It sounds like I'm singing through a telephone.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Vortex_Trooper
  • Start date Start date
marshallpk89 said:
BOSE the number one choice in pro audio, lol
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It was a bit before I got the recording bug. Of course now nothing is good enough. Not even pro gear. Too bad that I had been playing for over twenty years before I realized that I needed to have the ability to record myself playing. I've got the gear now, but I have run into dental issues that prevents me from playing trombone for the time being. Grrr.....

I suppose it could be the mic. If there's something wrong with it. Most interfaces do have pretty fair preamps. But there's some like the MPA Gold with variable impedance that can really make a mic shine. Meanwhile I've been exploring the use of EQ to make my existing mics sound better.
 
Shadow_7 said:
It was a bit before I got the recording bug. Of course now nothing is good enough. Not even pro gear. Too bad that I had been playing for over twenty years before I realized that I needed to have the ability to record myself playing. I've got the gear now, but I have run into dental issues that prevents me from playing trombone for the time being. Grrr.....

I suppose it could be the mic. If there's something wrong with it. Most interfaces do have pretty fair preamps. But there's some like the MPA Gold with variable impedance that can really make a mic shine. Meanwhile I've been exploring the use of EQ to make my existing mics sound better.
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yeah bose is terrible
 
Sounds like either the cable is one legged (as in, either pins 2 or 3 need to be resoldered, could be in the mic's XLR connection too.) or the mic's diaphram is shot.

If you determine that it is the diaphram, Shure will send you a new mic for $55. Or you can put that $55 toward a better mic.
 
+1 for room treatment.

How big is the room?

I've recently discovered that my crappy little room was probably the cause for the past couple years of my voice souding warbly (out of phase), thin, weak, sibbilant, and all other kinds of bad things.

I've put up a lot of DIY broadband absorbers and a diffuser (bookshelf with staggered books) and a cloud absorber, and the vocals sound MUCH better (without changing any gear).
 
quickmill said:
How close are you to the mic? Where did you get the mic? Did the mic ever work for you? The last thing I would call an sm58 at close range is thin. The proximity effect of that mic is fairly large but you have to be right up on it. If you are eating that mic and it sounds thin then I would say ther's a problem with the mic.
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That's exactly why I suspect comb filtering is the cause. The very last thing you should be getting from a 58 is a "thin" vocal sound. What he's describing is textbook.

Frank
 
Vortex_Trooper said:
so I record my vocals with a sm58. whether i stand far away with the pre cranked, or close range, it always ends up sounding like i'm singing in a telephone. It sounds super thin with my voice and i just don't like it.
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I highly recommend that you first check that sm58 to see if it is fake. I know that the US market is flooded with counterfeit sm58s. The best way to tell is to listen to it back to back against a known real sm58. Or take the popscreen off and compare against a known sm57. The fake will sound very tinny and bottomless compared to a real one.

Another way to check is to weigh the suspected fake and compare that to the published weight of the real one. The fakes are usually much lighter.

You can also send the mic (or pics of it) to Shure. They will tell you if it is a fake or not - but they won't tell you how they know (smart of them).

Been there... the fakes are horrible sounding compared to a real sm58.
 
Weasel9992 said:
That's exactly why I suspect comb filtering is the cause. The very last thing you should be getting from a 58 is a "thin" vocal sound. What he's describing is textbook.

Frank
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Alright that's it! tonight i'm going to post an MP3 of a recording so we can all listen to it and then figure it out.

you guys are awesome though,
thanks!
 
OK. Update.

This is gonna be a little embarassing - but whatever. Someone on here had asked me what i was mixing on, and that got me thinking (i was mixing on a random home stereo system).

So on friday night, I went and bought a nice pair of KRK RP6's... and it turns out... that vocal track isnt too thin at all... if anything, its too muddy!!!!

Anyways. Lesson definetly learned. Now I can start testing stuff for real since I have decent reference monitors.

I'm now thinking of getting a SP- C1 mic... and possibly doing something to the room. either way, im super happy, this is definetly a step forward.

Nic
 
Vortex_Trooper said:
OK. Update.

This is gonna be a little embarassing - but whatever. Someone on here had asked me what i was mixing on, and that got me thinking (i was mixing on a random home stereo system).

So on friday night, I went and bought a nice pair of KRK RP6's... and it turns out... that vocal track isnt too thin at all... if anything, its too muddy!!!!

Anyways. Lesson definetly learned. Now I can start testing stuff for real since I have decent reference monitors.

I'm now thinking of getting a SP- C1 mic... and possibly doing something to the room. either way, im super happy, this is definetly a step forward.

Nic
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LOL, a decent set of headphones could've told you that.
 
I wish I could get a microphone that made me sound like i'm singing through a telephone

love that effect.
 
Weasel9992 said:
Even a fake SM58 shouldn't sound like what the OP is describing.

Frank
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The fake SM58 I had sounded very thin and tinny, when compared back to back to a real SM58, which is full and meaty. Very dramatically bad sound in the fake.

My point being that one could not rule out a fake, based on the OP's description. It was offered as another plausible thing to check out, amongst all the other suggestions.
 
this could very well be a connection problem too. You can get a thin sound for instance by connecting a balanced cable in a situation where unbalanced is wanted.

happened with my acmp73 > RNC > firepod chain (problem was the RNC)
 
tojo said:
I wish I could get a microphone that made me sound like i'm singing through a telephone

love that effect.
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just get an old carbon telephone and wire an XLR to it. google is your friend for that
 
tojo said:
I wish I could get a microphone that made me sound like i'm singing through a telephone
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Very easy - just talk into a drinking glass while you record. Hold the glass beside your mouth so you're talking across it. Experiment a little - it works great!

---Dan, http://danhughes.net
 
danhughes said:
Very easy - just talk into a drinking glass while you record. Hold the glass beside your mouth so you're talking across it. Experiment a little - it works great!

---Dan, http://danhughes.net
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I was going to recommend a radiator hose. Mic inside one end, talk into the other. You could always do the two cups and a string thing, but the gain levels might be a bit needy for that to work, and isolation problematic. Inside a dixie cup flushed with a pane of glass? Pringles can?

There are a lot of parts in the chain, but if the two ends suck, that's most noticeable. mic -> ... -> ... -> speakers. The mic is generally considered good, so yeah speakers 2nd guess. And anything in between. Probably why I went with a field recorder, most of the inners are in one known to be good device. Leaving mics and monitors as the only two significant variables.
 
Shadow, you kinda lost me there. When you get the telephone sound by speaking into a glass, there are no connections between the glass and anything else, and the signal chain from mike to speaker is untouched.

The alteration is done to your voice by the glass before your voice hits the mike.
 
danhughes said:
Shadow, you kinda lost me there. When you get the telephone sound by speaking into a glass, there are no connections between the glass and anything else, and the signal chain from mike to speaker is untouched.

The alteration is done to your voice by the glass before your voice hits the mike.
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I was thinking of how you put a glass to a wall and push your ear against that glass to hear the conversation in the other room. I'm not sure if that's record-able though.
 
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