Mic sale... which to choose?

with industry Pro, Nick Batzdorf

Moderators: admin, mdc, TAXIstaff

Post Reply
matto
Serious Musician
Serious Musician
Posts: 3320
Joined: Tue Mar 30, 2004 5:02 pm
Gender: Male
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by matto » Mon May 29, 2006 7:00 am

Quote:Make sure your mic-preamp is really cooking. Get it up near the red (or over, in the analog days). Same with your limiter/compressor. Every little step that you increase gain will add to the fullness and clarity of your vocal sound.Quote:If you want to get a good sound to your voice without digital peaking then the best thing is to record with the levels down lower so as to avoid going into the red and boosting the signal in post recording. Poor Vikki...

ernstinen
Total Pro
Total Pro
Posts: 5658
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2004 6:59 pm
Gender: Male
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by ernstinen » Mon May 29, 2006 8:54 am

Quote: Poor Vikki... HaHaHaHa! It CAN be confusing --- Ern

User avatar
hummingbird
Total Pro
Total Pro
Posts: 7189
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:50 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by hummingbird » Mon May 29, 2006 9:07 am

hmmmm.... when my head stops spinning I'll give my Shures a big hug. I bought them without trying anything out, and I think they've served me pretty well especially when you consider I only started home recording a little over a year ago, and I've used them on some pretty significant projects, including my recently released CD.thanks for all the thoughts on.... micology
"As we are creative beings, our lives become our works of art." (Julia Cameron)

Shy Singer-Songwriter Blog

Vikki Flawith Music Website

nickbatzdorf
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 457
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:25 am
Gender: Male
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by nickbatzdorf » Mon May 29, 2006 12:16 pm

This shouldn't be confusing at all! You simply want to record at a healthy level. There's absolutely nothing difficult about that - you just set the mic preamp's gain so the top peaks are 4 or 5 dB below 0dBFS.It's also a good idea to record singers with a compressor (you're going to use it anyway, so why not do it on the way in) but I'd suggest recording with very moderate settings - slow attack and release, and maybe 3 or 4dB of reduction only. You can always compress more later - in fact it's normal to do that. Just use the compressor to smooth out the sound a little.Also, you might not need a pop filter if you aim the mic slightly above your mouth. On the other hand, standard nearfield monitors don't necessarily respond in the 50-55Hz range, which is where vocal pops are. If you don't have a subwoofer, check with headphones that do go down there.

User avatar
hummingbird
Total Pro
Total Pro
Posts: 7189
Joined: Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:50 am
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by hummingbird » Mon May 29, 2006 1:59 pm

Hey thanks for explaining that Nick.I'm a baby producer who records on a shoestring budget. I have an M-Audio FastTrack mic/guitar preamp and I guess through trial & error I've learned to set the gain where it picks up the voice effectively without going into the red on the recording software. I record vocals into a little piece of recording software that has a nice little compressor on it, & then import the vox tracks into Tracktion. I use a little compression at the time of recording my vox because I sit so much in the high frequency it can be tough to work with the tracks later if they don't have some initial compression. I have a pop filter and always use it. I splurged on slightly better speakers a little while back, they certainly aren't anything like you hear in a studio; I did spash out on a good set of headphones. Most of this is still Greek to me but I appreciate all the help. I try to read the articles in Recording Magazine and decifer what the heck they are talking about.I save money on studio time by recording or sequencing tracks at home, and collabin' with other folks on tracks, but I have a great studio engineer I work with on mixing & mastering my songs, which helps a lot. He plays bass, drums, & guitar so he can help me fill in live tracks as needed. Interesting thread this turned out to be! Very educatational
"As we are creative beings, our lives become our works of art." (Julia Cameron)

Shy Singer-Songwriter Blog

Vikki Flawith Music Website

nickbatzdorf
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 457
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:25 am
Gender: Male
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by nickbatzdorf » Mon May 29, 2006 2:36 pm

I was actually the editor of Recording magazine for 10-1/2 years. It sounds like you're doing it right.

53mph
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 419
Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2005 10:57 pm
Gender: Male
Location: Italy
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by 53mph » Mon May 29, 2006 8:41 pm

Matto,I didn't even realise this thread was started by Vikki. I was responding to a comment Nomi said about trying to stop her signal peaking into the red (unlike the analog days of overloading the signal)...I now realise what I wrote seems very conflicting in comparisson to other peoples comments and isn't really relevant to Vikki.Sorry about the confusion....I guess I should read the whole thread before putting my foot in it.I still stand strong on what I said about finding the best place in your house to record.Unless you've built yourself a nice isolation booth, most of us will be recording in living rooms or bedrooms. I've listened to a few peoples demos on here and I sometimes find the vocals are lacking that clarity. It's easy to hide it behind walls of reverb with the vocals set low in the mix, but if you want a clear voice you need to consider the room ambience.I've got a terrible recording space at home (a medium box room with high ceilings and very little furniture) and I'm often fighting this room ambience in my mixes. I've even tried hanging duvet covers infront of and behind the mic to isolate the sound a bit.Anyone else improvised deadening the sound with positive results?

edteja
Serious Musician
Serious Musician
Posts: 1171
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2006 4:07 am
Gender: Male
Location: Siver City, New Mexico
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by edteja » Tue May 30, 2006 2:55 am

53,I am a big fan of egg cartons. You can empirically use them (especially the big ones from restuarants) to eliminate bass build up in corners and they can isolate CPU fan noise and all sorts of things. I even have them under the near field monitors. have changed my space around recently (to make room for a keyboard) and trucked out a box of these things so I can dampen the hotpots. It helps that I have carpet.That seems to work for me.
"In the future, when we finally get over racism, bigotry, and everyone is purple, red, and brown ... then we'll have to hate people for who they truly are."--George Carlin

nickbatzdorf
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 457
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:25 am
Gender: Male
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by nickbatzdorf » Tue May 30, 2006 4:56 am

Very diplomatically, egg cartons don't do anything for low frequencies, and they're not very absorbent. But if it sounds good, there's your answer.I'm not a big fan of overly dead recording, even for VO, so I'd rather find a good-sounding space that has a short reverb time yet still has some air. But one thing that works very well is this:http://www.auralex.com/category_max-wal ... ll.aspIt's just a sheet of foam skewered on a mic stand. Very clever. If you build a whole booth out of foam, you get a boomy sound - the foam filters the high freqs and leaves just the lows. Too much of a good thing. But a sheet or two is great - for recording a lot of things, not just vox.

nickbatzdorf
Impressive
Impressive
Posts: 457
Joined: Fri Jul 23, 2004 10:25 am
Gender: Male
Contact:

Re: Mic sale... which to choose?

Post by nickbatzdorf » Tue May 30, 2006 4:59 am

By the way, you don't have to put the foam in front of the singer - you can also use it farther away and all over the place to create the sound you need.Also, I don't recommend it on the sides for mixing. In the front of the room it's great, but despite the coventional wisdom, on the sides it's not helpful.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests