Best rap mics under 5k?

[JimmyS1969]

SM7dB has a built in preamp.

Or the Klark Mic Booster CM-1 for $45 with a SM7B

https://www.sweetwater.com/c662--Stu_Pre?all&sb=popular&highlight=MicBoostCM1

 

[Farview]

It is always about matching the mic to the voice.

An SM7 is hit or miss, depending on the preamp and the voice. I use it because it isn't hyped, I can eq in the hype, choosing what frequency to hype.

Most of the Micheal Jackson stuff was done with an sm7. Also a ton of aggressive metal vocals were done with it. But, if it isn't a fit for your voice, it isn't a fit.

 

[ecc83]

Just an observation but the title of this thread absolutely qualifies as what is know as a..."First World Problem"!

Dave.

 

[purplepeople]

The SM7B needs a lot of gain to get to its sweet spot. The pre needs over 65db of gain, so plugging it into an interface with built in pre amps might be the reason it sounded lifeless? Lifeless is the opposite of how I would describe a SM7B.

I had a Cloudlifter too. There was a large amount of noise/static in the background and the overall feel of the vocal was flat as wood.
It's possible the place I bought it from sold me a knock off. Hard to say.

 

[Scott Baxendale]

I had a Cloudlifter too. There was a large amount of noise/static in the background and the overall feel of the vocal was flat as wood.
It's possible the place I bought it from sold me a knock off. Hard to say.

What preamp were you using?

 

[purplepeople]

What preamp were you using?

A Focusrite 2i2

 

[Scott Baxendale]

A Focusrite 2i2

There is probably where the problem is. It’s not the mic. The Scarlett has maximum of 69db of gain and a SM7 needs at least 60db of gain to get to its sweet spot. You would need to crank your preamp gain up to 9 at least to get a SM7 to sound right. I don’t know if this helps or not?

 

[purplepeople]

There is probably where the problem is. It’s not the mic. The Scarlett has maximum of 69db of gain and a SM7 needs at least 60db of gain to get to its sweet spot. You would need to crank your preamp gain up to 9 at least to get a SM7 to sound right. I don’t know if this helps or not?

I understand that. But I also had a Cloudlifter.
It still produced an incredibly weak, flat, and noisy recording.
I sold it years ago.

 

[Scott Baxendale]

I understand that. But I also had a Cloudlifter.
It still produced an incredibly weak, flat, and noisy recording.
I sold it years ago.

I’ve never used a cloud lifter? Ive read about them and kinda thought they were designed to make a SM57 sound closer to a SM7? Since I have both I never tried them out.

I have several much more expensive high end large diaphragm condensers U47, U67 type mics and the SM7 is the only one I can use on my voice. I run it through either a API 512 into a Manley ELOP tube compressor or use a UA LA610 MK2 which is a tube channel strip. It sounds pretty amazing to my ears.

 

[TalismanRich]

Something that always bothers me about these discussions is the absurdity of the premise. "What is the best rap mic under $5000."

Ok, that suggests that you've got some serious coin to spend, going for a high dollar piece of gear. It also suggests that you have some experience with recording and have at least a decent recording area and amount of additional equipment. Suggestions start coming in, $500 mics, $1000 mics, $4000 mics, $3200 compressors, $1000 and $2000 preamps,

As the discussion going on, it comes out that we're using a $125 interface/preamp with a $200 mic. What is the monitoring setup? What's the recording room or mixing room look like (or sound like)? We have yet to hear an example of what your voice sounds like, what you consider "flat and weak". Is it the mic, the setting, the monitors, the room, or the voice that is the issue here (not trying to trash your voice, but it is a MAJOR part of this equation)? There's not a mic made that will make Taylor Swift sound like Cher or Beyonce. And I'll bet you could line up 10 mics and record Taylor and EVERY ONE would be instantly recognizable as her.

Some pretty significant songs have been recorded on "less than pro" equipment, Billie Eilish with the AT 2020 is one example.

RadioWV recorded Oliver Anthony's Rich Men North of Richmond with an NT-1a and garnered over 150 million streams on Youtube alone. In fact, almost all of the RadioWV recordings have been done with an NT-1a, outside in somewhat remote locations. Lots of different artists, none of them really sound flat and weak.

