mic for my midrange voice

shortyprs

New member
I'm searching for a new mic with a bit more presence and fullness, dare I say warmth for my voice. Here are some attributes that may help:

My voice is in the upper baritone/low tenor range. It's fairly thin without a lot of power. I have good note control and am retraining it. I can belt for short periods and then go horse. Think Clapton Unplugged, e.g., Key to the Highway.

Live, my voice stands out better as I go from a Shure 58 to a beta 58 to a Senheisser e845. In other words, boosted upper range helps. In recording, I have an SP B1, a C3 and a Blue Baby Bottle. The B1 sounds good, but not as good as the Baby Bottle. The C3 sounds good and brightens the top end, but, on my voice, sounds thin compared to the Baby Bottle. On most songs I keep going back to the Baby Bottle through either an RNP or a DMP3. I run through either a DMP3, RNP or Joe Meek VCQ6 with RNC or Joe Meek Compressors.

I assume I can make an improvement by upgrading my pre's. I love the sound of the Great River pre's on DOT's listening sessions. Assuming I will do that in the next year, is there a mic in the $300.00 to $500.00 range that could make a difference now? Closer to $300.00 would be better.
 
Well, it's really hard (if not impossible) to make a call like this for your request... however, you may want to try the Studio Projects TB1 and T3 mic's and see if that's what your looking for or not. Both the Studio Projects TB1 and T3 tube mic's have a bumped-up high end and are close to being within your price range.... but, your going to have to test drive the mic's for yourself to know for sure. I wish you the best with your search for a new vocal mic.
 
But I would suggest looking into a AT 4060..Maybe used you could get one for something like 600.00.,
I don't know the Studio Projects stuff..I have only tried their C3
Maybe something like the MXL V69 or 77 they are in the 300.00 range of mics that should be worth looking into.Good luck


Don
 
Completely agree on the AT 4060 or even the 4040 if you're on a budget; king of midrange and very even sounding. 69 or even the 67 would give you a darker more low end push and less top end for a warm sound. Think Mark Knopfler on Ragpicker's Dream and that is close to the sound of these two Marshall mics.

The 67 requires at least 12 inches of space or it gets gravelly sounding on the lo end, the 69 will work when your doing that breathy ballad thing. If your gonna scream I would stick with the ATs.

One other suggestion would be the NTK but this one is highly variable depending on the voice. When it matches up though it is a beautiful thing.

My2cents.
 
Also try out the Sennheiser 421. It's very "present" and "full" (thick) sounding.
The models prior to the current MKII edition are warmer/smoother BTW.

On the "belting", be very careful as you can damage your vocals cords that way.
If you get a lower price (though excellent!) mike like the 421, why not put
some of the $$ saved towards proper vocal coaching.
I also suspect you might be singing in too high of a tessitura AKA key for
where your voice is right now. If the keys are more comfortable, you should
be able to sing for hours and hours without any hoarseness.
Typically, "hoarseness" is a danger signal your throat is sending you.
The biggest improvement will be a better vocal approach.

Chris
 
As always, your responses are helpful. I know this is a difficult request. Hey, but what better way to narrow down my search, but by your experiences. I'll do my best to take your suggestions and ear test them before I buy. I don't have a local source for the Marshall's, but should be able to listen to the rest.

Chessparov, you are wise. I used to have a well trained voice. Alas, years of neglect. I am sitting in on my kid's voice lessons and stealing all the exercises to get the vox back in shape. That will help. As always, crap in, crap out.

So far the suggestions seem to go either a tube mic or the AT 4060 or Senheisser 421. I like the versatility of the 421, but am really focused on vocals. Is there a version of the 421 that sits better on vocals. They keep putting out new versions!

Middleman, I love Knopfler's vocals on Ragpicker's Dreams. Definitely the warmth I'm looking for. Do you know which of the MXL mic's hit it closer? I've heard that the 77 is a bit brighter on the top end.

Henry and DJL, I'll do a search on the AT 4060 and try to learn more. Maybe I'll have to wait and save up. What else can you tell me about this mic?

Other mic's that I'll really liked in lestening tests are the Beyer m160 and the Shure sm7. Are either of these mic's in the ballpark of the 4060? Anyone know anything about them for mid range voices like mine?
 
shortyprs, the AT4060 is a tube condenser mic... I was going to suggest it, but didn't because I thought it might be a little out of your price range.
 
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Pardon me for butting in . . .

but from your first post, it sounds like your voice is somewhat midrangy, and you're looking for something with the "scooped mids" thing -- a little boost on the extreme highs and lows to fill it out a bit.

Yet, your favorite mic for tracking so far has been the baby bottle, a mic traditionally known for exibiting the exact opposite characteristics as what you're looking for.

My best guess, at this moment, is that you're suffering from a common sydrome among singers -- lack of confidence in your own voice. I see it all the time -- people just tend to be their own worse critics of their own voices. Even those with the very best voices suffer from it somewhat.

Honestly, playing Goldilocks and the musical mics game probably isn't going to get you anywhere untill you gain more personal confidence in your own voice. You might wind up accumulating an impressive mic collection, though.

