Australian audio company Røde Microphones have built on their success in the studio condenser mic market and branched out to realise a new ribbon mic, suitable for voices and instruments.
The unique design of the NTR places the ribbon distinctly separate to the microphone frame and body, which is meant to allow the greatest possible acoustic transparency around the ribbon element and minimise resonance. The ribbon element itself is designed completely from scratch, using extremely fine aluminium that is only 1.8 microns thick — one of the thinnest ribbons in existence. An innovative, in-house, proprietary technique was developed to laser cut the ribbon, giving a level of precision and accuracy never before seen in a ribbon microphone.
Surrounding the ribbon element is a chemically etched all-metal layer of mesh — the same used on the SMR pop shield. This is extremely rigid while exhibiting super low density, which Rode claim results in greater acoustic transparency.
Married to Røde’s ribbon element is a high output, ultra-low noise, low impedance transformer. Combined with active electronics, this allows the NTR to be used with a wide range of preamps without the additional gain requirements of many other ribbon offerings.
This video from Røde details how the mic is made.
“It’s always been a dream of Røde’s to create the world’s very best ribbon microphone, but the time was never quite right,” explains Damien Wilson, Røde’s Global Sales and Marketing Director. “Our manufacturing capabilities have expanded dramatically over the past few years and now we’re proud to say we have a facility unlike any other in the world. These expanded capabilities have allowed us to realize this dream, and bring the NTR to life.”
The NTR will be available globally from this month, and will cost £619$799.
Contact the UK distributor Source Distribution or the Rode website for more info.