Properly used, you should be able to get a pretty big fat sound out of the majority of mics out there these days. We are long past the days of cheap crystal mics, and $30 Radio Shack electrets for home recording.

I think we really need more to work with here, or else we can just tell you to buy a U87 or a ELAM251, a Neve 1073 preamp, a TubeTech CL1B, maybe a pair of Genelec or Dynaudio monitors, a stack of plugins, and you can stick them all in a crappy room, and still come out with crappy sound.

 

[rob aylestone]

I was very unimpressed with my sm7b, and trying an in line preamp made a huge change for me because i could at last use it a bit further away. If you have one and dont like the sound on your voice, that happens. Not a marriage made in heaven. Thats when you hunt for the mic that is. Its not a problem with your voice, or the mic, just the combination. Lots of well thought of mics have presence peaks. They can be horrible with people with gaps in their teeth that also have a peak in the same place. This is normal.

 

[purplepeople]

Something that always bothers me about these discussions is the absurdity of the premise. "What is the best rap mic under $5000."

Ok, that suggests that you've got some serious coin to spend, going for a high dollar piece of gear. It also suggests that you have some experience with recording and have at least a decent recording area and amount of additional equipment. Suggestions start coming in, $500 mics, $1000 mics, $4000 mics, $3200 compressors, $1000 and $2000 preamps,

As the discussion going on, it comes out that we're using a $125 interface/preamp with a $200 mic. What is the monitoring setup? What's the recording room or mixing room look like (or sound like)? We have yet to hear an example of what your voice sounds like, what you consider "flat and weak". Is it the mic, the setting, the monitors, the room, or the voice that is the issue here (not trying to trash your voice, but it is a MAJOR part of this equation)? There's not a mic made that will make Taylor Swift sound like Cher or Beyonce. And I'll bet you could line up 10 mics and record Taylor and EVERY ONE would be instantly recognizable as her.

Some pretty significant songs have been recorded on "less than pro" equipment, Billie Eilish with the AT 2020 is one example.

RadioWV recorded Oliver Anthony's Rich Men North of Richmond with an NT-1a and garnered over 150 million streams on Youtube alone. In fact, almost all of the RadioWV recordings have been done with an NT-1a, outside in somewhat remote locations. Lots of different artists, none of them really sound flat and weak.

Properly used, you should be able to get a pretty big fat sound out of the majority of mics out there these days. We are long past the days of cheap crystal mics, and $30 Radio Shack electrets for home recording.

I think we really need more to work with here, or else we can just tell you to buy a U87 or a ELAM251, a Neve 1073 preamp, a TubeTech CL1B, maybe a pair of Genelec or Dynaudio monitors, a stack of plugins, and you can stick them all in a crappy room, and still come out with crappy sound.

I currently use an NT1-A with a RME Babyface. Sounds fine minus the top end being really harsh. Especially when mixed with multiple layers. I probably could handle it if I only recorded with one, but I usually do like 5-10 layers of dubs/harmonies. The sibilance becomes a time intensive editing process. It's totally doable but takes 10x longer than it should.
I've recorded music for a very long time. The SM7B was the shittiest mic I've ever used. Lifeless.
Maybe I should have phrased the post different. I was just curious what's best out of the hundred range.
Had no idea users would argue they all sound the same.
Maybe it's true. I dunno. I've only used a few mics in my lifetime. IMO, they all sounded drastically different.
I ended up pre-ordering a Stam.

 

[Farview]

No one is arguing that the mics all sound the same.
We are telling you that there is no way for us to predict what mic will sound good to you on your voice. Since we haven't heard your voice or the sound in your head that you are trying to achieve.

If your voice is sibilant, nasal sounding and high pitched, an sm7 would be a good choice. If your voice is dark and doesn't carry, an sm7 is an awful choice.

It also depends on what the rest of the mix sounds like. If the mix has a lot of top end and really zingy, a bright mic might not let the vocal sit the way it needs to.

There is no absolute definition of "better".

 

[TalismanRich]

Hopefully you'll find the Stam to your liking.

