I don't see this thread on the list of topics for the microphone area of the forum anymore. I guess that means the thread is officially "closed" - I hope nobody minds if I chime in and bring the beast back to life for a moment longer. I can't believe this increcible thread totally slipped under my radar - I just finished reading the whole thing "cover to cover" in one sitting. I can't remember the last time I learned so much in so little time. I hope I can actually retain some of it.
Harvey, you have me absolutely amazed. I wish I could have had you as a teacher.
I'm not sure of my post will make this thread "pop" back into existance or what, but if you see this, I have a couple of questions - if you have the time, of course.
First off: I'm a home recordist on an extremely tight budget (aren't we all?). I've used nothing but a Shure SM-57 to record all of my tracks, since the very beginning. I'm getting to the point though, where I really hate the way my vocals sound with the mic. I've been working for about six months on my first EP, but with the vocals I've really done little more than record scratch takes for each song - I've been putting off the final vocals for as long as possible, because I'm just dreading the point where I'm going to have to record my vocals and actually
keep them.
Erm, I'm
hoping it's the mic, anyway, and not me.
I'm not the best singer in the world, but I also know that there have been a lot of vocalists with poorer technique than mine, whose vocals sound far better on record. I guess part of me is imagining this "perfect" microphone that would actually make recording vocals fun again, kind of like the hallowed old acoustic gutiars that seem to make music when you just touch a fret.
But I don't really have a wide knowledge of microphones - I just picked the SM-57 because everyone told me to. That was a good three or four years ago.
Now I understand WHAT makes it good, but I don't have a varied knowledge of what else is out there. For a guy like me who can't really say, "Oh, mic x? Well, that sounds very y, and really z, and a, b, and c are good examples or recordings that use it," how am I supposed to know what to look for in a new microphone? I could possibly at least find a store with a liberal return policy if I just knew where to begin. For instance, would it be possible to listen to a recording made with an industry standard mic (such as the SM-57) and say, "You know, you might give this mic a shot. I think it might suit the particular character of your voice" - or does it not really work that way?
My other question is pretty random. You may not know the answer, but you seem to be a veritable fountain of random information, so I'll take my chances. I realize that there aren't a lot of people left who still like this band, but Duran Duran are one of my biggest influences. Would you happen to know what vocal mic Simon LeBon was using during the "Rio" era? I'm thinking it must be the same microphone across the whole album, because that effect is there on every song. Although I'm not enthralled with the sound on that album as a whole, I really like the way the vocals sound. I wouldn't want to sound like that all the time, but if I could figure it out, it would be a great new color to add to my "arsenal" (which is currently sadly lacking in variety).
I've even uploaded a few short 30-50 second mp3 clips to my webspace, to give you (and any other interested parties) an idea of what I'm talking about:
Clip two is about one megabyte, and the other two are 700k.
You may have to right-click and select "save as", and save the mp3s to your hard drive before they'll play properly.
If anyone has any ideas as to how this sound was acheived, I'd love to hear them.
My sincere thanks if you have the time to get to these questions. If not, that's fine - I already feel a heck of a lot smarter today than I did yesterday.
I'm off to get a look at that website of yours.
