REVIEW IN RECORDING MAGAZINE (February 2018)

Resonator on Cover of Recording MagazineONCE OVER – CARBONPHONE RU-80

In an issue dedicated to capturing vocals, one might expect to find reviews of microphones that are smooth, hi-fi, and pristine. We do have a fair number of those, but the next microphone we are looking at is all about unique lo-fi character. It’s based on the most ancient of microphone technologies, the humble carbon element.

COLD WAR, HOT MICS

The RU-80 is the second Carbonphone in Placid Audio’s lineup. Mike Metlay looked at the original model, along with its 5-position external Tone Box, in our February 2016 issue. He described it as the perfect mic for “recreating hundred- year-old radio shows.”

Sonically the Carbonphone is a distant, thinnish, distorted, sibilantly spitty and largely unpredictable mic. In other words, it’s perfect for lo-fi vocals, drums, and instruments with a healthy dose of edge. Its included phantom-powered Tone Box allows you to further tweak and tune the mic with preset EQ filters to suit your taste and mix. I love my Carbonphone; Mike let me try it after the review and I ended up trading him my Copperphone Mini for it! (It’s a Placid thing; if you own these mics, you’ll get it.)

The element in the original Carbonphone is from a US battle tank intercom mic. By contrast, the new RU-80 is made from 1970s Cold War era Soviet military components. The body of the RU-80 is made from a pair of lacquered copper endcaps from the company’s Copperphone/Resonator models. It is shorter and wider than the original model, and retains its predecessor’s aluminum swivel yoke and rear-mounted Switchcraft XLR connector.

The cardioid RU-80 features a transformer-balanced output using the same Hammond transformer found in the original Carbonphone. All carbon mics, old and new, require voltage; the RU-80 does use +48V phantom power. While it doesn’t come with—or need—a Tone Box of its own, it will work just fine with one if you already own the previous model.

CARBONOSTALGIA

Sonically the RU-80 retains all of the above sonic anomalies of the original Carbonphone, yet it is noticeably darker, richer, and less bright and tizzy, with a 50 Hz–10 kHz frequency response. Mark Pirro explained to me that the RU-80 is a tad truer to a vintage carbon mic; it’s fuller in bandwidth than the original Carbonphone, which he deliberately band-limited in its circuit design to produce its lowered fidelity and unique interaction with the Tone Box. This makes the two Carbonphones different from one another and quite complementary.

On vocals, the RU-80 is great up close and personal. Despite its distorted and rough-edged character, it’s a mic that a singer can really play to. Unlike using singer distance and level to control proximity effect and intimacy on a “normal” mic, here you work the mic to control tone, feel and grit. Long crooner-style sustained notes can be thick and smooth, and distortion is caused by fast transient bursts and sibilant sounds (as Mike noted in his review of the Carbonphone).

On instruments at a distance, this transient breakup is a neat effect on bright sources like hi-hat, tambourine, brass stabs, and jangly guitar strings. On low sustained tones like bass cabinet, keyboards through an amp, cello, and even violin, the tone is more rich and gravelly.

RU READY?

The RU-80 is Placid Audio’s lowest-toned and grungiest model yet, and I say that with love. It offers a great flavor that lives nicely alongside the original model, and adds a great X-factor to any song, either blended with other Placid Audio models or with traditional mics. Think of it as an overdrive tool that does not require an effects box or computer process!  

- Written by Paul Vnuk Jr.