Upgrade from AKG p220 for Baritone voice.

PabloDB

New member
Hello, I'm a classically trained baritone looking for suggestions to upgrade from my AKG 220, was considering the SM7B but I'm not sure how it may sound and know no one to borrow it from. Any other mic. on the 7B price range would work fine. Besides improving my production and musical techniques, I feel the p220 is not capturing some frequencies I can hear in the room and the baritone quality I would like and sometimes it feels a bit too airy.

Specs:
Focusrite 2i4 1st gen.
Logic X 24 bits /48 kHz
Poorly treated bedroom (no budget) but I try to make sure to record in the middle of the room on a carpet.
Pop filter

Can't post a link, but if you want to hear a sample, search for " pablo dabari stars " on YouTube.
 
Listening to several of your postings, I don't really hear the vocal as being particularly "airy", and that is listening to them on my Sony 7506 headphones, which I find to be on the bright side. Listening to those same songs on my Sennheiser HD280s, they sound positively dark. If anything, it could use a boost in the midrange. Are those the frequencies you feel are lacking?

I'm curious about your listening setup (monitors or headphones).
 
Listening to several of your postings, I don't really hear the vocal as being particularly "airy", and that is listening to them on my Sony 7506 headphones, which I find to be on the bright side. Listening to those same songs on my Sennheiser HD280s, they sound positively dark. If anything, it could use a boost in the midrange. Are those the frequencies you feel are lacking?

I'm curious about your listening setup (monitors or headphones).

Perhaps, but I usually reduce FQ´s from about 500 - 1500, depending on the song, because otherwise the voice won't sit well in the mix and will get a boomy sound. To compensate this I boost about 3 DB on around 200 and 4K - 6K.
 
The P220 has a good overall frequency response, I doubt it is the mic that is your problem.


I have 2 KRK rokit 5 monitors, which I use for general balancing, but try not to do all of mixing on those because of lacking of room treatment. I usually mix with My Shure SE215 in ears.
 
I'm confused here. You say you reduce from 500-1500Hz to avoid getting a boomy sound? Is this in the vocal? That's the primary midrange area. Boominess tends to be in the 50-200Hz range.

Something just doesn't add up to me. I don't know the SE215 in-ears, so I can't say how they are affecting your mix.

Perhaps someone else can comment.
 
I'm confused here. You say you reduce from 500-1500Hz to avoid getting a boomy sound? Is this in the vocal? That's the primary midrange area. Boominess tends to be in the 50-200Hz range.

Something just doesn't add up to me. I don't know the SE215 in-ears, so I can't say how they are affecting your mix.

Perhaps someone else can comment.

Perhaps I explained myself incorrectly, what I meant is that by reducing those areas, I attempt to reduce certain overpowering sound , that may be best described not as a low-end boomy, but as some sort of overdriving warmth, that won't allow the voice track to sit in the mix. Perhaps that comes with singing a bit more of a classical style. Maybe those are the frequencies I feel are lacking, but by bringing them in the voice feels too over the mix.
 
The problems:
Untreated room
KRK monitors (have heard more bad reviews than good)
In-ear monitors - great for stage work, not for mixing (I had 215s, never even tried them for mixing).

Unless you can actually hear your tracks, you are making EQ adjustments that are guesses.

More gear isn't going to help until you can monitor better.
 
I'm guessing that you have the audio tracks from your Youtube videos. Maybe you could post the vocal with and without EQ changes here. Then maybe we can hear what you are adjusting, and see if we hear the same thing.
 
The problems:
Untreated room
KRK monitors (have heard more bad reviews than good)
In-ear monitors - great for stage work, not for mixing (I had 215s, never even tried them for mixing).

Unless you can actually hear your tracks, you are making EQ adjustments that are guesses.

More gear isn't going to help until you can monitor better.

Great, thanks for the feedback. What are your thoughts on portable vocal sound booths,? Maybe to improve at least the recording process.
 
I'm guessing that you have the audio tracks from your Youtube videos. Maybe you could post the vocal with and without EQ changes here. Then maybe we can hear what you are adjusting, and see if we hear the same thing.


Great idea, will post them as soon as I can.
 
Great, thanks for the feedback. What are your thoughts on portable vocal sound booths,? Maybe to improve at least the recording process.

'Booths' - no, unless you are doing voice-overs. Some mic reflection filters help, but for the money you can build 4" thick (movable) traps that are more useful.
 
Old KRK designed by Kieth R. Klawitter are pretty decent. The new ones aren’t as good. Their amp designs aren’t good and they seem focused for a certain genre of music. Klawitter recently moved to Behringer and called his Nekkst monitors his best work yet. I’ve yet to try those out.
 
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