Slightly shrill male vocal lacking lows...Which mic?

[Geddyleewannabe]

For recording a slightly shrill male voice lacking lows, what would be the mic to put in front of him? My guess is a relatively dark mic? Help me out

[superburtm]

Originally Posted by Geddyleewannabe

For recording a slightly shrill male voice lacking lows, what would be the mic to put in front of him? My guess is a relatively dark mic? Help me out

sm7..

[Soundog]

Or an R84 through something like a mini-me.

[Kyle Ashley]

I just got it and don't have much experience recording with it, but I would try the Heil Sound PR40.

[gainreduction]

Sennheiser MD-421

[warhead]

Originally Posted by Soundog

Or an R84 through something like a mini-me.

thumbsup Don't know about the Mini-Me but the R84 is nice for many reasons including the one Geddyleewannabe stated.

War

[popmann]

TLM193

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthrea...717#post605717

[Jeff16years]

Originally Posted by popmann

TLM193

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthrea...717#post605717

that's what i was going to say!!!

except that I didn't realize you were selling one...

[cramseur]

Maybe a Marshall (MXL) V69 tube?

[mcballs]

Originally Posted by superburtm

sm7..

You can buy mine if you want

[James Lugo]

E49

[aevan]

Dragonfly

[DAWgEAR]

E250

[Reggie Love]

Originally Posted by popmann

TLM193

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthrea...717#post605717

Another vote for the 193 very good at filling out shrill or nasal voices with a weak low end.

[superburtm]

Originally Posted by mcballs

You can buy mine if you want

Where were you two weeks ago! I jus bought one new. It's a nice option mic to have IMO.

[SK1]

re - 20 ... least it's cheap !!

But very nice .... anything but shrill !!

[SK1]

e49 kills ... mucho dinero ( sp ) ??

[manning1]

geddy......
i dont know what your recording to/signal chain...a computer daw ??
and i dont know if this reply will help...but just something (an alternative line of thinking) to think about maybe.
it might not be your current mic. i'm finding that with a lot of electronics these days
there is a lot of shrillness in certain areas/possibilities....and sometimes its not the mic. what i'm finding is some cheaper audio mixers and sound cards can contribute to the shrillness factor. gotta watch the 2k to 8k area of eq it seems.
and consider judicious eq cuts in this area. what i do is there is a RTA built into what i use which displays frequencies on a recorded track in the daw. this lets me identify offending frequencies and experiment with eq. often i find i'm cutting them in the 2k to 8k area and boosting the low mids a tad.just an idea if maybe like me you cant afford pristine/exotic signal paths.

[Dog_Chao_Chao]

I´m struggling with a neumann u89i at the moment cause it has to much low-mid on vocals and not much top...maybe it would be nice for your job...a bit darky!

[mcballs]

Originally Posted by superburtm

Where were you two weeks ago! I jus bought one new. It's a nice option mic to have IMO.

I was kidding... just trying to imply that I think that mic sucks for vocals (at least on mine it does, for sure). I should have said you can have mine.

You're right, it is nice to have around, I use it to record electric guitar now. But I may sell it so put the money toward something more worthwhile (worthwhile for me, that is). Even if you like the frequency response of it, I just don't like the lack of detail it or any other dynamic has on vocals.

I know, I know everybody loves them and you could do a whole record with 57... sure.

[Geddyleewannabe]

Pardon my ignorance, but in reference to the mic suggestions, who is the manufacturer of the models that begin with an "E"?

e.g. E250, E49

[Geddyleewannabe]

Originally Posted by manning1

geddy......
i dont know what your recording to/signal chain...a computer daw ??
and i dont know if this reply will help...but just something (an alternative line of thinking) to think about maybe.
it might not be your current mic. i'm finding that with a lot of electronics these days
there is a lot of shrillness in certain areas/possibilities....and sometimes its not the mic. what i'm finding is some cheaper audio mixers and sound cards can contribute to the shrillness factor. gotta watch the 2k to 8k area of eq it seems.
and consider judicious eq cuts in this area. what i do is there is a RTA built into what i use which displays frequencies on a recorded track in the daw. this lets me identify offending frequencies and experiment with eq. often i find i'm cutting them in the 2k to 8k area and boosting the low mids a tad.just an idea if maybe like me you cant afford pristine/exotic signal paths.

Yes, I am using a DAW. It's the original ProTools LE 5.0 with a Digi001 interface. I haven't mastered the software yet. Do you know if this version of ProTools has that RTA that displays the frequencies of the recorded track? I've always wanted something like that to gain better frequency discernment with my ears as well as to identify offending or pleasing frequencies.

