D 112 on vocal

  • Thread starter Thread starter dobro
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There is no such thing as a bad mic, just a bad application. Tom Dowd used to do some insane stuff like using an old Altec Salt Shaker on a kick drum. Sound like crap, but that is the sound he was looking for! I learned a lot from reading about that genius.
 
Anyway...before I got distracted by that wonderful Youtube video...

I used it on vocals again tonight. I had a tune whose vocal had low notes and low volumes so I thought I'd try the D112. When it was done, I did three EQ tweaks (high pass, cut at 400, boost at 5K) and it was fine. Even before the EQ'ing, it was just...attractive. All that low end. It just said... ah never mind. I'm excited about mics at this point. Imagine getting a sound like that before the mixing even started. That's what I'm talking about.
 
I would think that the D112's response curve is all wrong for vocals. It's humped at 4000 Hz and drops off above 12K. It seems that would work against you by giving a very unnatural sound.

But then again, Hey! No rules. If it works, it works.
 
It's exactly the wrong mic for most vocal parts. The first time I tried it on vocals, I was surprised by how very dark it was and yet how attractive the sound was. The frequency response was wrong for vocals, but I liked the sound. It was like putting sunglasses on at noon. But last night I was doing this tune that's kind of low and spooky and I wanted it to sound spooky so I tried the D112 because it's so dark. It might turn out to be too dark, but it also turns out that it's got to be a keeper cuz I happened onto a keeper take. :D I'll probably never use it in another five years for a vocal. But I'm really starting to appreciate how getting the right sounding mic makes certain mixing moves absolutely unnecessary.
 
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