so... what to do

C

corban

New member
Anybody who feels like reading through my shit setup and giving me some advice, I'd appreciate it. I'm looking at upgrading, mostly to better my vocal situation. I record rock, folk, pop... etc, and i've worked with male and female vocals. Here's my pres:

$600 M-Audio octane, 8 channels. The pres are the same as the DMP3.
$125 DMP3 - selling it
$200 Electro Harmonix tube pre. Recently bought it, and it's nice, but I could return it and use the money for something better.

With mics I'm setup well for drums and other instruments. It's the vocals that I'm lacking in. Seriously lacking. I have

$100 Studio Projects B1
$200 CAD M179
$100 piece o' shit Apex LDC - selling it

The B1 is a great mic for the money, as is the CAD, but both are touch and go when it comes to vocals, sometimes they can work, but I know I could do better. I don't have a great workhorse vocal mic. Or vocal mic pre. I have cheap but transparent pres, so I bought the tube pre hoping to give myself some warming options. It's occurred to me now that maybe I should instead put that money towards a great mic, maybe a great tube mic, and upgrade pres later, maybe to a RNP. That would still leave me without a colored pre.

For a budget at the moment I could probably scrounge up $350 by selling my disposable gear, plus throw in around $300. So... $600-$700 total, keeping in mind that involves returning the tube pre. I await your wise advise. Especially you, ez willis.
 
I know this seems to be a popular answer (probably because it is a nice contrast to all those cheap chinese mics that almost everyone including me use):Try a Shure SM7. It is a nice dynamic mic, and to me seems a ton smoother and "bigger" for lack of a better word, than any of the lower end condensers I have heard.

Don't know about tube condensers though, so I can't offer a comparison there.


A.
 
yeah, an SM7 or RE20/27 would go a long way. much better than the typical cheapie chinese condensers.

for condensers, i'm really digging the (long retired) MXL V77 on female vocals, especially "softer" vocals (folky stuff). it's nice on male vocals too, especially thinner voiced males. nice, clear and warm sounding. makes things bigger, but not in that "modern rock" sort of sound. definitely more "vintage" sounding. i hate using words like that.

if you want more "rock" oriented vocals, the V69 is pretty nice. on the cheap, the V67 is pretty decent on some vocals and for some reason the gold grille really seems to inspire some vocalists....and inspired vocalists usually means a better performance.

are you recording a lot of different people or predominantly yourself? truth be told, it's ultimately a matter of matching the mic to the voice (taking the song into account). no one mic will work for the same vocalist on all songs. i've got 5 or 6 mics that i typically use on my voice depending on the song.


cheers,
wade
 
Shure SM7. It was chosen on my last three projects (male and female vocals) over some pretty decent condensors -- AT4050, Neumann Gefell M582h, Beyer M834, GT MD1a, GT MD3, Audix VX-10, AKG 414. It also got used for guitars and some drums as well. I've since bought another one. I'm sure that there are circumstances where another mic would work better on a particular voice, but it seems work well on most voices most of the time. And it's relatively inexpensive. I bought both of mine used for $200 each (original SM7s).

If I really wanted a broadly applicable condensor, I'd probably go with an AT4050 or a Shure KSM44.
 
you got a great deal-- the price on original sm7's (not a's or b's) seems to be steadily increasing.
 
for the amount of money you say you could scrounge up the Rode K2 is a tube LDC, I have it and use it regularly through a Eureka, works for me, but might not for you, who knows, guess it depends on the engineer/artists, but the SM7 you wont go wrong at all, very versatile.
 
this is good advice. i'm emailing a guy about buying an SM7 right now for 250. It's nice cause the Canadian dollar is on par with the US right now, so it's more affordable for me than usual.
 
You mention that you're mostly trying to improve your vocals.

Which would suggest a microphone upgrade ... most of the time. Perhaps having a few more options to choose from, etc.

While I like the SM7 recommendation -- about 99% of the time I wouldn't have anything against it -- a vocal mic is really one of those things where you have to have direct experience. You need to try out as many mics as you can get your hands on ... and just keep the ones you like and sell the ones you don't.

So yea, I'd get the sm7 ... but I'd also get a KSM-44 ... an AT 4033 ... AT 4047 ... and maybe a few others while you're at it. Work with them for a while, and sell the ones you don't like. It's really the onlly way, unless you just want to take random stabs in the dark.

.
 
Rode NTK is my recommendation. For samples on vocals check out the GMP link below. They're through modest preamps on an Alesis board.:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top