Blind test: Best Vocal Mic

  • Thread starter Thread starter highriser
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moresound said:
IDK ... My only guess here now would be that you have over treated your room with acoustic paneling.
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Did it sound like I was stuttering?

That's what I was thinking but guitar legend had a good point that regardless of treatment the first thing that hits the mic is my voice so I shouldn't be as lacking as it is in high end
 
highriser said:
So there is high end in there it's just muffled maybe? Bass buildup?
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Its a Sonitus plugin, just a touch of verb (-28.5db)

I didn't hear anything like bass buildup and I don't think that would detract from the treble end of the spectrum. I boosted the bands at 800Hz (6db), 4600Hz (9db) and 15KHz (9db). It seems to counter a distinct dip in those frequencies. Is there a mixer between the mic and the interface?
 
highriser said:
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
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That's A LOT of absorption for a small room. Hard to say w/o pics, but I'll hazard a guess that your room is too dead, giving you that boxed in-tone. Any diffusors up? I made a few of these a while back and it made a fantastic difference in the room sound on all my tracks. More open, natural sound with less unwanted reflections. In the end, I would up with about a 3:1 ratio of absorption vs diffusion and it was well worth my time and effort to do exactly what you are doing now... test tracks with different combo's of absorption/diffusion. Recording and saving them gives a great apples to apples comparison and made it readily apparent when I'd found what, to my ears, was the tone I was looking for.

In any case, good luck with it!
 
Took a stab...very pitchy vocals that took the longest to fix.
 
This has been an interesting trip
Having heard the SM7 w/ low cut and mid lift but not being a mic I'm experienced in, I'd love to hear from anyone who does track with that mic to chime in. (It was a step in the right tone direction
These last two, are you in the same room and spot? (possible low freq hot spot there?

On the speech /vocal qualities, it is still possible that part of what's going on is from attempting to sing too smoothly or (and I'm a little out of my element as to the correct terms here..) too far into the wrong voicing? I know one can sing 'covered (vs forward and projected.
Don't know if is't even truly related, but I hear for example..
'How long.. will I sly'.. Sep-parraa' my sigh.. I do.. I don't..' etc.
 
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highriser said:
Here is what the apogee sounded like on my voice what do you guys think?
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Sorry I didnt catch this before. Room #1 @ 6" was not a bad recording compared to the others you have posted. I could live with that one but still trying to find the bug in the system.

What DAW are you using? I don't think you have mentioned that. Your mics are fine, your interface is good and that communicates with your PC via USB. With that much, there is no reason I can think of that a good audio signal is not at least reaching the DAW. Now the question is what the DAW is doing to the audio.
 
GuitarLegend said:
Sorry I didnt catch this before. Room #1 @ 6" was not a bad recording compared to the others you have posted. I could live with that one but still trying to find the bug in the system.

What DAW are you using? I don't think you have mentioned that. Your mics are fine, your interface is good and that communicates with your PC via USB. With that much, there is no reason I can think of that a good audio signal is not at least reaching the DAW. Now the question is what the DAW is doing to the audio.
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Cubase 5
 
GuitarLegend said:
Can you open your device setup page and print the screen to a jpeg and post it here? Select VST Audio System

There may be other things to see as well but that would be a start
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The issue is I normally use the focusrite drivers but I don't have my interface here so it would not be accurate representation of what I normally use. what would you like to know maybe I can tell you my settings.
 
highriser said:
I figured I would give mixing the vocal a shot, here is one of the takes on the sm7b eq'd and all.

let me know what you think
Sm7mixed by Adam Mishan on SoundCloud - Create, record and share your sounds for free
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It sounds a lot better than your initial posts. Can you mix it with the backing and see how that sounds?

If you are not using the Focusrite, how are you recording the vocal? I couldn't fault the setup you had but apparently that is not the setup you used?
 
GuitarLegend said:
It sounds a lot better than your initial posts. Can you mix it with the backing and see how that sounds?

If you are not using the Focusrite, how are you recording the vocal? I couldn't fault the setup you had but apparently that is not the setup you used?
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No it is the setup I use to record. My home studio is at my parents place and I live on my own so all my gear is there.
 
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