I'm aware that the Digi001 has sub-par A/D conversion. Would that be a contributing factor?

[Sword in Hand]

I, myself, have a sort of shrill high end and lacking some lows. I use a 58 or Audio Technica at4060 (through the right preamp they can sound great), into a Great River ME-1NV (softens the piercing highs). Also try playing around with the proximity effect to control the low end.

Go talk to Nathan Eldred over at Atlas Pro Audio, he's an extremely helpful and kind person.


Best regards,
sword in hand

[DAWgEAR]

Originally Posted by Geddyleewannabe

Pardon my ignorance, but in reference to the mic suggestions, who is the manufacturer of the models that begin with an "E"?

e.g. E250, E49

Both of these models are manufactured by Soundelux.


http://www.soundeluxmics.com

The E250 has been discontinued but you might be able to find one still in stock or pick up a used one. I've never used the E49 so I cannot comment personally.

Also, the preamp can make a difference.

[Geddyleewannabe]

Originally Posted by DAWgEAR

Also, the preamp can make a difference.

And in the case I'm addressing, a more colored preamp would be in order I assume?

The impression I get is that the term "colored" refers to a darker, not as strong of a push on the high frequencies and slightly more push in the lows or low-mids. Am I right?

[Geddyleewannabe]

I was just reading the description of the E49 on the Soundelux website.

In the description it reads..."Male vocalists with that special mied character really come through on the E49; the female with the smoky detail and harmonics of a lounge singer sound correct;"

What do they mean by "that special mied character"?

How does the character of the E49 differ from the character of the E250 and the iFet7?

Would the E47C be too much in the direction of adding low-end and reducing shrill?

[superburtm]

Originally Posted by mcballs

I was kidding... just trying to imply that I think that mic sucks for vocals (at least on mine it does, for sure). I should have said you can have mine.

You're right, it is nice to have around, I use it to record electric guitar now. But I may sell it so put the money toward something more worthwhile (worthwhile for me, that is). Even if you like the frequency response of it, I just don't like the lack of detail it or any other dynamic has on vocals.

I know, I know everybody loves them and you could do a whole record with 57... sure.

This mic may suck on you . But that don't mean the mic sux. Lots o records done with that mic that sound great. STP comes to mind.

[manning1]

geddy....re...RTA...
the RTA i use is built into powertracks that i use in my sig.
i find the RTA invaluable.
if your on a pc you can get the demo of powertracks from pgmusic.com.
its got so many audio/midi features i would be typing for the next couple of hours...so try the demo. in particular if you dont believe me read the guest book at
pg. slew of user testimonials/fans like me..
if you peruse the backposts in the pg user forums youll se a number of LE users useing powertracks due to many features not found in some other audio solutions. many LE users use what i do due to the midi features in powertracks.
which are pretty darn nifty...as well as the audio features.
as i said it might not be the mic. there are 3 critical aspects in recording.
the mic itself , the quality of mic pre's and the quality of convertors in the sound device. of course then there is the monitoring environment and the room itself you use.
a good example of the use of the RTA that i use is lets say one is micing a bass cabinet...useing a pretty poor mic...because thats all one can afford..and your hearing this nasty buzz.(sometimes a prob with bass)... what i would do in this situation is go to the waveform display...zoom in on the "buzz" portion....bring up the RTA...play the "buzz"
section only...and thus the RTA displays the offending frequencies of the buzz.
i can then do several things....after noting the offending frequencies.
use subtle editing tricks to reduce the level of the buzz and/or use a parametric eq built into the software to cut the offending frequencies.
a good example is i was given a mic by a friend ....a pretty poor mic in some situations...but in some situations it can sound pretty darn good....better than
some more expensive mics i have. particularly on a guitar cab. but its a tad noisy mic. so...once again i use the RTA to find the offending frequencies.....and use para eq to cut them down. another example of RTA use is ......a friend i have
had done some tracks he wanted me to work on. he had used i mean the worst gear to record tracks. 20 buk mic and a sound card built into the pc. well....as we all know ....built in sound cards in pc's are absolutely awfull with very poor
digital convertors. thus the tracks were noisey.
so i just loaded the wavefiles into powertracks. on each track i applied a noise gate watching the threshold carefully of course...then for each track brought up the RTA to identify any offending frequencies. and usedpara eq to cut them out.
needless to say he was a bit surprised at the result.
in summary an RTA has all sorts of uses. hope this helps. peace.