GEAR TALK
Choosing Recording Microphones
recording microphones

The vocal microphone you record with can make you or break your project.
In a low to mid budget studio, you might be offered an inadequate Mic for your vocal type. If you know about mics, you can take a more active role in the creation of your recording. In today's marketplace of great gear available at competitive prices, any studio worth it's salt will own a few "industry standard" vocal recording mics. But which will be the right microphone for you?
Every microphone has its own personality, picking up different frequencies and textures in your voice.
The nuances created on the mic will be a mark of your individuality. A microphone, which favors one type of singer, may sound lifeless, or at the other extreme, even shrill, on a different voice. Experiment with various mics to hear the way each responds to your tone. You may find that you favor a few different mics for different song performances.
To find out what sounds good on you, try comparing a range of highly recommended microphones, in-studio, ahead of your big recording day. This is
This is called a Mic Shootout. It is standard practice for big studios and big album projects, but a key step often skipped in lower budget studios.
When booking an engineer or producer whom has never worked with you before, schedule a pre-production day with them for a Scratch Vocal/Mic Shootout.
If you like their ears, but the gear is not as good as it could be for your voice, you still have time to rent a super professional mic and outboard gear - a mic pre-amp & compressor- and bring it to your vocal session day. Press for a shootout, with any new recording team, if you want to be sure you're getting the best product for your money.
Most pro-audio rental houses offer a Mic Shootout, if you guarantee a week rental.
They deliver a gamut of top end mics for you to test on Day One, and pick up the mics you don't want at first day's end. What makes this a sweet deal is this: most top rental companies offer a special price of 7 days for the price of 4! When it comes to a mic like the vintage Neumann U-47 -in my personal opinion the best sounding mic ever planted on this green earth, and re-selling at $7,500 and upwards- a rental of a few hundred bucks which makes you sound like a million bucks might be the difference between you "making it" and selling shoes. Once you know which mic works best for you, stick with it. See my pocket guide for beauties that you've got to try. You'll never know how good you can sound until you've sung on a great microphone. www.audiorents.com
Although new models are marketed every year, microphone technology is stable and finite.
But the prices are getting better all the time for home studio owners! No longer is a great recording the domain of a major budget artist. But before buying for your project studio, do a Shootout at the store. Get a solid, reliable workhorse in your price range for demos and writing. And if you can get a studio owner friend to slip you into a NAMM show, to lay your hands on the latest gear, you are in Candyland, my friend.
Take control of your vocals. It's is who you are.
Don't be a wimp when working collaboratively. If you record with a terrific tracking engineer, writer, or producer who spent all his cash on synths, but you are getting crummy vocals on lousy mics, ask them to rent a better gear for your vocal date. If they don't want to take the time or trouble, pay the bill, take the tracks and walk. It is not uncommon at the project studio level to cut tracks at one place and carry the digital files or audio tapes to another studio, producer, or engineer where you can cut a better vocal. Not everybody can be a genius at everything.
A few technical terms you should know about microphones:
First: There are three types of mic designs: condenser, ribbon and dynamic. In simplest terms, dynamics are rugged and can take a lot of beating, so they are usually stage mics, or instrument mics. Ribbons and condensers are more fragile, and condenser styles comprise the bulk of top studio recording mics.
Next: Condensers can contain electronics of various types, such as vacuum tubes or solid state components. Tube mics are the most fragile, the most sensitive, and therefore often the most expensive, and hard to find if vintage. Of the solid state condenser variety, there are some killer mics out there, both new and vintage, which utilize FET, or other types of circuitry.

 

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