Samar Audio Releases Newest AL95 Ribbon Microphone

Good luck Rob, and welcome to the forum! Let us know how it goes.

AL95 arrived in Australia.
First quick handheld spoken word/vocal impressions.
It sounds the same on both sides so very accurate. would make a great Ribbon for MS recording.
There is definitely an extended hi HZ range on this then some of my other ribbons.
It still exhibits a Ribbon signature sound. The proximity Effect kicks in about 20-30 cm form the mic then loses bass/Proximity effect quite quickly after that.
IF you want to use it close up rolling about 80-90hz removes most of the bass build up to quite a decent mic.
It's clear, with some thickness to it so its not a neutral mic but it is not a heavy coloured mic either.
The case is pretty nice. I am very happy with the purchase and I bought another Ribbon mic recently that cost a fair bit more that I think will no longer be useful for me now that I have this one.

Got to my event and the guitarist chose to use a Helix. I went ahead and connected it to a stereo Neve DI. However the usual violin mic failed. What mic did I have in my bag... the AL95. I wouldn't normally use a figure 8 anything on a stage but...

The violin was built in 1835 in Paris. The event leader ( a musician), the violinist and myself all agreed that the mic did wonderfully on violin, especially this one. The top end was there with clarity, though not harsh. The most amazing thing was the body of th tone... earthy, woody, best I have heard that violin sound. I was able to crank it up and fill the room with that rich sound, plus some verb and delay.


It was a definite hit at the event and I can't wait to use it on vocals, acoustic and other things in the studio. 

$350

I have a pair, they sound good. Not sure I’ll keep them. I have a problem with high frequency noise with these and my VL37’s. I’ve tried Mogami, various Quad cables, AES cables...AEA, GML, Daking, Hardy...they all have a high frequency buzz noise that makes them pretty much unusable

Man, that is weird.  No such problem here (zero zilch none) with any of my Samar, but have certainly heard it several times from others.  One of my Samar mods is the highest output quietest ribbon I have, out of about a dozen.  

I hear ya, no doubt believe you.   Mine have gone to a bunch of different locations, no prob.  Be nice to get to the bottom of it, I have no clue.  

Maybe that’s the issue. When doing location type recording where everything is in the same room maybe there’s just too many power supplies and stuff around. But, even in studios where the closest power supply is 100 feet away I've had issues.

Samar recommend some Grimm Audio cables...but to build (4) 25' cables would cost me about $200...and I don't have RF problems with any other ribbon microphones and I have about a dozen.

Pssst....check the price on Grimm by the foot from Grace Design....best I found.  But only if you want to try it in general. 

I don't think the Grimm is gonna improve that, but I'm not certain, since I haven't heard that problem to swap and see. 
My old funky building certainly doesn't have ideal power.  There's a radio tower not far away either that can cause clicking noises in tube guitar amps with tube rectifiers also.  

Grimm is built more like coax, with insulating material between and around each conductor, so I can see how it would be anti-microphonic and lower capacitance/foot. But help with induced noise over other well designed cable? Dunno about that. I use mine with ribbons, but I don't have an obvious feeling that its better at the lengths I use (25-40 feet) and in my environment. It's DOWNSIDE is you'd never want to use it in the field, it's a kink prone bitch to lay out and wind up.

Well, do tell.

I know House of David wasn’t 50s obviously, but for some reason when you said that it made me think of it. Is it still in operation? Quad 8? Figured you might know.

Not House of David. That API console is for sale so I’m not sure what the future of that studio is. Maybe David’s finally ready to retire.

My dad likes to say “it’s not for sale but everything has a price”