If all else fails, look in to some other BLUE mics. It seems like you like the Baby Bottle, so it could be you'd be impressed with others in their lineup. Might be something for you to look at down the road.

Another thing I was thinking is that perhaps you're looking to add some extra weight and/or girth that might be missing. If that is the case, then look in to some tube mics. Prices on inexpensive tube condensers keep falling every time I look. This might be something to look at, also.

If you want to turn a mouse's voice in to a man's . . . then you gotta' have tubes. :D
 
Ok Chessrock, when did you get the psych degree.......and how much do I owe for the session? Yes, I kinda hate my own voice. Then again, I am surprised at how good it sounds with the Baby Bottle. I agree, the mid-range hump of the Blue seems counter-intuitive. But there I go. Besides, the entire band and anyone else I can drag into a listening test keeps picking the tracks I do with that mic.

Going tube mic would be very consistent with my personality. I am obsessed with NOS tubes in my amps. Why not with tube mics? I think that's why I'm looking for more presence and "fullness" as opposed to sparkle or brightness. I really like Knopfler's voice on Ragpicker's Dream.

So, are all ya'll saying I should really pursue the 4060, or maybe save a long time and look at the Blue Dragonfly or Bottle. Is this what I'm hearing?
 

<snip>

So, are all ya'll saying I should really pursue the 4060, or maybe save a long time and look at the Blue Dragonfly or Bottle. Is this what I'm hearing? [/B]


Humm, well not really... I was just thinking that a tube type mic might give you the meat that you were looking for and just offered some suggestions. And please don't be upset with chessrock, he made some valid points, and I believe he was just trying to help. However, like I said before... it's really hard (if not impossible) for us to tell you what mic(s) you might like or not............ and you really need to listen to the mic's with your voice and ears, and decide for yourself. Best wishes.
 
I guess I should have highlighted the phrase even those with the very best voices.

Honestly, those guys are probably the ones that suffer from it most often. The bad ones usually have no clue how bad they are, and they'll just listen to it and say "sounds fine." :D

So in an offhand sort of way, you could take it as a compliment. And I'm just going by the way about 90% of the singers I work with react during mixdown: "Could you add some more reverb or something to my voice?" :D And I'm always saying to myself: Why? It sounds great. I can relate, because I was the exact same way when I was on the other side of things. Only I really wasn't that good.
 
It stuck me too that the original question got turned upsidedown.
So when you're looking for a solution to the often experienced 'too thin', or in another range that pops up, 'too honky' sounding, I looked for a mic that had a slight droop in the mids (my 4047 solution :) ). But we're talking only a few db differences in these mics, at least in the mids. (The huge boosts seem to be the top ends.)
So there must be other things going on besides the small differences in the mids. I mean, it's not like you see mics with a -4@900 dip (at least on paper).
Is the goal to have a big selection of radically voiced mics to cover these different situtations?
I think I'm missing something here.
Wayne
 
Well, the first thing that came to my mind was the 4047 too!

But the more I think about it, if you like the Baby Bottle on your voice and you simply desire more presence, fullness, and "warmth", then a preamp along the lines of a Great River XNV, Phoenix Audio DRS-X, Aurora Audio GTQ2, DaviSound TB-1, D.W. Fearn VT-X, Groove Tubes Viper, Manley, etc., is what I suggest.
 
When you say midrangey, that covers a rather large area of frequencies. Do you mean accentuated at 400hz or 3k (or somewhere in between)? There is really no rule as to what frequency curve will fit your voice, more low end may make things cloudy, more top may just make things stringent. Also, in general a dynamic, ribbon, and condenser are going to have different qualities that may fit your voice better even with identical or similar frequency responses, and then even among the same type of mic, there are going to be differences (ie Royer 122 vs Coles 4038). If your voice isn't pleasing in the room to the naked ear, the best thing you can do is listen to different mics to figure it out.

Nathan Eldred
atlasproaudio.com
 
For the more "present" and "fullness" sound you're aiming for,
any of the models prior to the current MKII would be worth trying
in the 421 series. Another similar microphone to it is the Beyer Soundstar X1N that has a slightly more detailed "top", yet is
still punchy.

Another good try in the dynamics would be the Beyer M88 or M88TG. It's not quite as "present" as a 421, however, it's somewhat more "full", and has a more detailed top end response.
Per Bob Ohlsson, it sounds like an expensive Neumann on many voices. The TG model is less sensitive to sibilance/plosives BTW.

Also interesting is the Beyer Soundstar MKII (or M400)
Smooth low's and mid's with a crisp top end.
Harvey likes this one a lot and has recorded many vocals at his studio with it. My choice for live performance BTW.

Can you tell I'm a big Beyer fan? :)
(I want to try a M160 eventually too)

Chris
 
The Baby Bottle is pretty good but it only worked for me once...The singer was well...can you say Daffy Duck..I have found that the BB would tend to "hide" on most vocalist IMHE.But there are no rules..Mics are funny that way


Don
 
Hey DJL and Chessrock, I didn't take offense at what Chess said. He was dead on. Bull's-eye. Majorly right. Sorry if I mis-spoke
 
It will be interesting to know what mic(s) you end up choocing... please be sure to let us all know. Have fun and good luck.
 
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