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.)

Used for the organ on *The Beatles*, as mentioned by sound engineer Ken Scott in this June 2012 *Sound on Sound* interview. > "In addition to Paul's bass being DI'd, the cabinet probably would have been miked with a 4038, [Neumann] U67 or [AKG] C12. I would have used two 4038s on the organ, 67s on John and George's guitars, and it could have been anything on George's vocal.”

As seen in his Instagram while in the studio recording.

Used as an overhead mic for John Mayer's *Continuum*, as stated by recording engineer Chad Franscoviak in this October 1, 2006 *Mix Online* interview. > Jordan's assortment of drums — which seemed to be *endless*, Franscoviak says with a laugh — were miked fairly conventionally: an AKG D 112, an RE20, a 421 or a Beyer M88 on the kick; snares got 57s on top and bottom; M88s on the toms; an AKG 451 on hi-hats; and on overheads, he either used a U67 or U87. > The only trick that Franscoviak used, which he fully admits stealing from Joe Ferla, was putting a Coles 4038 ribbon mic directly over the center of the kit, parallel to the ground and as close in as possible without impeding Jordan's playing. “I generally compressed the snot out of that and I would run it through a Fairchild,” he says. “That's a really interesting trick because you have all of your tight sounds, but you add that 4038 and it makes everything more exciting.” > He also put a U47 about 18 inches off the ground and four to seven feet in front of the kick drum for a very specific sound. “At some point, we were going to hit that low-end waveform just right and it was going to fill that kick drum out,” Franscoviak explains. “I would compress it a lot with an 1176, a lot harder than the overhead, because I wanted that low end to be there for every hit.”

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

Used as a room mic on *Icky Thump*, as stated by recording and mixing engineer Joe Chiccarelli in this October 2007 *Sound on Sound* interview. > “The close mic setup for recording the drums was pretty standard: Shure SM57 on the snare, AKG D12 and Neumann U47 on the kick, a pair of ribbon Coles 4038s or Neumann U67s as overheads. I often fed the drums into a reverb chamber, or would overdrive the preamps, or fed them through a guitar amp. The preamps we used for the drums were the 1073 and a Neve BCM10." This is restated by Chiccarelli in [this October 1, 2007 *Mix Online* interview](https://www.mixonline.com/recording/white-stripes-365875). > As far as miking Meg White's kit, Chiccarelli kept things straight ahead: An AKG D-12 on the kick and a U47 as an overhead run through a Fairchild compressor. It was rare that he miked the snare, but when he did it was a U47 through a Fairchild. When she used a bigger kit, Chiccarelli put a 57 on the snare top and a Sennheiser 441 on the bottom. The toms were not miked, but he used an assortment of mics as overheads and in the room. “I set up a lot of different room mics, maybe eight,” Chiccarelli explains. “Depending on the song, I could go smaller, tighter and punchier, or wide and open. Sometimes, I would use old funky cheap mics as room mics and distort them. Other times, it was a pair of Coles, maybe combined with a pair of 87s far up in the room. We did things with drums like pumping them through the reverb chamber or pumping them through guitar amps.”

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."

Used for the bass and organ on *The Beatles*, as mentioned by sound engineer Ken Scott in this June 2012 *Sound on Sound* interview. > "In addition to Paul's bass being DI'd, the cabinet probably would have been miked with a 4038, [Neumann] U67 or [AKG] C12. I would have used two 4038s on the organ, 67s on John and George's guitars, and it could have been anything on George's vocal.”

Used for the organ on *The Beatles*, as mentioned by sound engineer Ken Scott in this June 2012 *Sound on Sound* interview. > "In addition to Paul's bass being DI'd, the cabinet probably would have been miked with a 4038, [Neumann] U67 or [AKG] C12. I would have used two 4038s on the organ, 67s on John and George's guitars, and it could have been anything on George's vocal.”

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

Used as an overhead mic for “Every Breath You Take”, as mentioned by producer Hugh Padgham in this March 2004 *Sound on Sound* interview. > "At AIR Montserrat, the dining area had a gabled ceiling and reflective wooden floor, so I recorded Stewart's drums with room mics while also close-miking the kit, similar to how I recorded Phil Collins. There was a [Shure] SM57 on the snare, [Sennheiser] 421s on the toms, Coles 4038 ribbon mics for the overheads, and [Neumann] 87s as room mics, placed about 10 to 15 feet away and compressed a little bit. Obviously, we didn't use the room sound as much as we did for Phil, but it still provided Stewart's sound with a certain liveliness.”

"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

Used for the trumpet on Donald Fagen's *Morph the Cat*, as stated by mix engineer Elliott Scheiner in this August 2006 *Sound on Sound* interview. > According to Elliott Scheiner, the following mics were used on the *Morph The Cat* recording sessions. > * Kick drum: AKG D112. > * Snare: SM57 (only on top). >* Hi-hat: Neumann KM81 or 84. > * Toms: Audio-Technica ATM25. > * Overheads: Neumann U67. > * Room mics: Electrovoice RE20. > * Electric guitar: Shure SM57 right on speaker cone. > * Piano: 2x AKG C12 mics, about 12 inches from the strings. > * Trumpet and trombone: Coles ribbon. > * Tenor sax: Neumann U67. > * Baritone sax: Neumann FET47. The lack of specification suggests the ubiquitous 4038.

Used for the trombone on Donald Fagen's *Morph the Cat*, as stated by mix engineer Elliott Scheiner in this August 2006 *Sound on Sound* interview. > According to Elliott Scheiner, the following mics were used on the *Morph The Cat* recording sessions. > * Kick drum: AKG D112. > * Snare: SM57 (only on top). >* Hi-hat: Neumann KM81 or 84. > * Toms: Audio-Technica ATM25. > * Overheads: Neumann U67. > * Room mics: Electrovoice RE20. > * Electric guitar: Shure SM57 right on speaker cone. > * Piano: 2x AKG C12 mics, about 12 inches from the strings. > * Trumpet and trombone: Coles ribbon. > * Tenor sax: Neumann U67. > * Baritone sax: Neumann FET47. The lack of specification suggests the ubiquitous 4038.