vocal mic upgrade

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omtayslick

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I have been using an AT3035 for vocals for a while. What mic choices should I look at for the next step up for a vocal mic. How much needs to be spent to get a good bump up in quality/fidelity from the 3035.

Also, preamp is a DMP3.
 
The DMP3 is very neutral sounding. Of the mics I have used I would recommend you try out the following tube mics to get some warmth:

V69 Marshall
Rodes NTK
Rodes K2

The TLM103 is a great mic but has never produced any desirable results when I use it with the DMP3.
 
CAD stuff is cool. What do you want to do that you can't now? Or are you just looking to expand your mics and ease your GAS
 
omtayslick said:
How much needs to be spent to get a good bump up in quality/fidelity from the 3035.
Click to expand...

Could be $200. Could be $2000. Could be nothing. Depends on the application and how well it matches with your voice.
 
Good points Kenny and Chessrock. As for question #1- I want a bigger, more detailed, natural and clean sound. I do acoustic-based, singer-songwriter stuff. As for #2, what works with my voice-- For live stuff, I choose an SM57, instead of a '58. Some of the traditional vocal mic choices give me lots of mud in the low mids on my voice. I tend to think that I like neutrality and accuracy. I recently discovered that I like the way omnis record my vocals. Very forgiving of my less than perfect mic technique, and open sounding. But the only omni condenser that I have is an ecm8000.

Guess I should have mentioned all this to begin with, but this gives you a little more info to work with.

So it's just an idea that I'm kicking around at this point. What's you're take on omnis for vocals?

Choices I'm considering might be, CAD 179, KSM 44, or something in a lower-end Earthworks. Any experience with these, or other suggestions?
 
KSM-44 is outstanding, and it pretty much fits the bill of what you're looking for. It's fairly neutral as far as LDC's go, works really well on most male vocal, doesn't accentuate the low-mids. Also has multi-patterns including omni.
 
Id try out some of the tube mics from Marshall, Studio Projects, and CAD......
 
omtayslick said:
Good points Kenny and Chessrock. As for question #1- I want a bigger, more detailed, natural and clean sound. I do acoustic-based, singer-songwriter stuff. As for #2, what works with my voice-- For live stuff, I choose an SM57, instead of a '58. Some of the traditional vocal mic choices give me lots of mud in the low mids on my voice. I tend to think that I like neutrality and accuracy. I recently discovered that I like the way omnis record my vocals. Very forgiving of my less than perfect mic technique, and open sounding. But the only omni condenser that I have is an ecm8000.

Guess I should have mentioned all this to begin with, but this gives you a little more info to work with.

So it's just an idea that I'm kicking around at this point. What's you're take on omnis for vocals?

Choices I'm considering might be, CAD 179, KSM 44, or something in a lower-end Earthworks. Any experience with these, or other suggestions?
Click to expand...

As far as the CADs go, you might want to look into the VSM or, if you're brave, tryout the VX2 (discontinued but simply incredible).
 
chessrock said:
KSM-44 is outstanding, and it pretty much fits the bill of what you're looking for. It's fairly neutral as far as LDC's go, works really well on most male vocal, doesn't accentuate the low-mids. Also has multi-patterns including omni.
Click to expand...

This was my thinking as well. But I wanted to see what others had to say.

Wouldn't a tube mic accentuate those low mids? If not, enlighten me. I don't know tube mics, just toob pres.
 
If you like what you have, but want better, move up to an Audio Technica 4040,4047 or if the tube thang is your craving, 4060
 
I'd be curious to know where your ECM8000 falls in tone on your voice? I've tried QTC-1's on a few singers but they didn't get picked generally.
And I'd lump 4047 in the 'rather thick' basket, but don't know if that means muddy' FWIW.
Wayne
 
mixsit said:
I'd be curious to know where your ECM8000 falls in tone on your voice? I've tried QTC-1's on a few singers but they didn't get picked generally.
And I'd lump 4047 in the 'rather thick' basket, but don't know if that means muddy' FWIW.
Wayne
Click to expand...

That's an interesting question, and caused me to pause and give it some thought myself.

The sound that I'm after is, I suppose, natural and transparent. I want it to sound like I'm singing in the room, not singing through electronic aids and colored amplification. Like the mic isn't even there.

So far, of the meager collection of mics I have, the ecm8000 has come the closest.

And another question, I suppose, (as I open a can of worms) is can this be achieved with a DMP3? Maybe I should be looking at a Grace 101?
 
at4050 or ksm44 would be my vote. They are both clean and neutral, and they can both do the omni thing. Either are great on most vocals and acoustic guitars. Definitely a step up in detail and clarity over the at3035, but not a huge step because the 3035 is a pretty decent little mic.

If you are also in the market for a good clean pre and can swing it, I'd go with one channel of john hardy over one channel of grace. The grace is nice, but the hardy is in a different league altogether. If you get a hardy you will never have to look back. It's about as huge and three dimensional as a clean pre can get.
 
I have both a TLM103 and a KSM44. The Neumann works well for my wife's voice, while the Shure works better for my baritone. If I had it to do over again, I would take a look at the AT4050, also. I've seen that mic used for a lot of live acoustic shows and was always impressed by how natural it sounded.
My .02

Terry
 
I agree about the AT4060. I love it with vocals, and acoustic guitar (coupled w/ Josephson condenser) as well. I also use it for a room mic when recording drums. I love to run it through a vintage Altec 1567a for preamp....brilliant!

If you can't afford one then I agree with the KSM44 as well. It is one versatile mic.
 
omtayslick said:
The sound that I'm after is, I suppose, natural and transparent. I want it to sound like I'm singing in the room, not singing through electronic aids and colored amplification. Like the mic isn't even there.
Click to expand...


What you want, then, is the Audio Technica 4050.

That's your mic.
 
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