The right mics for recording a contralto opera singer at home studio

[Ady]

Hi,

I am a film music composer with my own home studio, working with Macintosh and Logic 7. My wife is a contralto opera singer. We would like to try and record her demos at my studio. Until now she has recorded her demos in concert halls or other studios.

I have consulted a few balance engineers she and I work with, and also read many threads on the forums on this website, so I already have an idea about what I need.

I'm trying to take the mic pre-amp out of this discussion - I know it is very important, but since I don't have enough money to spend on mics AND a new pre-amp, I'm going to use my MOTU 896HD (I also have an 828).

So my question is about mics. Which mics do we need? Which would be best for my wife's voice (please read all my post before answering, I give more info bellow)? From what I've read in the forums I know that people here are very knowledgeable and generous with sharing their knowledge, so I'm looking forward to your suggestions!

I also know that I have to give you as much information as I can so your answer would be appropriate to my situation.

I live in a house with 5-meters-high ceilings. In this house, there are 2 rooms where I can record, and I'm not sure which one is better for recording my wife.

My first option is to record in my studio. It is a 4.60 X 3.90 meters room, and even though the walls are not acoustic, it is a quiet room. It has wall-to-wall carpeting, double-glazed windows, and since it is an old house, the walls are very thick and made of stone. I also have in my studio 2 big tube traps.

My second option is to record in the main room of the house, which is an 8.60 X 3.00 meters room. Again, it has 5-meters-high ceilings, but this room is not isolated as the studio. There are a few doors around it, not windows though, but it's mostly quiet.

In this room I have an upright 1929 Bechstein piano. In my studio I don't have a "real" piano, only an 88-keys Fatar Studio 1100 with good piano samples on my sound modules.

If you would like to get an idea of the sound we're trying to achieve, you can listen to tracks from a demo my wife recorded a few years ago in Paris. That recording was done in a wonderful church called Eglise Saint-Marcel, where many classical recordings are made. My wife and I simply love the sound which was achieved there: her voice sounds luscious and warm, but also clear, like it is right next to the listener, and every aspect of her voice is captured, all the spectrum of her over-tones. The tracks from this recording can be heard on my wife's myspace page - these tracks are: Hasimla Hasegula, La ultima Grela and Oblivion. Please refer only to these tracks, as the other tracks are from other occassions.

Another example of the sound we absolutely love can be found in the new recording by the wonderful soprano Kate Royal. Please go to the website of her new album and check out, especially, the "Video and podcast" section - there's a video there showing footage from the actual recording, so you can see exactly which mics were used!

More information you may need is about the musical nature of the recordings we want to make. Well, if you went to my wife's myspace page, you can hear the kind of repertoire she sings, and also you can hear the kind of voice she has. Listen to other tracks on her page if you like, it can give you a better idea of her kind of voice and repertoire.

We're looking forward to your help guys, and appreciate your kindness in trying to help us.

Thank you,

Ady

[warhead]

The secret is going to be the interaction with her voice, your chosen room, and the mic. You won't likely want to close mic her, but rather put her in the most appropriate space. My first thought is, if it were me I'd put her in the biggest room with the least amount of reflections making it back to the mic though. This may require treating the space. Then I would experiment with placement of the mic, you may end up 4 to 6 feet (American...sorry) away on many songs. I'd think a cardioid mic would be a great choice.

For distance mic'ing of vocals that remains BIG sounding, the Bock 195 with the FAT switch engaged. It is a very clear sounding mic, but not boring at all.

I don't see how with a great room / voice combination, this could not be made to work beautifully.

To get that concert hall sound, obviously artificial reverb is going to be the ticket. I don't think you're going to want to hear some obvious small reflected room sound, followed by a fake hall though...!

She has a great voice by the way.

War

[dkelley]

for what it's worth, for recording female classical vocalists close I always exclusively use the akg c535eb. To my ears it's what that mic was really designed for.

but yea, the relevant stuff is that war gave you great info. I just threw that mic in there because for the first time ever I'd be surprised if anybody could disagree with me LoL

I'm sure someone will though ;-)

cheers
Don

[jnorman]

first, i would try a pair of spaced omnis at about 5-6 feet out. true pressure omnis, not dual-capsule pressure gradient omnis. in a dead room, you are never going to make her sound like she is in a real hall, so when you add reverb, be careful to create the best realistic space you can reagrdless of how "large" it turns out being.

next, i might try an MS setup at around 7-8 feet out. MS can be just the ticket for solo material.

last, i might try blumlein if you got it.

good luck.

[Ady]

Thank you all very much for your great help so far!

warhead: the Bock 195 sounds great - I saw it on your website and the price is good too. Do you think I can hear a sample of a recording which was done with it, preferably of an opera singer of course, but not necessarily? Also, my wife thanks you for the compliment!

Don: very interesting suggestion, the akg c535eb... I have a c1000s, which is not good enough for my wife's voice. Is your choice better, different?

jnorman: Thanks for the suggestions - I looked up MS and Blumlein and I have to explore it more (I am a composer, not an engineer) - I admire your expertise!

Ady

[mohthom]

Don't get bogged down in the technicalities of MS recording if you don't have to - just record the mid track (omni, card, inbetween) to the left of a stereo track and the side (fig8, front of the microphone pointing left) to the right of the same stereo track (i.e. M=L, S=R) and use Logic's Direction Mixer in MS mode to taste. Play with the controls, but don't look up what they do - just use your ears.

Depending on the room (which I can't comment on as I havent heard it!) and how big it sounds (i.e. how reverby it is) I may be tempted to use any of the methods listed above for the body of the sound along with a good quality SDC cardioit fairly close (less than 1m) to the singer - just (!) to pick up the consonant sounds. I'd normally EQ this to pick up sounds above 4k only (ish - again, to taste). You'd have nothing to lose by trying this out (or even an XY pair, to give more options re: stereo) and could just reject it if it didn't sound awesome. I normally use a microphone placed like this very low in the mix to add a touch of clarity. There's nothing worse than a singer with poor diction, and this technique can reinforce this.

Good luck!

[clownjuggles]

Ady,

Check out the DPA 4041. I recorded quite a bit of classical vocals on that.