like guitar amps and drums. Wish there was some more info on these out there though. They're not quite cheap enough to buy without seeing a spec sheet or knowing more about them.

Nice playing btw.

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The panthers stock and vin jet stock both list at the same price so they are direct competitors with long ribbons. The fatheads have short ribbons.

There is other technical data on the jrr site just google or use the url. The panther has good specs and hi spl (130?).

I don't know eric, just from comments here. I talked about my vinjet at one point and he pm'd me noting my op amp video asking if i would shoot out the panther. I compared both to the octavMod sdc so people could really hear the voice of each ribbon.


i'll do the mod and shoot out. I know David at Cinemag (i dropped his transformers into my Cl7802), so i emailed him and eric sent the schematic so David can identify the best CineMag transformer for the Panther. He tells me he has 1 that will increase the output somewhat: so no harm in that

swapping out the transfo will be 4 leads ( primary and secondary) and the mike is easy to open ( don't tell eric ): three small reverse thread screws and the chassis slides out. Probably need to unscrew one side of the chassis to replace transformer. No biggee, i have built the Group diy c-12, so not worried about modding the panther.

Thx for the compliment: my new song "cindi's dreaming": think i will play it all the way through for blumlien shoot out: there are some either nice guitar parts, been thinking about in inviting a real drummer over. The 3d on the blumlien is wild:love it and i could mike the snare and kick: I'll think about it ! thx for the suggestion !

here is the blurb from jrr site:

"The NOS Audio Panther active ribbon microphone mates a passive ribbon element and transformer with active electronics. The result is the classic ribbon sound that sounds great with ANY preamp.

The Panther has higher output than passive ribbon microphones and retains the high-end "air" that passive ribbons lose when used with average microphone preamps. Also, it's high sensitivity allows it sound great on a wide variety of voices and instruments. If you believe that ribbon mics can only sound good on guitars or drums, the Panther will surprise you with its versatility.



Features:
Active phantom powered circuitry for high output and low impedance
Passive transformer before active circuitry to retain the classic ribbon sound
135dB SPL Handling
High (35dB) Sensitivity
No distortion up to maximum SPL rating
Low self noise
Figure-8 pickup pattern with equal sensitivity from front or back of element
No proximity effect"

I have ordered the CineMag transformers, Cm-9887's , should show up next week, so hopefully I can get another shoot out done in about two weeks.

Kcatthedog said:

and the mike is easy to open ( don't tell eric )

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Don't worry, I didn't see anything. 8)

Thx for the compliment: my new song "cindi's dreaming"

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Yeah, it's a really good song and a great performance.

my precious !!

getting there !


I think copying is reversing the image but you get the idea !

Very well-done shootout, and I really enjoyed the performance and tune as well!

I'm a Royer 121 owner, and like mine a lot with acoustic guitar; it's interesting how different all of the various ribbons sound.

transformer mod shoot out comin up !!

LSchefman said:

Very well-done shootout, and I really enjoyed the performance and tune as well!

I'm a Royer 121 owner, and like mine a lot with acoustic guitar; it's interesting how different all of the various ribbons sound.

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Hey thx !

That's nice mike you have !!

Eric at jrr and David at CineMag were helpful so i have 2 CM9887 transformers and have modded one panther

So i am just finishing a diy video and will then redo the shoot out too

Same kcat time, same kcat channel kcatthedog youtube !

New DIY Video: Panther Transformer mod with CineMag 9887

Here is the new video:

JRR Panther Ribbon Transformer Mod: Cinemag 9887 - YouTube

I'll post a sound clip at Sound cloud a bit later and i will redo my shot out video too now using the modded Panther.

Great job on the video, Matt!

@synch: thx! Lot of work, did the device of the two mike's switching bug you or had you figured the reveal out in advance ?

Kcatthedog said:

@synch: thx! Lot of work, did the device of the two mike's switching bug you or had you figured the reveal out in advance ?

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I wondered if left/right was a before/after comparison but didn't expect that much of a difference. (Even as I preach the love for great transformers)

it may be too cute but effectively it is before and after (stock vs mod), as I had the two mikes I thought use them both for the voice over and let the GE's (golden ears) gloat and the LE's (leaden ears) bitch and moan .

but I get that the side to side is not expected but I thought people would clue into hearing the difference and twig ? you can lead a horse to,,,

that David guy at CineMag kind of knows what he is doing !

Wow! I was shocked at the reveal! There are things I like about both versions, the modded version has that focus that you talk about in the video but the stock one is more present. My hope is that people will pick up on using Panthers for overheads because of that extra presence that they have over passive ribbons, and in this case, the stock version would be better. However, the modded version sounds more like your modded Vinjet going through the Cloudlifter in the first video, which I think is better for your voice and acoustic.

Very cool, Kcat! Thank you!