Voice over mic and pre

[KBOY]

Getting into the industry with my girl who is with 103.1. Looking for the top nuetral voice over mic and pre. I could also use some suggestions in the compressor department. Any advice would be awesome.

Current large capsule condenser mics that I have.
Peluso 2247
C1

Ribbon
AEA R84

I'm thinking that none of these are good for this application. But maybe I'm wrong. I really have no idea.

Thanks
Kelly

[ajfarber]

Originally Posted by KBOY

Getting into the industry right now with my girl who is with 103.1. Looking for the top nuetral voice over mic and pre. I could also use some suggestions in the compressor department. Any advice would be awesome.

Current large capsule condenser mics
Peluso 2247
C1

Ribbon
AEA R84

I'm thinking that none of these are good for this application. But maybe I'm wrong. I really have now idea.

Thanks
Kelly

I would think that those mics are more than fine for v/o work. Radio broadcasters tend to use EVre-20 or EVre-27. Film & TV v/o is oftev LDC w/ pop screen. In the old days, RCA 44 or RCA 77 was standard, so it would seem that the AEA would be like that but a tad bit brighter. Any good mic pre will do as broadcast consoles have pres that are cheap op-amp type stuff, but the Grace 101 is clean and uncoloured.

I've seen v/o for commercials done w/ U87s and even Soundelux U99.

Try the Peluso with a pop screen and see what happens.

[santacore]

Here are some mic's that are top for voice-over:

Neumann U87 (LDC)
Sennheiser 416 (shotgun)
Electro-Voice RE20 (dynamic)
Shure SM7B (dynamic)

These are all very popular in the voice-over industry. Pick one according to voice match and budget and you should be fine.

As for pre's, anything low noise and fairly neutral will be fine. It really depends on your budget. You might want something with a eq too. Most radio broadcast V/O's are heavily eq'd to make the dj sound very big and full. Proximity effect helps with this too.

Good luck!!

[KBOY]

So picking up an RE20 and a SM7 might not be a bad idea huh? I've been eyeing those two for other applications as well. Kick and Rap vocals. hmm

What are the typical eq points on a stations boards? Any Eq's you guys know of that will do that job?

Thanks so much for the advise so far.

Kelly

[gevermil]

I agree that your mics are more than fine . With the voiceover work Ive done just make sure the mic isnt sibilant and use a pop screen with a condenser . As long as the voice sounds deep and solid in a quiet booth you should be fine . I dont think VO is too demanding .

[AdamJay]

i did some male spoken word recording a couple weeks ago and the Beyer M201 beat all my other mics, including an AT4060, and Red Type B w/ B7 capsule.

Preamp wise, the UA 610 in my 6176 fit the best, of course the 1176 side was engaged so that may have had something to do with it too.

[Ricey]

another vote for the Grace 101 as a pre. i wouldn't look for outboard EQ, unless you don't mind taking recall notes.

[KBOY]

See now this is another aspect to this subject. Different types of voice over work.

Spoken word
Radio
Commercial
Books

And what ever else. I would like to be prepared for anything. So if I was to cover all of these bases what would your mic locker look like?

[KBOY]

Originally Posted by Ricey

another vote for the Grace 101 as a pre. i wouldn't look for outboard EQ, unless you don't mind taking recall notes.

Good point. Since these jobs require hardly any tracks I could use insanely low latency and use plug in eq's and comps???

[James Lehmann]

It's interesting that here in Europe I've never been into a studio using a dynamic mic for voice-over! LDC rules the roost. One of those cultural differences I guess!

My mid-range list to try for radio work would be:

Microtech Gefell M930
Neumann TLM 103
Blue Mouse
Brauner Phantom C
Neumann U87 (but more expensive)

All of these mics have excellent low self-noise.

In fact you can hear me shoot three of these guys out on my own voice here.

As someone said, a transparent, neutral pre will do fine - nothing with too much character I would suggest. I use the pre's in my Metric Halo ULN-2 which are superb, but I must say I'd not use something like the UA6176 (as suggested by Adam) as I find this pre a bit too 'squishy' and warm for a really forward sounding, dynamic radio voice-over (on singing it's a different story - I love the 6176!).

If she's broadcasting live there are a couple of good voice units from Symetrix, Aphex and BBE that are designed to do the job but if it's recorded just process the voice afterwards.

[KBOY]

It has nothing to do with her recording wise. We are going into business together doing voice over demos for others. She has the industry know how and I have the tech part, or at least will find out that part.

I used to own the Phantom C. Beautiful mic yes!!!!

[Led]

Spoken voice on tv is mainly in the mids. Steer clear of neve or neve-ish pres. All the vo guys I know prefer transformerlees class a pres. In Oz everyone uses LDC mic for vo as well. What does 103.1 mean? Is it an fm station...is she that old??

[iziphonics]

I usually use Brauner Velvet for v/o. Works perfect.

[KBOY]

Damn, I really don't have that kind of budget. But in my groin I would love anything Brauner. It made me sick to send back the Phantom C to Fletcher for the AEA R84. Althought the R84 is a brilliant mic I really loved the realism of the Brauner.

Maybe in the future.