Just got an AT4040 but wait....

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bajanboi

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So I just upgraded from a dynamic mic to my first condenser. I know it's on the low end but I didn't want to purchase a thoudsand dollar mic (Brauner Phantom C) with out being able to tell the subtle differences. I was also going to upgrade to a standalone preamp (UA M610) but decided to hold off and continue using the "ones" in my Yamaha MG10/2 mixer. I'm not getting the sound that I thought I would get...Mainly doing rap vocals. Thought it would be sharper....clearer I guess...better recreation...seems like i have to eq too much. I obviously hear the diffrence between the dynamic mic but i thought i could get closer to that commercial sound...maybe not.

Basically I have heard people say a cheap preamp makes a low end mic sound horrible..and good preamp makes a low end mic sound like a great low end mic. Would the pre's on my mixer be useless in my case?

oh yeah...chain inlcludes a dbx160A compressor as well.
 
I'm wondering if you are too close to the mic or are using too much compression. The mic you have is a fine one, and the pres you have should make things sound thinner (compared to a neve or other high end stuff) with that mic. I would try to back off the mic about a foot or two (or 3). that should get rid of the boominess from the mic. How far are you into the 160? if you are constantly 8, 10, 12db into it, that might be causing more of the muddiness.
 
compressor settings:
Threshold - (-5)
Ratio - 6:1
Output Gain - (-2)

I take it you mean gain reduction....The 1db light barely flickers on.
I have the preamp set to 10 o'clock if that helps. I guess I don't know how much to push the preamp. It has two sets of numbers and i don't know what scale to pay attention to. If I turn up the preamp too much It gets "all noisy"

I backed off like you said....same compressor settings but push the preamp to 12 o'clock...now get 2db gain reduction...similar sound
 
If you turn up the preamp, you will just have to turn it down at the compressor so you don't peak the levels on the recorder. Am I right in assuming that the sound is muddy? Lets try moving the mic again. This time put it up about forehead level and pointing about 45 degrees to the ground. Now sing under the mic, not into it. Sometimes it helps if you put another mic on a stand in front of you so you don't get the urge to turn your head up into the mic. This should result in a weird, thin sound that won't sound very good by itself but it will sit in the mix very well.
 
Sorry for taking so long to respond.

Thanks for the advice....singing under the mic really gets rid of the excessive bass. From the experimenting I’ve done in the past few days it seems like I had the preamp to high...I remember reading that you want the signal a loud as possible without clipping...I thought that’s what I was doing but apparently I don't have to get it as loud as I thought to have a full clean signal. I always thought my vocals weren't loud because of this size of the waveform but I download some acapellas to compare and it turn out that they are pretty compact. I’m not sure if that makes any sense but oh well.

So...I ending up picking up the UA M610 pre and it makes things a whole lot easier than the on board pres on my mixer (post processing wise). I was beginning to get frustrated with this hobby of mine but I think purchasing this tool brought my interest back to life. I also ended up swapping out the AT4040 for a GT55. I hope that wasn't a mistake.

Seems like im getting much clearer and more punchy vocals with my new chain...I just have to work on some of the post processing like delay, eq and reverb...I think. I still haven't figured out how commercial vocals are recorded in mono but have a good stereo sound but not overdone like a chorus effect or something similar. Do they use something similar to the PSP Psuedostereo plug-in or is it simply a panning technique?
 
just a definition: MONO means one. They record in MONO, you record in MONO because they (and you) use only ONE microphone to record the vocal. It's how you place that MONO sound into the STEREO IMAGE that is created.

see, you're closer than you think!
 
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