 

[ILuvFudge]

A Sony C800G is good, but to my ears it's brightness is unpleasant.

The TLM 103 is known to be bright...and bassy. The U87Ai has always been popular with rappers. I think the AT4033 is known for its brightness.

The bottom line is that you have to try these mics out.
If you can find a store that has a good mic selection and will allow you to record yourself on their floor models, that will be your best bet.

Vintage King in LA allows for that and it was an unparalleled help in finding the right mic and pre-amp combo for a client.

Take two songs with you that require two different styles of your rapping and different styles of beats. Record your self on the microphones and listen to the recordings at home and decide.

 

[rob aylestone]

The snag with rap is that people use their singing skills to comment on how mics sound, when really they should look at rap as a version of voice over technique, and look at speech related comment. So its how they respond to transients, abrupt changes of pressure, the p, s, t and k sounds which are different kinds of plosives, and of course breath sound. For singing, I like AKG 414s for girl singers, always seems to work, but on the spoken word they seem to emphasise the voice negatives, even with wind protection. They are worst on people who have gaps in their front teeth. SM7, RE20 and the cheaper 320 all seem better with rap and more noisy spoken word.

 

[purplepeople]

The snag with rap is that people use their singing skills to comment on how mics sound, when really they should look at rap as a version of voice over technique, and look at speech related comment. So its how they respond to transients, abrupt changes of pressure, the p, s, t and k sounds which are different kinds of plosives, and of course breath sound. For singing, I like AKG 414s for girl singers, always seems to work, but on the spoken word they seem to emphasise the voice negatives, even with wind protection. They are worst on people who have gaps in their front teeth. SM7, RE20 and the cheaper 320 all seem better with rap and more noisy spoken word.

I like my NT1-A. The highs are just too brittle/sharp, but I love the energy/clarity. I wish I could get that clarity but without the harshness.
I bought a Stam nearly five months ago. Still waiting for it to come in.

 

[rob aylestone]

And you paid in advance? That is hugely worrying from a small company. Any purchase protection is long gone and five months suggests problems to me. Either an inefficient process from components through to delivery with more orders than they can cope with, or cash flow issues. Hand assembly can be awful. I tried it with antennas. Sourcing the parts, building, packaging and I soon swapped to paying the component manufacture to do this part. I saved huge amounts of my time and lost 35% of the profit but I could not keep up. Buying an expensive mic you don’t even know sounds right for you is in my view, madness. Resale on boutique items is also very much a gamble. What customer base is there? A one month old 414 struggles to get 50% of the original cost without the buyer protection of a new one, and a mic copy us, well, a copy. I wish you the best with this one

 

[Papanate]

I like my NT1-A. The highs are just too brittle/sharp, but I love the energy/clarity. I wish I could get that clarity but without the harshness.
I bought a Stam nearly five months ago. Still waiting for it to come in.

Stam puts a ‘Next Batch’ to tell you when you might get your Microphone - however they don’t say how many is a batch - personally I would get a refund now and go for something else - like a Advanced Audio CM49 Tube Condenser - it’s a mic that gives you the NT1 without the hard strident top end - a character you will definitely not be able to EQ your way out of - the NT1s got a very harsh top end - at the same time if you liked the AT2020 - go with a proven mic - and fix your monitoring and room instead - and work on you vocal - the harsh top end can also be attributed to the tonal quality of your rap vocal.

 

[purplepeople]

Stam puts a ‘Next Batch’ to tell you when you might get your Microphone - however they don’t say how many is a batch - personally I would get a refund now and go for something else - like a Advanced Audio CM49 Tube Condenser - it’s a mic that gives you the NT1 without the hard strident top end - a character you will definitely not be able to EQ your way out of - the NT1s got a very harsh top end - at the same time if you liked the AT2020 - go with a proven mic - and fix your monitoring and room instead - and work on you vocal - the harsh top end can also be attributed to the tonal quality of your rap vocal.

I liked the AT4040, but it also had a similar issues with the top end. Lots of sibilance that was difficult to edit out. But the clarity was good.

I'm going to give them until Christmas and then move on... It's crazy how long they take to ship out orders.