That "you're there" sound using a dynamic mic

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cjacek

cjacek

Analogue Enthusiast
Hello,

I've seen several people use dynamic mics for lead vocals when recording in a studio (I think these were Shure Beta 58A if I'm not mistaken) and noted that all of them were pretty close to the mic most of the time ! I then heard the rough mix and was amazed at how great the vocals came out. The vocals seemed "in" the mix and never "in your face" or "close to the speakers". It sounded as the guy was several feet away from the mic but the sound was so perfect ! I later tried the same thing with my Beta 58A (in my little home setup on my Tascam) and all I got on tape was a clausterphobic "in your face" feel of the vocal. There was no doubt that I was singing too close to the mic. The vocal seemed bad - too close. Ok, WHY, when I and the guy (in the studio) were using the same mics, did the vocal come out so different ???

Thanks.

Dan
 
Good mike preamp, proper level settings, proper EQ, compression, reverb settings...a lot of things come in to play. Are you sure that the people you saw were really recording at the time you saw them, or was it in a music video...which is intended to create a "scene" not necessarily document how it was really recorded.

Listening to the conversations on this forum, experimentation, and reading up on acoustics and recording have helped me lot. maybe it will help you too. It takes some time.

peace,
Rick
 
The Axis said:
Good mike preamp, proper level settings, proper EQ, compression, reverb settings...a lot of things come in to play. Are you sure that the people you saw were really recording at the time you saw them, or was it in a music video...which is intended to create a "scene" not necessarily document how it was really recorded.

Listening to the conversations on this forum, experimentation, and reading up on acoustics and recording have helped me lot. maybe it will help you too. It takes some time.

peace,
Rick
Click to expand...

Yeah, what's interesting is that I saw a live concert on tv and certain artists liked to sing really close to the mic (lips touching the capsule) but the sound was great and never "right by the speaker". I later bought a cd of that show and again the vocals seemed very "spatious" and never in your face. Why is that ? I mean if one sings that close to the mic then doesn't that translate to hearing them really close to the speakers ? In the above scenario that didn't happen. Why ? :confused:

Dan
 
By singing (or speaking) very closely into a microphone, you get a bass-boost, that is in some cases great (like, on the radio), in other cases not. Then you might want to cut some of the bass @180 Hz. In addition, air filters high frequencies. That means, that a person, that is standing closer to you will appear to have more HF in his voice, than someone standing further away. You can simulate this by damping the high frequencies - just dial around. Another thing is room simulation. Don't just use that Plate algorythm of your FX. Try to build a room around your vocal. BTW - why do you want to record this way? Recording live?

David
 
And never forget that old favorite studio trick that I learned years and years ago, from the engineer who was my mentor in the biz: feel free to play with the vocalist's head. Most studios are always jammed full of mics on stands, right? You see them around so much that you don't even think about them- just hanging there waiting to be used on some other take. I used to have a couple of "difficult" vocalists who were determined that they just absolutely had to track on a 58- nothing else would do.

And so it was: we'd make a great show of hanging the 58 and patching it up, so that they could grab it and maul it and drape themselves over the stand like Michael Stipe, and be all happy. The client is always right, right? Of course, unbeknownst to them, we'd actually get the main part of the track with that large diaphragm condenser that was just hanging on the stand "for storage" just a few feet away, off to the side a little bit (it helps the scam if you leave an unconnected mic cable hanging on the stand with the good mic...). We'd track them both, but basically all that we kept from the 58 were just enough sloppy drooly sounds to keep them from figuring out that they were being scammed.

Killed two birds with one stone. Never even had to break out the popper stopper for those folks (or boil the good mic in Listerine after the day!), and had the reputation for having the *best sounding SM58s* in the area. Everybody was happy, everybody wins...
 
Ha ha! reminds me of a story (urban legend, most likely) about Herbert von Karajan, who after recording a piece with the Berlin Philharmonic, insisted that he should have control over the final mix, and so to humour him, a special console was set up so that "he could have absolute control" over what went on to the masters - unknown to him though, his console wasn't connected to anything. However, everyone in the control-room went through the actions of nodding in polite approval whenever he made an adjustment and looking on with awe-inspired adulation at such a "masterly" demonstration of engineering genius...

Still a good story - might even be true! :>

- Wil
 
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