Female Vocal Ribbon Mic Suggestions?

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Vikki

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I've experimented with my ADK Vienna (for recording) and it works just o.k on my voice but sounds thin with little body, i've tried just about everything(placement, close micing). I have a Beyer tgx 580 dynamic that works a lot better and produces a warmer fatter sound and is quite passable.
I stumbled across a Reslo RB in a junk shop a few months back and decided to give that a try, results on my voice are another step up from the Beyer, so i'm thinking a good Ribbon mic may be for me..........
I know Beyer make a few ribbon mics, but what would you suggest for female vocals? I'm doing the Crystal Gayle country covers type of music and have some quite reasonable JLM preamps.....
I've done a few searches on this forum and not found a lot about Ribbons and Female vocals......
Any advice greatly appreciated..
Regards
Vikki(uk)
 
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You have GOT TO GET A AEA/Wes Dooley R84. Absolutely perfect for the sound you are going for.............When my wife sings into my R84 I get jealous, sounds so good on a nice female voice.
 
Second the R84 if you want a good recording ribbon. The SM7 works well too for female vocals (although its is not a ribbon). If you want a performing ribbon, you might try a Beyer M500. It was designed to be a performing mic and is somewhat hardier than other ribbons, with the exception of the Royer mics.
 
Thanks for the info........that AEA 84's a bit spendy in the uk, looks to be around 1800 us. Sounds like a good bet though.....
Vikki(uk)
 
Oops, didn;t notice your location. Try a Beyer M500. They should be pretty available in the UK. It is a discontinued mic so it is only available used. They go for @$250-300 or so on E-bay in the States. You may be able to track down someone who already has one to try it out. A very nice vocal mic. I think it works pretty well with women.
 
pohaku said:
Oops, didn;t notice your location. Try a Beyer M500. They should be pretty available in the UK. It is a discontinued mic so it is only available used. They go for @$250-300 or so on E-bay in the States. You may be able to track down someone who already has one to try it out. A very nice vocal mic. I think it works pretty well with women.
Click to expand...

+1.

How much does the Coles 4038 cost on your side of the pond?
 
I don't know what you're doing on mics pres but assuming you got one or two $$ mic pres then I'd focus on looking at some dynamic mics as well.
 
Many thanks for the info......
The Coles 4038 looks to be around 1400 US here in the u.k. I'm also going to shop around for some dynamics, the top of the line EV looks interesting but thats around 1200 US over here in the u.k. I think i may save and try and get hold of the AEA though. In the meantime i'm going to add one or two of these to my preamps, the JLM 99v's i have work amazing, these may have a more Neve flavour.

http://www.jlmaudio.com/JLMMicro1290.htm

Thanks again, any more suggestions greatly appreciated..
Vikki(uk)
 
I think it would be worth the time to try a Sontronics Sigma. Have not tried it on my favourite female voices yet but judging from the performance on other sources, it will be great. Very nice for acoustic guitar and male vox. It's active so you don't need the higain preamp that other ribbons require.

//Mikael
 
if you weren't solely interested in a ribbon (and i can totally understand why--and the recommendations concerning those have been spot-on), i'd recommend the MXL V77.

it's a condenser and you'd have to find one used, but they're spectacular on female vocals. i'd be happy to provide you with a soundclip if you'd like.


cheers,
wade
 
I've used the M500 with very good results on female vocals. Keep your eye on Ebay, they turn up there once in a while.
 
Thanks for all your input and advice, saving my pennies and searching!
Vikki(uk)
 
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