And now... The Vocals (Microphone advices needed)

[santa]

Hi all, I'm just completing my studio setup, and the final part is getting the right gear for recording vocals. I need serious advice and since there are many folks with whom I may have a lot in common with on this board, your advice will be precious for me.Some background: My strength/focus is composing music. My main instruments are keyboards and bass, but I am comfortable doing simple guitar and drums as well. I'm hoping to get good broadcast quality sound from mmy studio. I'm doing mostly Rock, Crossover Country/Rock and Pop songs. I couldn't sing if my life depended on it, so I hire singers to record my tracks. The Male vocalist has a very versatile voice, doing anything from warm bleusy ballads to hard rock punk style songs. For the latter, think of Simple Plan's type of vocals and you're close. As for the female vocalist, her voice tone might be along the lines of Melissa Ethridge (that's the closest I can think of). None of them have serious previous experience in the studio, but have done very well in cover bands.My main recording gear includes Cubase 4.5 on PC, an E-mu 0404 USB Audio card and an old but great Soundcraft Spirit Folio RackPack 14-2 (I think) console.I also have two mics, none of which I am satisfied with for vocal parts: an AKG C1000s and a crappy Behringer B-1. My vocals, especially the male ones can sound harsh and very thin, as if the singer got shrunk to half his size!So I'm hoping to find a mic that will perform well for my needs. Unfortunately there is no opportunity to try the mics with one of the vocalists out prior to buying, so I'll need to rely heavily on what I can read about.So far, I think I'm narrowing down to a few good choices :- Blue Baby Bottle- Blue Blueberry- Neumann TLM 103Not exactly all in the same price range, I know. But sometimes the 300$ mic will outperform the 1000$ one for a given application. There are probably other very good choices out there in the <1000$ range. Or maybe none of these will cut it for Broadcast Quality, so this is what I need to know.On the other hand, I'm prepared to increase the budget if this is what will make or break Broadcast Quality, but I'm not convinced about that.I know, many of you will say to invest in a pre-amp and/or in a better audio card. If that's the case, then convince me and give recommendations. As a final comment, I want to keep things simple. I don't want to let "gear lust" distract me from creating! I know that getting to know intimately one piece of gear will allow me to better use it and get better results.Many thanks!!

[mojobone]

Any of the mics you mentioned should do just fine. There are also some good options in the sub $1k range from Rode, Shure and Audio-Technica. "Broadcast' quality will have more to do with where you point the mic than which mic you use; the performance, mix and mastering will also have an effect. While it's always nice to have more colors to paint with, the tools are just...the tools. A claw hammer, a sledge and a ballpeen hammer will all drive nails. (one of the above will indeed do it more elegantly, to be sure) Even the Behringer B1 is capable of making some decent recordings, and although AKG mics have a reputation for being rather bright, you may find that your thinness problem has more to do with the room, or perhaps the preamp. Often, a mic will sound incredibly different in a different part of the same room. Try moving the mic around in the room, and maybe experiment with different miking distances to see if you can't get the sound you want with the mic you got before investing.

[santa]

Thanks.Actually, I didn't mention this, but I do get a much fuller sound with the B-1 when I get the (male) vocalist to "eat the mic". Problem is that it will distort during the louder parts, and I'm unable to fix this with either the -10db pad nor by trimming.Nonetheless, I still find it very nasal sounding for men voices (and I did record at least 4 very different male vocalists with it, and in at least 3 room/house different locations).

[mazz]

Any of the mics you mention will do a decent job of recording, even the ones you already have. Any condenser mic will thin out the further you get from it. It's not really thinning out as much as the bass boost that they naturally have up close goes away. In order to maintain that sound from more than a distance of a few inches requires a lot of gain from your preamp. The other thing that may be lacking here is decent mic technique from the vocalist and a good compressor, used correctly, on the way in.You might consider a dynamic mic instead. The Shure SM7 is a popular mic for male rock vocals as is the EV PL20, which doesn't have much proximity effect and can take a lot of level without distorting. If you can arrange to have your vocalist audition the mics you're considering, that would be optimal, since there's no one mic that works perfectly for everything.Also, consider the preamps that you're using. A really good preamp can make a huge difference even with an inexpensive mic like the Behringer. I'd consider how you can budget for a preamp, maybe by buying a bit less expensive mic and including a dedicated preamp or channel strip.Good luck,Mazz

[billg]

All of the mics you mentioned should be fine . . . sometimes. I say that because it's hard to find one mic that works across the board for different singers and different styles. For vox I have a MXL V69 with a tube mod and a cheap Studio Projects C1 and a Cascade Fathead ribbon mic. All are cheap ($300 or below), all have a completely different sounds & one of them usually takes care of whatever I need. If I were going to buy another mic I would probably check out an ADK Hamburg or Vienna or the new Heil dynamic that's also around $300. I know there are people who swear that one really good (costly) mic is the way to go and if you're just recording one singer/one style & find the mic that sounds best for it then that's probably smart. But sometimes it's a lifesaver to have choices. Also "ditto" what Mazz says about the mic pre.

[weapon]

I have a bunch of different vocal mics but my favorite is the Rhode RT2A and it is about $500, I get great results on vocals and acoustic guitar, I have others but it's my favorite.

[santa]

UPDATE:Thanks for the feeback. Mazz, you raised a good point, so I did further research and I've decided to start with a pre-amp. I realized it will also help with my bass tracks. It's going to be the Summit 2BA-221.Next, at one store (Steve's in MTL) they were nice enough to allow me take home demos of these mics and try them out with my vocalists to see what works best. So as soon as I've got one of them booked, I'll get the micsFinally, I know that a good hardware compressor will also help. Summit also has a nice one. But I will wait before buying this, since I decided to get familiar with the pre-amp and mic first.Santa