Next Vocal mic?

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dickiefunk

dickiefunk

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Hi,

I currently have the following mics.

Oktava MK-319, Rode NT-1a, MXL v67g and Studio Projects B1.

All of these mics are considered as budget mics (I paid under £100 for each of these) so I am considering buying something better.

I would like to spend up to £350 for my next mic. I will be using it entirely for vocals and will be using it with either my Focusrite ISA ONE or GAP PRE-73 preamps.

On having a quick look around these are the mics I'm considering :-

SE Electronics SE2200T
SE Electronics Titan
AKG C214
Audio Technica AT 3060

I also considering buying a dynamic or ribbon mic such as the Shure SM7b or Golden Age R1mkIII.

I would like the mic to have low noise, lots of detail without sounding harsh or exaggerated high end and have warm and thickness to the tone.

What mic would you recommend for this?
 
My favorite vocal dynamic recently has been the MD-441, but I don't know much about vocals. For some reason, they're going fairly cheap on ebay these days if you look - I got two, each for under $300 - one of them for not much more than the equivalent of £100 (in US dollars). Maybe it's the economy.

My other favorite vocal mics that I have are modified - the MK319 floating dome / premium electronics mod from Joly, and a heavily (and perhaps singularly) modified TnC ACM6802 that Marik did (with a Tab-Funkenwerk transformer and a Peluso capsule) - my favorite in most cases. Again, I know very little about vocals.

Other mics that I have gotten some good tracks with: SM57 modded with Tab-Funkenwerk T58 transformer, SM7b, AT4040, Blue Baby Bottle, EV RE-10, (EV RE20? haven't used it much yet, but sounds good), TnC ACM3 (cheap ribbon) with Lundahl transformer

It really does come down to the voice and the song

I kind of don't like the C414B-ULS for vox, but it has been probably the best sometimes if the vocalist is really good, and the AT4033 seems a little too precise to me, too.
 
I have to agree. It is a great vocal mic. I've never used a condensor because of the room and I'm very satisfied with the way the 441 sounds. It's a very accurate mic, perhaps the most accurate dynamic you can buy.

Very smooth and transparent. Try one, you'll like it.
 
I am considering possibly getting my current mics modded aswell.

I've heard loads of good things about the Michael Joly mods but am unsure which mic to get modded first?

He mods all the mics I own.

I am quite fancying something new for the moment and am pretty tempted by the SE 2200T as I don't have a tube mic and this one has got some excellent reviews!

There's also been a lot of recommendation for the Shure SM7b which I've tried and liked. I think I'll have to borrow one of these again and give it a good try out.
I'm a little put off from getting a dynamic mic though because of the large amount of gain needed. I like to try and get my vocal recordings as noise free and intimate as possible.
Having said that, my Focusrite ISA One and GAP PRE-73 are extremely quiet preamps.

I've also heard good things about the CAD M9 which I've noticed is in my budget.

Hmm decisions!
 
Unless you're in the analog domain, I don't think you really need a lot of gain for a dynamic with even as low output as the SM7b - what you need are:

1) a *quiet* (i.e. low noise - "character" is OK :)) preamp; and
2) a way to monitor tracking with a gain setting that's independent of the level that's being tracked (which you need anyway, but sometimes isn't really there on home-recordist systems).

The reason for this is that you can boost the gain digitally with ease whenever you like inside your computer. If your preamp is noisy, then the noise of the preamp will come up when you boost the gain - either with the gain knob on the preamp itself, or with the digital boost later (or compressor or whatever). Since the mic is low output, the signal to noise ratio won't be good at any gain setting. Therefore, a low noise preamp (regardless of how much gain it has) is a must for these mics - *especially* the SM7b.

Where I got stuck wanting a lot of gain was the monitoring thing - I couldn't hear myself (or others couldn't hear themselves) in the headphones above the mix (or at all), and the natural, but *wrong* impulse was to turn up the preamp gain - the proper way to do it is to have a post tracking gain stage like a headphone amp or something that brings the gain up to a good monitoring level. That leaves your "printed" track with lots of headroom - which you want.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

I've narrowed it down to :-

Shure SM7b (or RE20 if a s/h one popped up)
SE 2200T
Oktava mod (would probably go for the MK-319)
 
The SM7b is a good one. Others not mentioned....the MXL V6 has a good sound in vocal land as does the rode K2 and the apex 460
 
Has anyone on here had experience any experience with the Shure SM7b and either the Oktavamod MK-319 or SE Electronics SE2200T or 2200A?

Thanks
 
do a search on the Shure, it is one of my favorite mics and would replace it in a heartbeat if it were gone. Works for many things , save overheads..
 
Thanks.

I've done a search for the Shure SM7b and it seems that all user experiences are fantastic!!

I've also searched for the OktavaMod MK-319 and user experiences for this are glowing aswell!!

Finally I did a search for the SE 2200A and this has also had glowing reviews and won loads of awards. There hasn't been many reviews for the SE2200T because it is fairly new but so far it has had fantastic reviews.
 
I've got two SM7b mics and one Oktavamod MK-319FDPE, and all I can say is fantastic and glowing. You should go for some of the fantastic and the glowing. Can you get both of those?
 
antichef said:
I've got two SM7b mics and one Oktavamod MK-319FDPE, and all I can say is fantastic and glowing. You should go for some of the fantastic and the glowing. Can you get both of those?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if I can afford both at the moment but if funds allow I would get the SM7b + either the SE2200T or OktavaMod MK-319.

I'm selling a Roland VK7, Roland A33, pair of speaker stands and an Intel E4600 Core 2 Duo cpu. I'm also looking to possibly replace my Echo Layla 3G with either a Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 DSP or Steinberg MR816x.

So with the money I get from selling this stuff I'd need to get an interface and mic. If funds allow I might be able to stretch to a second mic but would also like a brass vsti such as vir2 Mojo.

How does the tone of the SM7b compare to the OktavaMod MK-319?
 
The MK319 is higher output than the SM7b (and so can function with a noisier preamp) - after that, I have to go into the world of inaccurate adjectives and metaphors - sorry. The SM7b can stand up to screaming or really loud voices well - it takes the edges off, to me, almost like there's a little compression going on (of course there's not). They both do very well with sibilance - the 319 works better than the SM7b on softer voices and singers with less skill. The SM7b (as you'd imagine) is probably better at spoken word - the 319 picks up too much detail for me.
 
What are peoples thoughts on the Audio Technica 4047/SV compared to the Shure SM7b and OktavaMod MK-319?
 
i'm afraid i can't give you a comparison,,but i own an sm7b and love it.



if you find yourself having problems with picking up room noise in a less than ideal environment,
or having difficulty with singers who don't have great mic (or singing) technique, then the SM7b is a godsend.



sure, so's the re20/421 and many other big dynamics, but personally i reach for the sm7b more often than anything else.
 
Mr. Funk,

If you like the character and flavor of the 319, rest assured that the mods will fix any sonic shortcomings it has, and this mic will no longer be "low end". What the mods will give you is the same basic flavor of the 319 capsule, but better sounding and better behaved in every way.

I liked my 319 stock and could hear a lot of potential in it, so I had it modded. I've never been sorry!

But if you're after a different flavor, that's another matter.
 
I'm considering buying 2 mics now.

I've been offered a secondhand SE2200T at an extremely low price and am pretty tempted.

I'm also torn between the OktavaMod MK-319 and SM7b.

Ideally I'd like all three but can't stretch to this!!

Not sure which 2 to get!?
 
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