Adding warmth to vocals

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swimbackdanman

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Hi. I'm a musician on a budget, like pretty much everybody these days, and recently used a SM7B for vocals, and loved it, but due to my limited budget I had to return it as it wasn't versatile enough and I needed a more universally applicable mic. Now I have the Nuemann TLM102 large diaphragm condenser, and it just doesn't have the warmth of the SM7B that captured my voice so well. Are there any tricks I could use in the mixing process to attempt to artificially add warmth? Any frequencies that are best to boost? I've been lowering the high end and boosting the low and mids, but I just can't seem to do the trick. Obviously the more tweaking I do the better, but I thought I'd ask some other people what their thoughts are on the matter.
 
Well...you're trying to make a large diaphragm condenser sound like a dynamic microphone.
It's not just EQ, because each will deal differently with transients and at different speeds.

The most you can do is what you are already doing...use processing to dial it in as close as you can, and since you know the sound you liked with the SM7B...then only you will know when you've gotten close enough.
Kinda hard for anyone else to tell you just how much to dial it in....so just work it, but know that it will never sound exaclty the same as the other mic.
 
U can tweak, but you aren't going to get there. Those mics are worlds apart. And the SM-7 will reject a bad room alot more than a 103.
 
FWIW, I can't think of a more versatile mic than the SM7B.

The TLM series of mics are pretty sibilant so try using a de-esser. Another trick you could try is to use a dynamic EQ to pull down the strident frequencies at a specific threshold.

Otherwise, a good tape saturation plugin might help. Try Bootsy's FerricTDS. It's free.

Cheers :)
 
Are you using a reflective filter or anything? I have found out with blocking the sound from bouncing it will add a lot more warmth and dimension to the overall vocal track
 
What else.....

Seriously though, I bet some kind of material obstruction would help.
Singing off axis may help too.
 
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