Microphone quality help

F

fierywater

New member
Okay, my cousin was over earlier today, and he brought his microphone and his pre-amp. I have an Omni I/O going into a Delta 66 for a computer interface. My microphone is an MXL 990 using the built-in preamp on the Omni I/O. He brought an MXL V63M going into a PreSonus TUBEPre preamp.

Now, we each recorded our vocals, and I realized his recording was one hell of a lot better quality. We were both in the same room, and the acoustics shouldn't have been much different where we each were. I noticed his vocals sounded a lot cleaner; mine sounded like they were sort of colored(?) by something. I had been feeling like I was having this problem before, but I thought it was just something that happened with cheap mics. But I did a few searches here and realized that some people made really good recordings using an MXL 990, and that I'm probably doing something wrong.

I'm trying to figure out what I can do; should I get a similar preamp? Or is the MXL V63M really that much better than the MXL990? The Omni I/O supposedly has decent pre-amps. I don't think it's my voice, though I didn't get a chance to try singing into his mic much. It felt like I could put the gain on his higher than on mine, however, without having feedback or distortion, and that his mic felt a lot cleaner. Should I try replacing the mic, getting a similar pre-amp, or just try moving around or adjusting my voice? Thanks in advance for any reponses.
 
Do you have any sort of Eq on your vocals? Just try turning it all down flat and see how that sounds. If it already is flat, try adding a bit more treble to bring it more clear. Keep trying a few different Eq settings and that should help give it a bit better quality. If it doesnt I would try to figure out where the problem is first, try testing another mic with your pre amp, and try using your mic with another pre amp (if possible). Once you know which it is thats making your vocals sound "coloured" then you can either start to play around with it all to try and get it sounding more how you want it, or buy a new one :)

Good luck!
 
What Tifstorey said. Try all combinations of the 2 mics, and the preamps you have available first, see what is producing what sounds. You should be able to see if your mic sounds fine with his preamp that way. Or maybe his mic with your preamo is fine. That will narrow it down, and help you spend your money better.
Ed
 
Thanks for the replies.

I just did a bit more screwing around, and I'm not sure if the discrepancy between the quality of his vocals and mine is really so great after all. I realized I forgot to put the pad button on for my pre-amp, which would explain why I picked up every single background noise possible. That probably made the difference, along with our different styles of singing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top