New Vocal Mic for my collection.

Which vocal mic?

  • Audio Technica 4040

    Votes: 8 15.7%

  • Audio Technica 3060

    Votes: 3 5.9%

  • Audio Technica 4047

    Votes: 12 23.5%

  • Audio Technica 4050

    Votes: 18 35.3%

  • Blue Bluebird

    Votes: 2 3.9%

  • Blue Baby Bottle

    Votes: 4 7.8%

  • Rode NT2000

    Votes: 1 2.0%

  • Rode K2

    Votes: 11 21.6%

  • Se Electronics ICIS

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Se Electronics Z5600 mk2

    Votes: 2 3.9%
  • Total voters
    51
Hello,
I am not trying to raise your budget, but i would recommend holding out for a used CAD VX2. You should be able to find one on ebay for 800-900 dollars. I love mine. If you do some research on it you will become enlightened. I have a Rode NTK, 2 SP C1's, and others not mentioned on the post, but i can say that hands down the CAD is my go-to mic. Just providing options from the norm.
Derek
 
That is gonna be well out of my budget. I'm favouring the AT 4040 at the mo because of it's price and with the money I'll save on the K2 I might get the SE Reflexion Filter. My room is totally untreated so adding a Reflexion Filter may tighten up my vocal recordings with my other mics aswell as the AT 4040.

Am still curious to see how much the Studio Projects CS1 will be.
 
RRRS said:
Hello,
I am not trying to raise your budget, but i would recommend holding out for a used CAD VX2. You should be able to find one on ebay for 800-900 dollars. I love mine. If you do some research on it you will become enlightened. I have a Rode NTK, 2 SP C1's, and others not mentioned on the post, but i can say that hands down the CAD is my go-to mic. Just providing options from the norm.
Derek
Click to expand...

Looks interesting. For something more in-budget, you might consider the CAD M9. It's a pretty nice sounding mic, IMHO. I'm also impressed with the ADK Generis GT-2. Both mics have their own unique character---very different from the FET LDCs I've tried (ADK Hamburg, SP B3, Apex 435), which all sound pretty siimilar.

Here's a short opinion of several mics:

ADK Hamburg: brittle with a harsh upper midrange, giving the impression of heavily scooped mids. It might be flattering on some voices, but I certainly haven't found that to be the case with mine.

SP B3: fairly even tone. Not wonderful for voice, but not bad. A little on the bright side.

Apex 435: very similar to the B3, but somewhat brighter. It isn't bright to the point of being harsh (at least on tenor voices---it would proabbly break glass if used on a soprano), but if you tame the highs quite a bit, it would be usable. I think it's an excellent mic for what I paid for it ($35), and frankly, I'd use it for vocals before I'd use the Hamburg....

Karma K58: I'm still evaluating this one. It's very bright for a tube mic. I'm guessing that the capsule is a cheap Chinese capsule. With the stock 12AX7 tube, it sounded pretty brittle to my ears. After switching to a GE JAN NOS tube, it's still pretty bright, but usable. It is, however, relatively clean sounding, IIRC, and it has a large body, so it's a modder's dream. It would probably sound a lot better with a capsule replacement. Either that or maybe there's a HF disc in front of the capsule that should be yanked or something. Dunno. I haven't dug into that part of the mic yet.

Cad M9: This is a very nice sounding mic---not too bright, not too dark. It makes an excellent vocal mic for male vocals. Make sure you let it warm up enough because it is exceptionally harsh for the first fifteen minutes or so. :)

ADK Generis GT-2: Thiis is a relatively dark tube mic. I love the way it helps give my voice have that sort of smoky, husky color without actually having to wreck my body. :D I'm using the stock tube, so take that with a grain of salt.
 
If you've got a vocalist with a rather loud voice, I'd imagine an untreated room is going to appear on the recording even with the filter. I could be entirely wrong, but I've tested the same in a decent size room with no treatment - and the reflections came in crystal clear, with the K2.

So, I'd say perhaps you should look into a tiny bit of room treatment if you end up saving some of the cash you were putting toward the mic.

Just a thought. Hell - my current setup involves a couple of unused twin mattresses propped on their short ends in the corner of the room, and enough of the vocal is absorbed to avoid getting room reflections on tape, and the room is probably only 8'x12'.

Sure, people will say mattresses don't work very well for sound-proofing, and I'll agree, it only decreases a bit of the sound outside the room, but for preventing audio from going all over the place, esp. with vocal parts, it works pretty well. (Not that I would tell ya to go buy mattresses, it just emphasizes my point about room treatment - not sure what your room size/shape/purpose is aside from recording, so your options may be very different from mine)
 
Yeah i'm gonna look at acoustic treatment much closer. I'm moving rooms within the next couple of weeks. I'm thinking about buying either the SE Electronics Reflexion Filter, RealTraps Portable Vocal Booth or SM Pro Audio Mic Thing. Not sure which offers best results? I will be using duvets behind the vocalist for now. Will be moving rooms again within the year into a double garage (permanantly) which I'm gonna kit out with acoustic panels and treat one of the corners for vocalists.

Am looking for another mic so that I can have more colours to choose from.
 
Yo Dickiefunk! I see this a lot. You ask the question, and the same answers come up again and again. They aren't the answers you are looking for, so you repeat the question.

You need a good dynamic. Shure SM7b is a great choice
You need a multipattern condenser. KSM44 or AKG C414B-XLS are very good choices.
You need a good tube mic- AT 4060 would be a very good choice.

The large diaphragm FET condensers you keep coming back to, such as AT4040
don't fill in the holes in your mic cabinet. OK, a 4040 is, I think, a better general main vocal mic than an NT1a, but it's not a huge step up.-Richie
 
Used ADK CE - quite underated but really top level tube 9-patterned mike

I use it thru SPL Goldmike and it gives me nice neutral sound, just a little colored and brighter, fitting perfectly on vocals.

Do not want to start flame but I suppose that it will blow out all the mikes from your list except for the Blue ;-)
 
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