Did I choose the wrong Soundelux?

[ToneE]

I recently bought Soundelux E47 for the main vocal mic in my studio. The microphone sounds fairly good to my ears but I'm still having trouble with harsh midrange and not silky enough hi-range. I also have a Neumann U87ai and Gefell UMT70 so maybe I should sell one of this and add some cash to get an E251C (or one of the Brauners) to replace the E47 in most vocal sessions? For the preamp I have Great River ME-1NV and API 3124+, for the mixing compressor for lead vocal UA 1176. I thought I've invested enough the have the tools for the beautiful silky sound but obviously something is still missing. And before you say, yes my skills can still be developed but I think this really isn't the reason in this case. I am far from perfect but still doing this for my living with fairly good success in my native Finland. Any tips and advise are highly appreciated, thank you!

 

[Supercreep]

I recently bought Soundelux E47 for the main vocal mic in my studio. The microphone sounds fairly good to my ears but I'm still having trouble with harsh midrange and not silky enough hi-range. I also have a Neumann U87ai and Gefell UMT70 so maybe I should sell one of this and add some cash to get an E251C (or one of the Brauners) to replace the E47 in most vocal sessions? For the preamp I have Great River ME-1NV and API 3124+, for the mixing compressor for lead vocal UA 1176. I thought I've invested enough the have the tools for the beautiful silky sound but obviously something is still missing. And before you say, yes my skills can still be developed but I think this really isn't the reason in this case. I am far from perfect but still doing this for my living with fairly good success in my native Finland. Any tips and advise are highly appreciated, thank you!

What's your room like? Your playback setup? Your converters? Your monitors? Something probably is missing, but I doubt it's a mic or a pre. You say you're still having harsh midrange and a lack of high end smoothness.... To me that means you had the same problem with the previous mic, right?

Maybe your biggest problem is that you can't stop buying nice mics? Anytime you want to send that old dog my way just PM me.

-Casey

 

[xstatic]

I know this is a bit weird of a suggestion, but if you get a chance, see if you can borrow or rent an Avalon 737. With your Neumann U87ai, and quite possibly even your geffell, the Avalon seems to really be at its best, and in my opinion makes the U87 sound even nicer than they already do... especially the ai U87's

 

[ToneE]

Hi guys and thanks a lot for your mails! I've done some checking and clearly one of the problems is my room acoustics. In a way the U87 seems to give a better sound than the E47 because E47 is picking too much the far from perfect acoustics. And yes, I haven't got the silky sound I'm looking for with any of mic mics/pres. I'm using the AD/DA in my 02r96, obviously those could be better but are still good enough so that shouldn't be the cause for the partly lack of sheen.

To be honest I'm getting tired of these constant investments in my field so I'm trying not to become one of those guys who need to buy new mics all the time But yes, it is very possible that Avalon 737 could make a big difference, so could the Distressor instead of or with UA1176.

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

Before you start thinking about what other bit of gear might help sort your room out.

You're totally wasting your money if you're using all that nice gear in a crappy sounding room.

 

[ToneE]

Yeah Kevin, you're absolutely right! It's really only now that realised how much correction there is to be made to the room acoustics. I also did some more comparison between the vocal sounds I have and what I'm aiming at and the difference doesn't feel so big anymore. Actually I also discovered that the loading button hadn't been on in my Great river which may have caused some of the midrange harshness as well. You know I just bought the GR recently and didn't realise it needs to be pressed down in order to be in normal mode.