New mic suggestions for our band?

[Robertt8]

**This isn't exclusively about mics, but i am wondering if my mics or signal chain could use some updating...**

I think our band is going to try and partially record our next CD ourselves (vocals and acoustic guitars along with random other overdubs).

Our first CD was completely done on our own and then mixed and mastered by a pro. Our 2nd CD was all done in the studio. We spent a lot of time in that studio... I'm not a huge fan of being stuck in a dark, cold recording studio for days on end, so we figured we'd try and mic only the drums and bass in a studio and then mic vocals and acoustic guitars at home.

I guess i need to figure what i need to make this work. We're a band that kind of sounds like a cross between Jack Johnson and G. Love. we have a very straight forward sound and we typically mic the acoustics and vocals straight up with no effects or anything too crazy.

I have a very simple setup. Mac Laptop, Presonus Firebox, Studio Projects C1 & B1.

We did do one short song on our new CD done with this setup. it was acoustic guitars and vocals. it was mixed by the guy that recorded the rest of the album and he thought it was extremely "bright" sounding...way too bright sounding according to him

Is there anything we should do to make things sound better? we have no problem picking up more gear.

Any thoughts here would be appreciated.

[bassmonkey144]

maybe a nice preamp? the MAudio DMP2 or DMP3 are both great. made a world of difference in my acoustic recordings.

[Robertt8]

Originally Posted by bassmonkey144

maybe a nice preamp? the MAudio DMP2 or DMP3 are both great. made a world of difference in my acoustic recordings.

i've been thinking about this...what would i do here? i've got the Presonus Firebox as my "box" would i end up plugging a preamp into my firebox? isn't the firebox a preamp?

[bassmonkey144]

i'm not real familiar with the firebox, but if it has line-ins on the back, you would use those instead of the front inputs. the firebox is a preamp, but it's not as high quality as a dedicated preamp. I'm not an electrical engineer, so I can't really give you the details why, although higher quality chips are probably a main reason.

[dgatwood]

The Firebox has limited gain, so if you are dealing with something like a ribbon, you might have better luck getting clean enough output with a standalone pre. That's true to a lesser degree for other dynamic mics.

If you're mostly using condensers, the difference between its pres and inexpensive standalone pres is probably not going to be huge.

[mattkw80]

Hey Robert....

IMHO.... the expensive gear is expensive for a reason. Did you have a budget in mind?

Last year I got into a better pre ( UA LA-610 ) and better mics ( AT 4050 ) and noticed a major improvement in what I was doing. In fact, it seems the better the gear, the easier it is to get a better sound without messing around too much.

What kind of cash we're you thinking of sinking into this?

[chessparov]

IMHO "go analog" by at least mixing down to an analog 2 track.

Better still record to an 8 (or 16) track reel to reel then transfer it into digital for editing, etc.

Also you might be able to adjust you mic placement to darken tones...

Chris

[hairylarry]

Robert,

I don't own any Studio Projects mics and the B1 and C1 are well thought of but they are both bright mics.

For acoustic guitar the Naiant omnis are very flat and really do a great job.

For vocals you might try a couple of dynamic mics. Two possibilities are the EV PL80 and the Beyer M400 Soundstar microphones. I own both of these excellent vocal mics and they are not bright. They are also good performing mics. You will find these used on ebay. EV has recently rereleased the PL80 but I have no knowledge about the new ones. Hopefully they are as good as the vintage PL80s.

Others will recommend the EV RE-20 and the Shure SM7. I don't own either of these dynamic mics but they are very well regarded and found in nearly every major studio. The Heil mics are also well regarded dynamics. All of these mics are still in production.

I also vote for stand alone preamps. I have the DMP2 which is supposed to be like the DMP3. I use them on everything including my acoustic guitar when I play live.

I have also been haunting ebay looking for an fmr rnc compressor. Something like this would complete your vocals chain.

Thanks,

Hairy Larry