Rode NT1-A or something else for my voice

The question you need to answer is how does your room sound? If it not acoustically treated then forget about any condenser mic. Go with a dynamic like SM7B or waste your time.

Opinion based on experience. Take it as you wish.
 
Don't forget that there is an NT1 and a NT1A, they do sound different so maybe try them both out before buying. There is a price difference between the SM7 and the NT1A, the money saved could buy some room treatment, just a thought.

Alan.
 
Hello and thanks,

the room is a 4.8m x 3m (x 2.8m height), not acoustically treated and produce echo. The walls are in concrete with only 1 door and 1 window.

Since I cannot afford to get this room treated like it should, would it be a nice investment to get one Sound Reflection Screen Vocal Recording Booth (like the one here: Rode NT1A Microphone Bundle with Sound Reflection Screen Vocal Recording Booth | eBay) ?

From there, would it be wise opting for a condenser or a dynamic mic ?

P.S. Noting that I will use the mic only for vocals
 
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Im not a hater- I think that package from Ebay is a good, safe investment.

Hang some heavy drapes in a corner and back up to it, and I think you will do fine.
If you don't like the mic on YOUR voice.. put it in a drawer and pull it out when you need to mic someone else.
Its a modern classic.. I have one in a drawer somewhere myself :)
 
Hello thanks,

I forgot to tell that I will not be able to test the mic before purchase since buying on eBay, can't do otherwise...
 
The question you need to answer is how does your room sound? If it not acoustically treated then forget about any condenser mic. Go with a dynamic like SM7B or waste your time.

Opinion based on experience. Take it as you wish.

In THAT room(!!!) I agree. I have already mentioned before, (as have others) that the transducer PRINCIPLE does not matter for room control but the NT1a does not, AFAICT, have a sensitivity switch and is therefore going to pickup a lot of that g'dawful room.

An SDC WITH a 20dB pad is a possibility but Jim's on the money really, SM 'something', suck it and fix the room as best you can. Drag in a couple of sofa!

Dave.
 
You will still need to do some kind of treatment in that size room to at least stop upper frequency reflections. The fast bouncing 'boing' noise you hear when you clap your hands in the room will kill a vocal track quick. You are not going to be able to do much with the low end modes in that space but that isn't necessarily going to be a problem for the human voice. Will suck if you mix in there with monitors but if you only doing vocals you can get by mixing with headphones.

The SM7b is about $170 more than your budget for the NT1a. From experience, I do like the NT1a for hole mic of an acoustic guitar. Never had good luck with it for vocals. Keep in mind I have pretty well treated/isolated studio rooms and I can still hear the dogs poop outside with the NT1a. The SM7b does not pick up so much of the ambient noises.

Now, you could also start with a SM58 for $100 and see how it goes. I just would not recommend going with a LDC mic in that room as first choice. I would pretty much guarantee you will regret the purchase for your situation.

Now here is a possible concern. The Scarlett shows preamp input gain of 46db. Do you sing softly like Aaron? According to many things I have read, that may be an issue as the SM microphones are a bit better suited with a preamp of 60 dB or so. Especially the SM7b. I myself use a separate preamp with 70 dB of gain but have to say I have never needed that much ever. Works just fine with my interface preamps that have 60 dB of gain. And never have had to crank them but I use the SM7b mostly for rock vocals. Yet a for a few soft voiced 'whispering' girl singers the mic still worked great. Though again I had to use more gain from my Vintech Preamp to get to the ideal -18dBFS goal at input. Not sure how the preamp gain affects how well the recording goes. One can always add gain in DAW. Never really quite wrapped my head around all that, but then I didn't have to.

Hmm. Now I wonder what I would do in this situation. Any others have advice here?

Cheers!
 
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On Ebay, there is a Chinese knockoff of the $200 Kaotica Eyeball, for $40.
Desktop Wind Screen Vocal Studio Sound Recording Booth Reflection Filter Foam

It does muffle the reverb in my office, but does dampen the sound a bit.
 
You will need a mic with a pad in that environment. That being said, a padded input with that pre/interface will need the gain up quite a bit to capture the nuances involved in a great vocal sound. So now you're back to where you were before.....only with the padded input and extra gain you add the noise of the equipment to the formula.

It's kind of a never ending circle. An SM58 Shure, a reflexion Filter, some packing blankets and a small amount of corner treatment will get you more than an ultra-sensitive condenser that is problematic to begin with.
 
I think the Rode NT1-A is a great mic. I've used it for recording vocals in many rooms, none of which have had any acoustic treatment, and I've often been happy with the results. I understand the concern some people have raised about using condenser mics in untreated rooms, but I'll always choose a condenser over a dynamic for your vocals and acoustic instruments. I have an SM-58 and it just doesn't work for my voice at all.

Here's an example of a live recording I made with the Rode NT1-A in a living room:
You Must've Felt Alone by Aki Laakso | Free Listening on SoundCloud
 
You will need a mic with a pad in that environment. That being said, a padded input with that pre/interface will need the gain up quite a bit to capture the nuances involved in a great vocal sound. So now you're back to where you were before.....only with the padded input and extra gain you add the noise of the equipment to the formula.

It's kind of a never ending circle. An SM58 Shure, a reflexion Filter, some packing blankets and a small amount of corner treatment will get you more than an ultra-sensitive condenser that is problematic to begin with.

Depends how much you attenuate! A 10dB pad would drop the NTs sensitivity to some 8mV, still way above an SM58 and I would aver about bob on the noise sweetspot for many pre amps. Do not forget, the NT1a has about the lowest self noise of any capacitor mic at 5dB and then you would be attenuating that! (making up the level of course by getting closer)

Even with a 20dB pad you are still some 6dB better for signal and hence pre amp noise than the Shure. I am all for personal preferences and bow to great experience but let's have the numbers right? In any case, capacitor mics have other qualities, much wider, flatter frequency response. Not everyone WANTS to sound like everyone else on a 58!

Son and I started effectively with an M-Audio Fast track pro, a very useful AI but the mic amps were crap. Not a lot of gain and fully cranked pretty noisy with dynamics. I bought a pair of AKG Perception 150s. Modest performance, 10mV sens' iirc and a noise figure of 20dB but easily good enough to rescue the FTPro for acoustic guitar.

Dave.
 
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