How to spend Christmas Money.

  • Thread starter Thread starter mgiles7
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Mark,

Thank you so much for your suggestions. You are very correct in that, director's and such are not looking for record producers, and I was definantly not thinking of supping up my voice or anything like that (not that you were implying that at all). I just wanted something that would give them a very clean ad clear representaion of what I sound like. Now about the recording studio idea... You are probably very wise in suggesting this, but I am going to have to very stubbern abiout one point (which has driven me to this whole recording buisness in the first place) If I go into a studio, I am recording at the mercy of time. There time. And I know no one is going to spend the time I want on this exept me. I really want to have my own equipment, so I can one day wake up, realize that I am in really great voice, and just start recording with absolutely no pressure, and on nobodys clock but my own . Maybe I am living in a dream world, But that is what I really want. Thanks once again for all your suggestions...I am still a little confused as to what I will end up doing, so if you have any more suggestions feel free to write them.

Matt
 
What kind, wise and intelligent responses from Skippy and Matt -- thank you!

I'll read about something here over and over again and think I understand it, and then one day someone posts a sound clip or sends me a sample CD (like the "Sessions" CD from Studio Projects), and WHAM! I apprehend in a few moments something that all the reading and thinking in the world could not explain to me until I actually heard it.

At the cheapest end and in the shortest run, if you have even an $80 monoaural Radio Shack tape recorder that has a microphone input (the larger-than-Walkman type that one might use to record lectures), an $80 microphone (see below) plus a room with a little bit of natural reverb that sounds good to you, you can begin a tape by stating your name, mentioning what equipment you're using, and talking about your education and background in singing for a couple of minutes so that the listener's ear adjusts to the limitations of your equipment and room before hearing your singing demo. Any opera director worth his or her salt will "hear through" to what you've got.

And stepping up from there is easy, with a mixer that lets you use either dynamic or condensor mics and output the results to two channels, and a stereo tape recorder, minidisc deck, or soundcard/computer combo to capture the output from your mixer. It doesn't have to be expensive to begin with, and it doesn't have to be complicated.

Shure makes a mic called the SM57. If you look around the web at Mars Music, 8th Street, Zzounds.com, Music123.com, SamAsh.com and other such national outlets, you can find the SM57 for its regular price of $80 with a FREE mic stand and mic cable thrown in. It's basically a no-profit sale for the dealer, I suspect, in hopes that you'll remember them the next time you want to buy a piece of equipment. It's a great deal.

I recently splurged and bought the $110 set of CDs from 3DAudioinc.com that lets you audition 49 different vocal mics and 33 different mic preamps on three discs. The Shure SM57 was one of the 49 mics they tested. The rest cost between $400 and more than $5000 each. What was amazing was that while the humble SM57 wasn't the most articulate or revealing of the mics tested, of course, it was always musical and frankly blew away several far more esoteric mics costing 10 to 20 times as much. So even if you eventually decide the $5500 Manley Reference Gold is the right mic for you, you'll still want to keep that SM57 around to use for projects where the fancier mic wouldn't work. It wouldn't be wasted money.

The condensor I recommended requires phantom power, which is supplied by a mic preamp or a mixer. The mic preamps in the little Mackie mixer are pretty darn good -- again, not the greatest in the world, but far better than what you get in an outboard $200 to $300 mic preamp most of the time. The ONLY reason the Studio Projects C-3 can sell for $349 (and their luscious-sounding T-3 tube microphone for $629) is that they're made in China instead of Germany. Five years ago, none of us had this option -- it was pop for a $2,000+ Neumann or forget it!

You'll enjoy the adventure, I'm sure. Please let me know about your progress.

Best wishes,

Mark H.
 
Everyone that helped me,

Thank you so much for your comments and wisdom. I ended up springing for a korg d16 on ebay for $620. I am now looking for a mic and other equipment to help me out. If anyone knows what mic would be best for an opera singer please feel free to let me know. I have actually heard from 1 guy that small diaphram condenser mics are the best for opera, but i need confirmation. =)
thanks again to everyone for there help.

Matt

ps. Someone else suggested the AKG C414 mics.
 
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