A good mic for my voice

[RobbieD]

Hey guys I was just wonderinng what would be a really good mic for vocals.. i have an akg percetion 420 at the moment but i need to change it, heres a little recording i made just so you get an idea of what my voice sounds like. YouTube - Feeling good.m4v

 

[clivus]

My advice is to borrow or rent some different mikes to experiment with. That way you will know if you can actually achieve the results you desire.

 

[Capriccio]

The Perception 420 is a well respected LDC with a clear and balanced sound so it is a pity you need to change it - I'd consider buying it! In the same price range you won't find much that is better, so clivus' suggestion is a really good idea. What is your budget for a replacement mic?

What do you especially like or dislike about the Perception 420? What do you plug it into (ie. which preamp, desk or AI)? Have you experimented with where you stand in the room and using the features of the mic (eg. the low-cut)? Do you use a reflexion filter?

 

[RobbieD]

i use the presonus tube pre, but im willing to spend 1000 - 1500 for a preamp, thinking about the portico, and the mic i just want a good condenswer mic that is know for good vocals, but do be honest im stiill not sure what solid and tube sounds sound like... is there a way anyone can show me?

 

[Capriccio]

You already have a lovely mic and a great little preamp; expensive equipment will not improve the sound of your untreated room. You will get far better results by treating your room as even the most expensive mics and preamps in untreated rooms can sound awful, especially if they do not compliment your voice. Spend half your budget on sorting out the room and you will discover that you do not need to spend the other half of the budget.

> is there a way anyone can show me?

clivus is clever: he answered that before you even asked it!

 

[RobbieD]

ok well my stuff is in my bedroom Pictures by robbied6 - Photobucket
as you can see the green wall room was my room before the red wall room, it was more cluttered so i got rid of three desk bought one, and put less stuff in it, now i see on pics people putting up panels of wood or foam but i honestly dunno wat my room needs can u or anyone tell me just by looking at it?

 

[Capriccio]

Have you bothered to research at all? Type OC703 or acoustic treatment into the search box. TONS of info. INSANE amounts of info, even.

Besides, without knowing what your room dimensions are ... we can't tell you anything.

Your room needs to have problem sounds kept under control as best you can - and you have both the sound of the room for both tracking and mixing to consider. The proper way to go about this would be to measure and calculate the room's current sound characteristics so that you know what the problems are and thus what to treat. Search for room modes to read about how that is done.

Have a look at the photos in the topic Acoustic panels... a photo essay... over on John Sayers' forum as you will probably find you need to install broadband traps and some absorption on the ceiling (called clouds) and walls at the reflection points from your mixing position, and possibly extra if the sound of the room needs it. The laminate floor is ideal as it is.

You need to control the sound in your room whether or not you try to isolate your room. You would want to isolate the the room only if the noise entering or escaping is affecting your recordings or other people. As the level of required isolation rises so does the cost of achieving this.

In your previous topic, Myriad_Rocker and others gave you advice about acoustic treatment and asked questions (ie. what are the dimensions and problems of your room). Until we know more specifics it is impossible to give answers that will accurately improve your room.

RobbieD, I am beginning to feel like a few of us are just repeating the same thing over and over: we cannot measure your room from a photo and whilst we cannot hear the problems of your room from a photo, it is clear that you have no acoustic treatment and so you will (but to what extent we cannot know) have problems with room modes, flutter echoes and other aural problems. That is why Myriad_Rocker pointed you towards reading about acoustic treatment and I gave you a link to where you can see what others have done to give you a rough idea of what is involved. Exactly what you need to do depends on measurements: the dimensions of your room, the frequencies that give you problems - by sounding too loud or quiet in different places in your room, the most important places being where you sit to listen to the mix and where the microphone is when you record.

I don't want you to feel like I am chasing you around the forum so I will stop answering your questions and if you want help you need to give the information that others have asked for in order to be able to help you.

If this is beyond you, you could use your room to write songs and then go to a local studio to record and mix them.

PS. I look forward to hearing your music as I listen to a fair bit of Greek pop music (a friend lived there for 15 years) your voice is as good as the guys I listen to on CDs.

 

[RobbieD]

ok so i made a little diagram of my room, plus put pictures of all angles of the room, if you cant read the measurements on the diagram, they are 10'7 for the width and 15'1 for the length, but at one corner of the room there is 2 walls making a sqaure and one corner as you will see in the pics. i hope this helps please reply Pictures by robbied6 - Photobucket

 

[Capriccio]

Please read one topic that I did not contribute to: Alternative to acoustic treatment?.

If you ask the experts, you will be told to measure your room's sound using a microphone (usually a Behringer ECM8000) and program such as REW or RPlusD and an SPL (sound pressure level) meter.

It it generally not considered advisable to guess but I get the impression that you are not overly concerned about getting a correct sound (because you didn't follow the advice about reading up on acoustic treatment and then asked how to get by without it), in which case, as most acoustical treatments include installing bass traps in all 4 corners and broadband traps (at the very least) on the walls and ceiling at the reflection points (see below) you could do what dbyboth did in Acoustic panels... a photo essay.... See the photos on page 2. You will notice that he uses OC703, what Myriad_Rocker was talking about.

Reflection points. Sit on your chair where you listen to your mixes and have someone hold a mirror flat on the wall at the places where you can see your speakers in the mirror. There are 4 walls and 2 speakers so there will be 8 places on your walls to pinpoint, plus 2 on the ceiling. These 10 places need broadband absorbers to control the reflected sounds.

If your room still sounds too live you may need more absorption. Ordinarily you would test again after installing the traps to find problem frequencies and deal with individually.

You would then repeat all these tests for a new position: your voice is a sound producer and its sound will bounce off untreated walls and be picked up by your mic. That is why I asked whether you use a reflexion filter. No matter how expensive a mic or preamp you buy they cannot stop sound bouncing round a room and causing problems. Once your room is treated it will be better for any microphone or acoustic instrument you record and for hearing your monitors more accurately.