Mxl V69 for female vocals?

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caro

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Hi everyone,

I'm looking to purchase a new vocal mic (been borrowing a low-end rode until now) for not too many bucks and have been looking at particularly the Mxl V69me based on the glowing reviews I've read. I would love to be able to preview some but unfortunately where I am there's nowhere I can give these a go before buying.

So my question is - has anyone had a chance to use one of these on female vocals - specifically female vox that are a bit 'smoky' and in the lower ranges rather than clear and high.

I would love any input on the matter or any recommedations in the same price range.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post.
 
Well, I HAD a v69 until it started making the "wind noise". I ended up gutting it and re-doing the circuit. As I remember the mic before the change, it was pretty nice, having a big bottom end, but a touch of high range sheen. I never used it on female vocals, but think it would probably do quite well. Many reviews have said it was in the ballpark of a U47, which many women have recorded beautiful tracks with. It had a tendancy to be both dark, and somewhat bright in the high end. It was also a bit "scooped" in the midrange.

I would offer that an Oktava Mk319 would probably suit your vocals better, since it has less of a sibilance problem than most, and is a bit darker, which would suit your "smokey" voice better... or an MK2500 tube mic.
 
no experience with the V69 on female vocals, but the MXL V77 is a KILLER on female vocals. or at least, it has been on the females I've put it up on.

if i can get some time, i'll post an mp3.

the V69 has more of that sizzly tube thing going on, which tends to work well on rock vocals.....not sure how it would mate with "smokey female" vocals. it depends totally on the mix/song of course, but i'd probably want something a little more smooth for that sort of voice, and the V77 has the market on smooth cornered. ;)

i'd suggest finding a used V77--people around here sell them somewhat regularly, and there's almost always one on ebay.


cheers,
wade
 
I recently ordered a V69 as a little Christmas present to myself after doing a lot of research about what mic I wanted. The thing that confounded me was that people describe the V69 as simultaneously 'dark' and 'sizzly'. How does this work, exactly? My main goal was to get an alternative to my CAD M-37, which is a very uncolored mic that works for about any instrument or voice. I find myself having to always boost its top end in the mixing stage when I use it on vocals, though, and I wanted an alternative. I'm hoping I'll like the V69 when it gets here, but if it's not what I expect, I'll just be glad I also had the dough to order an M-Audio Luna.
 
Thanks for all of the great suggestions! Based on the responses I've got from you guys and from the 'gearslutz' forum, it seems like the main contenders are

the mxl v69 (still hanging in there)
the mxl v77
the adk hamburg

basically because I've got to narrow it down at some point.

If anyone has any further input on any of these and their suitability for this kind of 'smoky-voiced' thing, please speak up.
Basically I would like something that will help to lift the vocals away from the instrumentation. I tend to like them quite dry but warm if that's any help (sorry about silly audio adjectives).
Thanks again for all your help.
 
After much searching I've finally found a place that can rent me a v69 and a couple of Oktavas so I'm going to do a bit of testing next week.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

Cheers.
 
Hi again everyone.
Just thought I'd post the results of some testing for the curious out there.
I ended up trying:

MXL69mogami
MXLv6
Oktava MKl-2500
Oktava 219
Oktava 319
AT 4040
SE 3300
Oktava ML52 Ribbon

We did a completely blind test of all of them and in each case I picked the MKl-2500 first followed by the MXLv69 - uncanny. My husband, however picked the MKlv69 most times followed closely by the MKL2500. In each case we would have been happy with either of the mics, the contest was that close, but there was just a little extra smoothness in the Oktava that ended up winning me over. The v69 though had a pleasant grainy quality at certain frequencies which would definitely suit certain material.
The AT was nice, very clear and neutral, but obviously lacked some of the warmth of the tube mics. The other oktavas also had something really pleasant going on with this kind of voice but were a bit more muffled - if I had the money though, I'd consider buying one of these for songs that suited this.
The SE 3300 I found to be way too bright for this kind of voice.
In all cases the ribbon had promise but I just didn't have enough gain to give it a good shot.

Hope this helps anyone with a similar question.
Thanks again everyone for the abundance of knowledge and the great suggestions.
 
I just replaced the stock tube in my V69 with a NOS Mullard 12AT7. It seems to have made the frequency response more balanced and smoothed out the high end. It changes the mic in an interesting way.
 
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