New Gear Review: Royer Labs R-122 MKII

Royer_R-122MKII-backfrontThe Royer R-122 MKII ribbon microphone is phantom-powered and has a higher output level, making it more useful when coupled with any microphone pre-amp for recording very quiet sources such as acoustic guitars and solo string and woodwind instruments.

With an internal “head amp” and a special Royer-designed toroidal transformer in the R-122 MKII, the necessity of owning an expensive, super high gain pre-amp is gone. The MKII’s utility is further expanded with the addition of a switchable -15 dB pad for recording close to loud sources—drums, guitar and bass amps. With the pad switched in, the R-122 MKII has a 2 dB lower output level than the Royer’s original R-121 microphone.

An awesome new microphone and worthwhile investment for any studio, the Royer Labs’ new R-122 MKII comes in an attractive wood jewelers box and carries a lifetime warranty to the original owner. The R-122 MKII sells for $1,995 MSRP.

royerlabs.com

Barry Rudolph is a recording engineer/mixer who has worked on over 30 gold and platinum records. He has recorded and/or mixed Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hall & Oates, Pat Benatar, Rod Stewart, the Corrs, and more. Barry has his own futuristic music mixing facility and loves teaching audio engineering at Musician’s Institute, Hollywood, CA. He is a lifetime Grammy-voting member of NARAS and a contributing editor for Mix Magazine. barryrudolph.com