Recording too close gets a very bassy response and can sound kinda unprofessional. Also distorting the whole signal is a possibility...
What you're talking about here is proximity effect. Ever go to the movies and hear the guy with the deep voice in the previews say, "ONE man. ONE mission"? That's proximity effect. It has its uses and is definitely not unprofessional if employed correctly. The reason why you think it might distort the input is that dynamics are exaggerated the closer you get and so is overall level. The remedy here is proper gain staging.
Generally, the further you are away from the microphone the less dynamic swing there is. The trick is to use this phenomenon to your advantage and that is totally application dependent. For example:
If the vocals on a certain part are very intimate and delicate and need an up-front sound, like the singer is singing right on the tip of your nose, it would probably serve the material well for him/her to be mere centimeters from the diaphragm. If the singer is belting it might be a better idea to back off quite a bit to a foot or so. Maybe more. Experienced singers will have good microphone technique and automatically adjust their distances based on their performance. However the producer might make a call occasionally and ask the singer to get in deeper or back off a little.
And don't forget that the further away the singer is from the microphone, the more room tone will get in there. This may be a good or a bad thing depending on how good or bad your room sounds.
Watch the film Sound City by Dave Grohl. At the end he gets Stevie Nicks to sing a tune and she demonstrates a well seasoned mic technique.
However recording too far can mean that your vocals sound weak and too quiet... compression can solve this, but room noise will be picked up too.
I don't think you're thinking about this in the right way. If it's too quiet, turn up the gain! And yes, more room tone will get in there. It's a matter of finding
a balance between signal vs room. There's a happy medium but since every room is different, the distances will vary. If your room sounds bad, you may want to get in a little closer. I generally sing about 6 inches away from the microphone because for most of the stuff I do I want that up-front sound. I also compress on the way in with a tube compressor and that helps give the vocals a bit of character and smoothness.
Also, we all know that condensor mics are the best option for vocals. Personally I'm using a Behringer C-1 (with a pop filter, I'm not too amateur) and find that too close and too far is what I always end up recording.... any suggestions?
First, as Massive said, that's not true. Michael Jackson's Thriller album was recorded with a Shure SM7. Bono uses an
SM58 in the control room! Microphone selection, unless your options are severely limited, should always be chosen based on the voice it has to reproduce. That doesn't always mean it's a condenser.
Part of your problem may be the C-1. Truthfully, it's not a great mic and is notorious for having a hyped top end. Not to say it's not usable but maybe it's just not a good match for your voice? Try pairing it with a tube preamp and maybe a compressor/de-esser to warm it up and smooth out the response. YMMV
Hope that helps.
Cheers
That's a '$2000 fix for a two hundred dollar mic?
