Vocal Mics

All,

Working on a project where the artist I am producing as a very sweet voice but does not carry well. I am looking for a few good mics to rent from Blackbird or other to record her. I do not own very many vocal mics as I mostly record guitars. For this project I am recording vocals in my studio. I will use a Martek pre but need a few suggestion on good mics that would fit her voice. Guitars no problem. Vocals I could use some suggestions.

Brian Oaks

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Permalink Reply by Pete Warren on July 16, 2009 at 11:33pm

I will admit I did own a Perception 200. I bought it to take on the road for when I had to personally record VO's for ad work I was doing. It was a really decent mic. I also used it as my quick grab vocal mic for recording scratch vocals. Until someone made fun of me thinking I'd used it on a master (due to me posting photos of it in use). I decided that the chiding from C-12 owners wasn't worth keeping the P200. However, it was a really solid mic.

Case in point, I had to do a scratch vocal the other day on an artist I'm working with. I grabbed a 414. For this guy, I suddenly missed my p200.

Of course when we cut the real deal, we ended up using a C-12. we'd gone through a lot of different things, as I digress...

Chain 1: M-149 -> Martech MSS-10 (the non tube version j/k) -> vintage LA-2A.
Chain 2: M-149 -> Mastering Lab Pre -> LA2A
Chain 3: M-149 -> Langevin Pre -> LA2A
Chain 4: M-149 -> LA-610
Chain 5 C-12 -> LA-610. We went with that one.

Poor singer. It took us five tries to figure out it was the mic we weren't liking on him, but I'd always liked it on everyone else I'd used it on. Go figure.

I remember throwing in a PEQ-1 at more than one point and messing with that as well. All the while taking the whip to David Schober.

(don't let facts get in the way of a good story - I may not have all that 100% right, but going by memory....)

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Permalink Reply by Mike Lawson on January 31, 2009 at 12:32pm

I know its an old thread, but I'm a new member, so I have to put in a word for a few mikes that I use often and absolutely adore working with: The Violet Globe, The Violet Amethyst Vintage, The ADK Hamburg Edition and the ADK A-48. There are all $1500 and under in street price. The Violets are made in Latvia by the people who used to make the original Blue Microphones. Their sound is simply stellar. I believe that Corner Music carries them, and ADK as well. ADK, while made in China, are carefully made to the owner's spec, and they have consistently blown me away with their sound. There are all large diaphragm condensers of course, and I've had great results from each going straight into the pre-amps in a Digi002R. When I've used them through nice pres like the Vipre, or 737, or any of the UA pres, they can produce goosebumps. If you ever get a shot at trying the Black Hole microphone from JZ Microphones (the same founders of Violet), be prepared to be blown away, especially for the cost.

While nothing is better than a genuine U87 or U47 in my opinion, if you don't have that kind of money and don't want to rent for a session, these are all stellar choices to try out. Honestly, I am really impressed with the variety of "import" microphones you can get these days. Sure, some aren't so good, but then again, its an amazing array of choices now, and I like to consider them akin to owning that giant box of 64 crayons. I might only use periwinkle to color with once, but when I need it to complete the picture, its just the right shade. I've got high-end mikes, and I've got low end mikes, and I LOVE being able to try them out to find that perfect fit for a vocal, instrument or amp mike.

That's my two cent. :)

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Permalink Reply by Randy Kohrs on March 1, 2009 at 9:50am

Violet Flamingo will get you there.

R

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Permalink Reply by Lynn Fuston on August 12, 2009 at 1:56pm

Can I mention that I did a shootout with 49 vocal mics? On male and female voice? And that it's available for you to audition on CD? It's called the 3D Mic CD.

For those who are interested in hearing the differences in many of the vocal mics mentioned in this thread, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. About $140,000 worth of vocal mics, if I recall.

I won't post the link to the store where you can buy a copy unless Bret says it's OK. I'm not here trying to sell anything. It's just a powerful listening tool that has helped lots of people get a better grasp on what different mics sound like.

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Permalink Reply by Brian Oaks on September 7, 2009 at 8:01am

GREAT input here....

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Permalink Reply by Jim 'The Reverb King' Brown on September 10, 2009 at 10:35am

I haven't read through the whole thread so please forgive me if somebody already said this but IMHO the thing that really matters about vocal mic selection is that the entire chain (mic-whateveryoulike-all the way back to their headphones/ears) inspires the singer to do a great performance. Ask them how it feels, because if they’re not feeling it you’ve got nothing. I have had people that were amazed when I had working headphones ready, a decent monitor mix and I was ready to record after one run through. I know everybody on NMP has ‘it’ together but there are a lot of people who don’t.

Also, the idea of starting a vocal session by lining up every mic you have access to is insane, we should know our mics and have a pretty good idea of what’s going to work. Nothing will kill a singer’s inspiration like making them try to figure out which mic is a best, unless they want to…

My point is it’s about inspiration first then sound; after all how many great live recordings were done with a 58? Of course we all like to talk about gear too : )