mic to thicken thin voice

jugalo180

www.moneyistherecipe.com
i have a very thin voice and i'm looking for a mic to make it sound warmer, if that's the correct term for my problem. i have the at4055 right now going into a macke 1202. from what i've read i have two very neutral pieces of equipment. i'm getting the rnc in a couple of days, maybe that will add some color. i have an art tube preamp but i haven't used it on a mic since i've gotten the mackie and at4055. i have wave plugins which are said to add warmth. i just want my voice to sound thicker. any suggestions?
i know i just opened the door for a lot of humor, but bring it on(along with something i can use).
 
I would say stereo mic-ing would probably help a bit. Panned hard left and right. A bit of Low boost. Lessons. Sorry. You asked for it.
 
I've found that ribbon mics can work wonders for thin voices, as can the AKG C4000B and to a lesser extent the EV PL20.

Scott
 
First of all, use that ART...it'll dirty things up quite a bit, and is much nicer on some vocals than "transparent" crap. Secondly, because it's so cheap (and I own it, heh), I would recommend looking into the Marshall V67. It's a $90 LD that can sound very large when you get right up into it. I got my best vocal with a V67->ART combo (crawling with the ants, on my website), although that's not really saying much. Remember this advice is purely amature to amature.

Slackmaster 2000
 
damn that was fast

thanks for the feed back everyone. i'm going to try the art. hey slack, i had the v67 but i traded it in to get the at4055. i had the 67 and art tube but never used them together(damnit). i'll look into that ntk. locus larson, i knew i was in for it. lol.
 
I have the 603s which works nice. I think of it as being similar to the V67 in sound, but with less definition and top end (of course it's a small diaphram). It's pretty smooth. Although they are very different mics, they complement eachother very well, I've used them in combination on an acoustic with nice results (though my acoustics are mostly crap). I've got to say that I really shouldn't be recommending anything, my experience is very limited in this case. I just happened to get good results with the V67->ART combo, even though my voice is kinda lame...for the price of these items I figured it wouldn't hurt to mention em. (I bought the ART on Ed's recommendation, and the Marshall's on Harvey's recommendation)

Slackmaster 2000
 
The only way to turn a mouse's voice in to a man's is to use a good tube mic, tube pre, or compressor. And the art ain't going to cut it.
 
Mic to thicken voice

Anything with lots of proximity effect.
Ribbons are great for this.
The closer you get, the more bass.
The RE20 is not a good choice for this because it's designed to reduce proximity effect.
Try an SM7 or SM5b or MD421.
They were all used to add "balls" to radio announcer's voices.
 
In addition to the NTK, try out the Studio Projects TB-1 in the
"affordable" catagory of condensers.
Avoid the Sennheiser MD421 MKII, and get one of the previous models, as the new one is quite bright, if you want a 421.
In selecting a dynamic, try out the Beyer M88TG (or M88), and the
Beyer Soundstar MKII, along with a Shure Unidyne III microphone like the Shure SM57. That ought to keep you busy! :)

One of the Meek compressors would also thicken your sound too.

Chris
 
cool

man, this is some great information. for radio prof, could i just cut some mid and high's with eq to get proximity thickness with the mic i have? for chessprov, i'm going to check out the joe meek compressors and see if any of them have a gate and limiter combo.
thanks
 
The "pro's" seem to indicate that you're better off getting a microphone that works well with your voice, rather than messing around with EQ. As far as gating or limiting, keep in mind that the
Meek compressors were designed with the idea of letting transient signals through, instead of linear compression and/or
brickwall limiting. Use the RNC then for taming unruly transients, setting levels, etc. You may want to track with the RNC using mainly mild compression, then at mixdown use one of the Meeks.

Chris
 
A friend I often record has a thin voice, and the only way I can beef it up is simply with an sm57 through an art mp. Imagine that...

I think an sm7 or some other lg dynamic would do wonders, though.
 
My voice gets pretty thin,especially when I sing in higher keys,so I like my md-421 sennheiser. I will sometimes cut 2-3 takes and blend them together to thicken it up a bit too.

Good luck!
 
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