The Royer R-122 Matched Ribbon Microphone pair from the LIVE series was made for live performances offering both reliability and unsurpassed stereo imaging. With the Royer R-122 ribbon mics you get twice the durability in the ribbon element, allowing you to use it anywhere on stage you'd like with complete confidence.

Royers are built to be tough and can handle the challenges of life on the road, but they are studio mics that require some TLC to keep from damaging the ribbon elements. With Royer Live Series ribbon microphones you get twice the durability in the ribbon element, allowing you to put ribbons anywhere on stage you'd like with complete confidence. Tame high-end harshness and bring Royer's legendary smoothness, warmth and power to your live performances.

How
After extensive testing, Royer found new ribbon
thicknesses for the R-121, R-122 and SF-24 microphones that allowed us to significantly increase durability with minimal reduction in gain and transients response. The sonic difference is negligible, and the increased durability lets anyone use Royer ribbons in a live environment.

Royer Live Series microphones are identified with a red Royer logo (studio models have green or black logos). Live Series mics can be converted to Studio mics with a simple re-ribbon and logo replacement. There is no cost difference between Royer standard Studio mics and Live Series mics

A Figure-8 Microphone on Stage?

Surprisingly, figure-8 ribbon microphones are an excellent solution for bleed. Bleed can be a real problem with many onstage mics - not just the amount of bleed but the quality of the bleed. Here's how Royer handles the problem.

Rejection
Royer ribbon mics are figure-8, picking up sound from the front and rear of the microphone, and rejecting sounds approaching from a) the left and right sides of the mic, b) the top of the mic, and c) the bottom of the mic. These are extremely effective dead zones that engineers use to isolate instruments by positioning the mics in such a way that the dead zones face, and cancel, offending sound sources.

Off-Axis Coloration:

There's a lot of sound on a live stage and you can't entirely control for off-axis information getting into microphones, even ribbons. Most microphones color off-axis information in highly unflattering ways, which is why bleed can sound so nasty. Ribbons don't color off-axis information, so any bleed that manages to get into your onstage Royer R-122 mics will sound natural, not harsh or colored.