The "Perfect" $10K vocal chain

  • Thread starter Thread starter DonGraham
  • Start date Start date
D

DonGraham

New member
I am sure some version of this has been done before, but if you had around $10,000 +/-10% to spend on the "perfect" or "ideal" vocal input chain what would you choose and why.......This is something that I am looking into purchasing for the next year or so of upgrading....

PRIMARY USES:
Singer/Style......female rock vocals.......voice resembles Ann Wilson a bit....warm and full low end with powerful top/mid. Progressive/70's rock style of songs.

Mic: Soundelux e47
Preamp: DW fearn Vt-1
Compressor: not decided, but leaning toward 1176 or maybe a Distressor??
AD/DA: Apogee Rosetta

Lets see yours.
 
Oktava MKL2500
ART DPS2
ART PRO VLA

and $9500 for beer and pizza


OR

Soundelux E47
Groove Tubes viper pre
Universal Audio LA2A
Recorde to tape no AD/DA needed.
 
The perfect 10K vocal chain does not exist. Use it in a bad room, with a bad engineer, and a no talent vocalist and it will become worthless, except maybe for resale.

If you have a treated room, know what your doing and work with great talent all the time, then spending the money will suit you well. Even then, less costly goods can do the job just as good. Its about what works for each session, not how much it costs, or what brand is stamped on the gear... My 2 cents
 
alanhyatt said:
The perfect 10K vocal chain does not exist. Use it in a bad room, with a bad engineer, and a no talent vocalist and it will become worthless, except maybe for resale.

If you have a treated room, know what your doing and work with great talent all the time, then spending the money will suit you well. Even then, less costly goods can do the job just as good. Its about what works for each session, not how much it costs, or what brand is stamped on the gear... My 2 cents
Click to expand...

Ah...Thanks for the philosophy lesson...... :rolleyes:
 
Here's my "standard" vocal chain -

MG UM92.1S --> GR MP-2NV --> Manley Vari-Mu --> Apogee AD16

Works pretty good, especially for my little home studio. :D
 
Behringer XM8500 Microphone
Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC200 Mic Preamp
Behringer MDX1600 Autocom Pro-XL Compressor
Behringer ADA8000 Pro-8

The difinitive "Perfect" mic to tape signal chain. :eek:
Spend the money you save on wine, women and doughnuts....

You can thank me later...
 
gbondo9 said:
Behringer XM8500 Microphone
Behringer Tube Ultragain MIC200 Mic Preamp
Behringer MDX1600 Autocom Pro-XL Compressor
Behringer ADA8000 Pro-8

The difinitive "Perfect" mic to tape signal chain. :eek:
Spend the money you save on wine, women and doughnuts....

You can thank me later...
Click to expand...

LOL.....I said $10k not $10.........but to each his own eh ;)
 
Unless money starts falling from the sky at my house, I won't have $10K to spend on recording gear even if I live for 10,000 years.

That being said, I am curious about the option of renting a good space every so often to improve sound rather than spending more money. Especially at the $10K range. There is much talk about upgrading gear, or buying treatment for rooms...but wouldn't another option be to spend $7K on a mic and pre (or $4K), and then spend the rest on renting a really cool space for a while when needed?

Just curious, does anyone do this?
 
I could look around on the internet for mics, pres etc. which are the most expensive and look the coolest but the reality is if I had that amount of money I'd spend a lot of time auditioning lots of gear before buying.

So I don't know off hand because I don't have experience with gear that costs that sort of money.
 
smtcharlie said:
Unless money starts falling from the sky at my house, I won't have $10K to spend on recording gear even if I live for 10,000 years.

That being said, I am curious about the option of renting a good space every so often to improve sound rather than spending more money. Especially at the $10K range. There is much talk about upgrading gear, or buying treatment for rooms...but wouldn't another option be to spend $7K on a mic and pre (or $4K), and then spend the rest on renting a really cool space for a while when needed?

Just curious, does anyone do this?
Click to expand...
As Treeline says, that's called hiring a good recording studio with great rooms and recording there.
 
Unless money starts falling from the sky at my house said:
Treeline said:
Hire a really good studio and record there.
Click to expand...

Thats fine and all.........but I can afford to buy the gear I want!!!!!

I want to be able to sit in my own studio after a beer or two (or 5) and play my guitar throught the gear I want.......not to impress anyone, BUT TO ENJOY MY TIME OFF!!!, and if it takes $100,000 worth of amp/pres/monitors/room construction to do that, then that is my choice.......I don't like Behringer gear or ART or any of that crap!!!! I would rather have DW FEARN, NEVE, EVENTIDE, SOUNDELUX...I could just as easily spend $10,000 on a coffee table.........blah blah blah.....sorry about the rant, but comon??? real answers here :rolleyes:

My other option would be:

U67
Wunder PEQ1R
Tube tech C1
Lavry Blue
Unless money starts falling from the sky at my house, I won't have $10K to spend on recording gear even if I live for 10,000 years.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
Hey, that's cool, man - bully for you. Just trying to point out that there are far more people around here with $200 mic's than $2,000+ mic's...you are in the home recording forum, after all.

Hope the people who have high end stuff chime in for you...
 
smtcharlie said:
Hey, that's cool, man - bully for you. Just trying to point out that there are far more people around here with $200 mic's than $2,000+ mic's...you are in the home recording forum, after all.
.
Click to expand...

TRUE.....point taken......not trying to step on any toes. :)
 
DonGraham said:
TRUE.....point taken......not trying to step on any toes. :)
Click to expand...

have you posted your question over at www.gearslutz.com ? They'll probably tell you that $10,000 is a pittance and you should save up for a $25,000 vocal chain. :rolleyes:
 
OK, here is a recent vocal chain used on Mark Knopfler according to Chuck Ainlay over at Gearslutz.

Tracking:

C12 (New $5300 Vintage $10k+) into a Neve 1073 ($3000) into a Tube Tech CL 1A ($2000).

Mixing:

GML8900 compressor ($5875)
Avalon 2055 Parametric EQ ($5000)

Total vocal chain = $25,875 (I went with the Vintage C12 because that's what they used)

So, if you can come up with an additional $15K, you will have a really professional vocal chain.
 
Middleman said:
OK, here is a recent vocal chain used on Mark Knopfler according to Chuck Ainlay over at Gearslutz.

Tracking:
C12 (New $5300 Vintage $10k+) into a Neve 1073 ($3000) into a Tube Tech CL 1A ($2000).
Click to expand...

Nice!! Hey Middleman, is that one of the "original" series spirit consoles in your avatar? I bought the Spirit during it's first year of production......They were much nicer than the spirits to follow.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top