Coles 4038 Studio Ribbon Microphone

Mentioned by *A Head Full of Dreams* co-producer Rik Simpson in this *Sound on Sound* article. > “I’ll record acoustic guitars with two small–diaphragm condensers — Telefunken M60s or Neumann KM84s — pointing at the 12th fret at a 45–degree angle, and possibly an ambient mic; something crusty like a Coles 4038 is good. Electric guitar cabinets have an SM57 and a Royer on them, and the bass cabinet an SM7. I always take DIs of the bass and electric guitar as well, just in case I want to later embellish these and play them through an amp again."

Seen here in 'It Might Get Loud' used as a vocal mic to get a bullet-mic-sort of sound. Usually he also uses these mics for guitar amps and as room mics, as mentioned by his engineer in a Sound On Sound article (http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct07/articles/insidetrack_1007.htm): "Jack loves the sound of ribbon microphones, so we used a lot of them, on guitar amps, vocals, and as room mics: Coles 4038, Royer 121, AEA R84. I would have six to 10 room mics up, and would chose a stereo pair from them."

The Coles 4038 Broadcast Recording Ribbon Microphone is a part of Josh Homme's studio equipment setup.

[This article on the making of Marr's 2018 *Call the Comet* album by MixOnline.com](https://www.mixonline.com/recording/johnny-marr-finds-his-voice-on-call-the-comet) touches on some of the gear used during the recording process. "The Beyer is mainly placed outside drummer Jack Mitchell’s kick drum. An SM57 is placed at the top of the snare, with Coles 4038 and Neumann KM 184 as overheads, equidistant from the snare. These might have some compression through a UREI 1178, all going through the Neve 1081 preamp, with a few of the microphones going into a UA 2-610." (While the engineer is providing this feedback, the gear is housed in Marr's own Crazy Face studios, which contains gear he's collected over his decades in the music industry.)

As seen in his Instagram while in the studio recording.

Mix engineer Tommaso Colliva on recording Drones : "We had some stereo room mics, like the DPA 4006s and Coles 4038s."

Used as overheads on "Get On Your Boots", as stated by producer Declan Gaffney. > "Most of 'Get On Your Boots' was recorded in Dublin by Richard Rainey, and the basic backing tracks were done live, by the whole band together. There was an [Electro-Voice] RE20 inside the bass drum, with an SE Electronics Titan on the outside, a [Shure] 57 underneath the snare, and Richard had his own Heil mic on top, which he alternated with a Beyer M201; the toms were [Sennheiser] 421, overheads Coles 4038; ride cymbal was sometimes a 57, sometimes a [AKG] 451. Everything went through the Neve 1091 or 1093 mic pres."

Listed in Chris Walla's Hall of Justice Recording Studio equipment list.

"We used a pair of Coles 4038 ribbon mics in a Blumlein (crossed) pair for most of the drum recordings – either over the drummer’s head, or out in front of the kit (which gives a very different sound, and we used this mic position for the songs when we wanted a bit more room sound on the kit). Danny Evans, our studio engineer, used these mics in this position a lot for Guy’s solo album and showed me this technique when Alex Reeves , who played on Guy’s album himself, came in to record. The 4038s have a warmth which was perfect for the kit sound we were looking for, and set up as a Blumlein pair, they give an amazing stereo image, picking up the elements of the kit in a very natural and balanced way. Normally the mics in a Blumlein would be set up at ninety degrees to each other, but by altering the angle between the two mics, it’s also possible to affect the stereo width of the recording."

“My drum mics consist of two Coles 4038s for overheads, Shure SM57s on the snare top and bottom, AKG D12 on the kick, and during the recordings of Sia’s record I had Sennheiser MD421s on the toms, but now I have AKG C414s — the old, silver ones".

In this Tweet, RJD2 posts a photo of the Coles 4038 Studio Ribbon Microphone he uses to record his acoustic guitar. He says, "Ol' faithful", implying this is his go-to mic for guitar recording. In the comments, someone asks him, "Coles?" to which RJD2 replies, "yessir".

Used for a string of unplugged concerts in 2017, this mic is used to pick up his guitar. This is seen in various clips uploaded on YouTube from his show in Napoli.

"Tracking today with the '56 Gibson J-45 on a vintage Coles 4038…"

But back to those layers of guitar—can you take us through the song “Hold On?” I used a number of small variations with the amps, and that’s where I really got into the layering. I had three different half-stacks out there—two Blackstars and an old Hiwatt, with each head going to the same cabinet. So I had six different rhythm guitars essentially doing the same thing. I’d get three different tones with each guitar, miked close with a [Neumann] U 67 and a Coles [ribbon mic] about 10 feet out from the cabinet. And then each tone was spread across three tracks, so I had 18 tracks of guitar.

"I used two Coles 4038s as overheads..."

"For This Old Dog, I got interested in nicer gear. Now I have legitimately nice shit, for better or for worse. I have a bunch of really nice preamps and little sidecars. I have a set of Coles [4038 mics]"

> “We used condensers on the close kit for brightness and attack, with the exception of a dynamic on the hi-hat for a bit more chunk than sizzle,” says Wiggins. “A Coles 4038 was placed above the kick and distorted for when more crunch was needed.

"When it comes to microphones, Arnalds relies mostly on a pair of Neumann KM84s that he bought from the estate of Hansa Studios owner Peter Meisel. He is tickled by the notion that they were most likely used on some of the classic albums made in Berlin by the likes of David Bowie and U2. "They're in perfect shape and they're marked with his name,” he says. "They're my go-to condensers, but I also have a pair of Coles 4038 [ribbons], which I use a lot on the piano.”"

"Mic-wise, it depends on the track. It's generally the CMV, but 'Tell Me A Tale' was done on the Coles. There were a few times, particularly when he was absolutely belting it out and the equipment started groaning, it needed something to warm it up a little bit, like a nice ribbon mic." - Paul Butler (Producer of Kiwanuka's debut "Home Again")

According to the "equipment list" found on Church Studios, owned by Epworth, one of the things listed is Coles 4038.

Aurelio is using a Coles 4038 in this recording session.

Seen on Instagram