I need more warmth in my vocals

  • Thread starter Thread starter inultus
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inultus

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I use an AKG3000 large-diaphragm condenser mic, a nice pre-amp, and a digital recorder. I bought all nice-quality stuff, and I get a very clean sound, but it just isn't warm. I get a little bit hollow, far away sound in my vocals. Perhaps this is because I have not sound-reinforced or padded my room at all, but I was told that the mic I have would produce a nice warm sound even in an ordinary room, which is why I bought it. Any help you can give would be appreciated. BTW, my vocals are very laid back and non-aggressive most of the time. -Joshua a.
 
What preamp are you using? I've found that the C3000 by itself is nicer than, say, a dynamic or a small-diaphragm condenser, but it doesn't have a huge amount of warmth on its own. I use a tube amp to really add some extra qualities to the sound.

How close are you micing? I tend to mic fairly close and am happy with what I get.

Are you using the flat freq response or the ramped response switch setting?

A lot of things to play with, here. Of course, if your definition of "warm" comes from hearing another recording than the chances are it was with a better mic and you may not get the sound you want without sacrificing a few more bucks.

BillS
 
Thanks for the advice. I use an ART Tube MP for pre-amping, and I mic very close. I set my mic up against a blanket dampened corner, and then I sing about eight inches from it. I have tried both the flat and ramped setting on the mic, and also both cardoid settings. Perhaps I need to do something more with the compressor on my pre-amp, because I was told by SamAsh that the Tube MP would give me quite a warm sound. Thanks again.
 
If you are using the single ART tube preamp, then I know it is very difficult to get things adjusted right without listening carefully to the output - the single LED isn't worth spit to tell you where you are in the amp curve - in other words, how much tube "quality" you are getting.

Ideally, you want as much input as possible without getting distortion, then just enough output to get a good signal to your mixer/recorder.

My ARTs sound great when compared to the mic on its own.

BillS
 
Oh, yeah - and if your room isn't really high quality you probably want to stay away from the hypercardiod pattern (that's the one with the "little tail" coming off of it) - what that means is that there is some pickup coming from the back of the mic. At best, you'll get room environment sound you may not want if the room is nasty. At worst you could be getting out-of-phase components that are cancelling out the main pickup.

BillS
 
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