I’ve owned a couple studios and have had some great engineers on records I produce, but it’s only recently that I’ve gotten more serious about engineering my own stuff. Very fun and expensive rabbit hole! My rig is pretty humble. 4 API pres, and a handful of mics, my favorite being my AEA R84 ribbon microphone. Something about ribbons I usually prefer. I’ve since added one cheap ribbon (Avantone CR-14) and some old Shure 330’s and have been using a very nice Stager SR-3 ribbon. I will also be purchasing a Cloud 44a any day now.
Anyone else have a love for ribbon mics?
When I was going to recording school in Vancouver we used some Royer R-121 mics for drum overheads and i’d never heard such detail and nuance from a pair of mics! Used them for tons of stuff throughout the year and always sounded phenomenal, but my heart sank when my teacher told me the price. 
Always had a sweet spot for ribbons, they really capture another dimension of realism from any performance.
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I agree! Most realistic soundstage. Btw, Royer R121’s are widely considered THE mic for electric guitar cabs. I’d like to have one or two again some day 
Have you ever tried the new Royer R-10? Costs around half of what a 121 costs, and supposedly similar sounding… Been GAS ing for one sometimes.
I’ve heard some clips on the R10…not enough clips to make up my mind, sadly
I love the Coles 4038 on my saxophones. There was a Royer I really dug too… I haven’t invested in any, personally, but engineers smile at me when I request the Coles.
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I’ve used my AEA R84 on sax and love it!
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Would you guys recommend any 200-400 € ribbon mics? There‘s this SE VR1 that appears to be nice.
Actually, would you recommend any microphones at all under the assumption that I mostly do synthetic music stuff and only occasionally record something with a handheld Zoom recorder? All those a/b demos for ribbon mics sound so nice, almost as if they have a saturated sound to them.
If you ever get a bass amp for your keyboards/synths, a ribbon mic would be a great way to capture them. No idea how well they’d be suited to field recording, don’t they need tons of gain, at least for quieter stuff?
IIRC one friend of mine had an oktava ribbon he adored, might have been quite cheap as well?
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“Saturated sound” is a good way of describing them!
I have one lower priced ribbon microphone. Avantone CR-14. 259USD. Now, I prefer my AEA R84 on most things, it’s not great on guitar cabs. The Avantone is one I prefer there. For me, it’s nice to have a few options because you never know what’s going to work best in any given track. But if I could only own one microphone, it would be a ribbon mic, no doubt
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I have a decent dynamic, a decent LDC, and soon a decent SDC. Maybe I need to get me a ribbon too at some point. Damn with all these gear purchases 
It really never ends
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Another ribbon! Just picked up a Stager SR-3. Nice mic