What mic for nice air in the top end on a male voice?

[juicylime]

I'm after a mic for a light male baritone, smooth sounding voice with a touch of throaty rasp in it. I have been using my Nuemann KM 140 and while sometimes it REALLY suits a song, Ive come to admit that it isn't working as a 9 times out of 10 versatile work horse mic for my voice.

I often like to accentuate the rasp in my voice with EQ and compression. I find that the Neumann is too unforgiving. It's like it's too "real" and solid sounding in the high mids and that rasp ends sounding harsh. I've tried a Beta SM58, I can work with the highs on that better as it softness them and makes it sound a little more airy. However, it doesn't have enough of ....um.... a certain something (sorry can't explain!) that I want from a lead vocal mic.

Any thoughts? It's been a long time since I used a SM7. I know it gets a lot of love round here. Anything else?

The rest of my chain is a groove Tubes Brick & LynxOne converters.

[Eganmedia]

Manley ref cardioid or Brauner Valvet springs to mind. Both are bright without being too harsh and take EQ well. A cheaper option might be a TLM 103 or an Oktava MC012 with the Red lolipop capsule.

SM7s have nice proximity but don't have the "air" of the others listed above. I really like the Valvet for that kind of sound.

[Carlos Boll]

You should try a Horch RM2J. It's got a very open and smooth top end and the mids are pure creamy goodness. The 'rasp' area is excellent as well.

[u b k]

re20 is good for rasp.

i like the peluso p12 because the mids are sweet, the low mids are focused rather than bloated or puffy, and the air is higher --- 12k as opposed to 8 or 10 --- and softer than most current-run ldc's.


gregoire
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[vernier]

VM1 does what you're looking for.
'

[wakestyle]

i know this is a super cheap mic, but the behringer 1800xms is awesome 4 that. I like it way more than the sm57. You will get alot of the quieter nuances of your voice coming through.