Blind test: Best Vocal Mic

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Are you in the middle of the room? And what are the H/W/L of your room?
 
moresound said:
Are you in the middle of the room? And what are the H/W/L of your room?
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Apx. in the middle. The room is 7.5x9x12 H/W/L I have about 20 acoustic panels scattered on the walls made of rigid fiberglass and behind me a vocal booth made of four 2" thick panels of rigid fiberglass
 
I get the impression that all the high end is EQd out of these samples. I can't say that I *like* any of them. Your voice and singing is fine but it sounds like like you have a towel wrapped around the mic. Or like the treble control is turned way down. Very muffled. I don't know how many other ways I can put it. But thats just my impression
 
GuitarLegend said:
I get the impression that all the high end is EQd out of these samples. I can't say that I *like* any of them. Your voice and singing is fine but it sounds like like you have a towel wrapped around the mic. Or like the treble control is turned way down. Very muffled. I don't know how many other ways I can put it. But thats just my impression
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Even the second batch of samples have no high end?
 
highriser said:
Even the second batch of samples have no high end?
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Even playing them side by side I couldn't pick a difference. It still sounds slightly muffled to me. Reminds me of someone singing in an anechoic room. That may be intentional but I think the vocal track needs some "space". Does that make sense?
 
Sure but how could I achieve that?

Would it be better in a treated closet? or should I take away some of the treatment i already have in my room, but then it would suck to get that boxy small room sound in the recordings.

what would you suggest?
 
The first answer would be to apply some reverb artificially, then you can dial in the exact amount you want. There are other more advanced plugins but that would be a first step.
 
GuitarLegend said:
The first answer would be to apply some reverb artificially, then you can dial in the exact amount you want. There are other more advanced plugins but that would be a first step.
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OK. granted the finished product will have reverb on it, but that will not give it top end....
 
highriser said:
OK. granted the finished product will have reverb on it, but that will not give it top end....
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With respect, this was the question:
"...Would it be better in a treated closet? or should I take away some of the treatment i already have in my room, but then it would suck to get that boxy small room sound in the recordings..."

My answer to THAT question was to apply artificial reverb or some other room modelling plugin. I would not alter the characteristics of your room if it is so acoustically perfect, however, there are some who say that a totally dead room gives you totally dead results. A room has to have SOME acoustic features to make it sound natural. Your recording seems to my ears to have no natural roominess of any kind and I would play around with reverb to see if I can improve it.

As far as the top end goes, that is a function of your microphones, which as near as I can tell, are not the problem and pre-amps or post processing. If you have any kind of processing on the vocals to take out noise for example, I would get rid of that. It sounds to me as though you have some top end roll off there. You COULD boost the highs but it would not sound the same as having the highs there to begin with.
 
GuitarLegend said:
With respect, this was the question:
"...Would it be better in a treated closet? or should I take away some of the treatment i already have in my room, but then it would suck to get that boxy small room sound in the recordings..."

My answer to THAT question was to apply artificial reverb or some other room modelling plugin. I would not alter the characteristics of your room if it is so acoustically perfect, however, there are some who say that a totally dead room gives you totally dead results. A room has to have SOME acoustic features to make it sound natural. Your recording seems to my ears to have no natural roominess of any kind and I would play around with reverb to see if I can improve it.

As far as the top end goes, that is a function of your microphones, which as near as I can tell, are not the problem and pre-amps or post processing. If you have any kind of processing on the vocals to take out noise for example, I would get rid of that. It sounds to me as though you have some top end roll off there. You COULD boost the highs but it would not sound the same as having the highs there to begin with.
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Wait, you said the high end is a function of the mic but then u said that they are not the problem? I don't understand if the high end is a function of the mic then the mic is the problem. No?

I have no processing on any of the tracks. So thats not problem.

I never said my room is acoustically perfect. What did you mean by that?
 
highriser said:
Wait, you said the high end is a function of the mic but then u said that they are not the problem? I don't understand if the high end is a function of the mic then the mic is the problem. No?

I have no processing on any of the tracks. So thats not problem.

I never said my room is acoustically perfect. What did you mean by that?
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If you break down the sentence, which is a fault in my wording, I said

"As far as the top end goes, that is a function of your microphones ... and pre-amps or post processing"

In that I said that the mics, as far as I could tell, were not the problem. So if there is no post-processing, it might be in the pre-amps. You said you had a Focusrite Scarlett 8i6 which I can't blame because Fosusrite has some pretty good pres. I am going on what I hear and what you say and trying guess at what might be causing the sound that everyone in this thread has commented on.

No, it was me that said your room was acoustically perfect. You asked me if you should remove some of the acoustic treatment which would introduce a boxy room effect that you didnt want. From that and your recordings, I took your room to be pretty good acoustically. I said not to change that but to apply room effects to the vocal track.

And no, I don't know what the problem is, it just SOUNDS like the top end has been rolled off somewhat. Can you post a pure wave file of at least a portion of the vocals?
 
Trying to describe it with a possible shortcoming in my ability to communicate, may I offer one of my own recordings to illustrate what I mean...

Daisy Jane

I recorded the vocals on an AKG D7 dynamic mic into a Focusrite PRO 40 connected to a PC running Windows 7. The DAW is Cakewalk Sonar X1

If you compare this to your vocal track, you can hear all the vocalizations, the soft C's, the T's and S's

In your recording, all sibilance is subdued or muffled as though heavy use of a de-esser has been involved. Yes I know you said there was no post processing but thats what it sounds like.
 
I hate to ask you highriser but do you have a speech impediment?
 
Oh k thanks for clearing that up. The sound files I posted on soundcloud are wav files. So if it is not my equipment and not any processing what does that leave us with?

And so in your opinion if the room is acoustically perfect then that can't be what is killing the highs right? I don't know much about acoustics...
 
highriser said:
Oh k thanks for clearing that up. The sound files I posted on soundcloud are wav files. So if it is not my equipment and not any processing what does that leave us with?

And so in your opinion if the room is acoustically perfect then that can't be what is killing the highs right? I don't know much about acoustics...
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The soundcloud files are not downloadable. I was looking for something I can analyse to give you a better answer. I can cheat and record the soundcloud files but would prefer an unprocessed wav file if you have one. Otherwise, can you make at least one of the vocal-only tracks downloadable?
 
highriser said:
And so in your opinion if the room is acoustically perfect then that can't be what is killing the highs right? I don't know much about acoustics...
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The room would only add something to the vocals, I have a hard time thinking of something that would take it away. Your voice hits the mic before it hits the rest of the room so, whatever room effect is included, the vocals would be there. But the sibilance is missing. I would be looking for something in the signal path. It starts with your voice, then the mic, then the interface, then the DAW

Something in that path is robbing you of timbre

Is there a mixer or anything between the mic and the interface?
 
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