some new engineering ideas in action

[Walter Tore]

Hi All: I am recording with some new engineering ideas that were given to me by my friend Mark. I have been trying to get the harshness out of my recordings. Anyway here are some I did this afternoon as a 1 man piano/harp band. Walter

swing me baby
will you?
timing on my time
like a leaf in the wind

 

[RawDepth]

It sounds good so far. The harp is the only thing that has harshness. It looks to me (judging from your pictures) that you may be using a Shure SM58. That is probably where much of that upper-mid harshness is coming from.

Here is the response chart of an SM58. Check out how the 2000 to 10000 Hz range is hyped up. That means the mic naturally boosts up or is more sensitive in that range. You may want to consider a smoother/flatter mic to tone it down a bit. For example, take a look at the SM94 by Shure, or do a search for recommended Harp mics.

(As an alternative, you could dip the EQ slightly between those frequencies to counter-balance it.)

 

[Walter Tore]

Raw Depth: Thanks for the response! I have changed mics since that video (that was a beyerdynamic M500 ribbon). the M500 did a nice job on the vocals but was harsh on the harp. It has been a real challenge trying to find a mic that will caputure both decently. About 6 months ago I switched to a Michael Joly modded Oktava MK219 (through a Universal Audio solo 610 preamp). My friend Mark was by the house last Sunday and gave me lots of ideas to try. We tried an AKG c414 as well. The MK219 did a better job at compromise. The C414 was more harsh on the harp. Mark suggested I get a compressor and compress the vocal/harp mic some. I use UA plugins and the LA2A sounds different when used after the fact according to Mark (he has engineered for the likes of Natile Cole, Cher.........). It was a true gift to have him spend a day with me. I have taught myself everything to this point and was stuck. I now have some new ideas to mess with and he is going to come back by in a few weeks to see what I have done with them. Thanks for taking the time to listen. Walter

 

[RawDepth]

That M500 has a presence boost too. And even modded mics usually end up with a more "open" sound, which means more upper-mids and highs. None of these are helping your harp.

The problem is that you need two different (opposite) responses for vocal and harp. For vocals, you generally want that presence boost to be there. For harp, you do not. Take a look at the response chart for the Shure 520DX Green Bullet harmonica mic. It actually drops off sharply above 3500 Hz. If you were to sing through that it would probably sound very muddy and dull. ...Or honky at best. But a harp sounds just right in there.

You may need to consider two different mics when recording.

 

[RawDepth]

I have found that compression tends to exaggerate (or make harsh) upper-mids and highs. When I compress vocal tracks they sometimes need de-essed afterward. (I have been told that is due to poor choice of microphone or compressing too hard.) But anyway, that ugliness is usually always around 4000 to 8000 Hz.

My point is that compression will quite possibly make your harshness problem get worse.

 

[Walter Tore]

Thanks again RawDepth! I appreciate your time to think out my puzzle. The biggest problem is I make everything up as I go along and do it all one take/no overdubs. I have no idea when I am going to sing or blow harp. It just happens. So, to use 2 mics is a no go. Walter