Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by Kwackman »

Tim Gillett wrote:
Arpangel wrote: Yesterday I tried a Beyer M201, it wasn’t bad, it had a very intimate, breathy, sound, that picked up all my mouth noises ...my voice is very quiet, breathy, and I like to be close to the mic...

A quiet voice can seem breathy, have prominent mouth noises, sometimes overly sibilant simply because the meat in the voice is weak in comparison. If so this is not a mic issue but voice.

You quoted Tony, but missed an important bit out- he's not complaining about his voice quality...

Arpangel wrote:Yesterday I tried a Beyer M201, it wasn’t bad, it had a very intimate, breathy, sound, that picked up all my mouth noises, which is what I’m after

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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by Tim Gillett »

Kwackman wrote:
Tim Gillett wrote:
Arpangel wrote: Yesterday I tried a Beyer M201, it wasn’t bad, it had a very intimate, breathy, sound, that picked up all my mouth noises ...my voice is very quiet, breathy, and I like to be close to the mic...

A quiet voice can seem breathy, have prominent mouth noises, sometimes overly sibilant simply because the meat in the voice is weak in comparison. If so this is not a mic issue but voice.

You quoted Tony, but missed an important bit out- he's not complaining about his voice quality...

Arpangel wrote:Yesterday I tried a Beyer M201, it wasn’t bad, it had a very intimate, breathy, sound, that picked up all my mouth noises, which is what I’m after


Kwackman, Hugh says Tony already has, apparently, an MKH40 and asks why he doesnt try that. I second that.
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by shufflebeat »

Wonks wrote:It has been a much-used descriptor by Røde.

Great for not avoiding confusion.
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by Guest »

Arpangel wrote:...I know it’s difficult making recommendations, but any suggestions as to the right ball-park would be helpful, I need it to be good quality when needed, most of my stuff is low-fi, but I need the flexibility to be clean when I need it.

You might want to try an Audio Technica 4080 active ribbon mic.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/au ... 080-at4081
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by manwilde »

I´d just like to say that the quest for the right vocal mic is real fun and really worth it. I´ve been doing quite a bit of testing myself lately, and had an epiphany just a couple of weeks ago when I tried my Golden Age active ribbon mic: with my voice, in my room, and for most of the music that I make, it´s just right. No eq, just a tad of compression and voilà!,
So, as it´s been said here many times, the best choice is not necessarilly the most expensive, or a LDC.
By the way, other mics that I tried were EV RE-20 & 635a, Roswell Mini K-47, Sennheiser e-835, Oktava Mk012 (omni, cardioid, hyper), and some others. All good mics FWIW, but there you go.
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by Airfix »

Ribbons are sweet - they have a 'neutrally' slow response - that sharp attack - you would not notice with a ribbon - sweet mics. They are not like LDCs - which are open and honest - I have an old se2200 which is is fantastic
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by manwilde »

Yes. To me, it "just sounds like a record", and that´s a marvellous feeling! :D
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by Mike Stranks »

The current NT1 is a very different beast to it's earlier incarnation and very markedly different to the NT1a. Why Rode willingly engendered the understandable confusion is beyond me... maybe that's why it's a bit of a 'sleeper'... I'd have one back in my mic box in a heart-beat if I was in the market for an LDC.

This is the NT1 to which I refer:

http://en.rode.com/microphones/nt1

Mind you, if I had the need and the dosh, I'd after one of these:

http://en.rode.com/microphones/ntr
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by Wonks »

Because it’s only been sold as a bundle, albeit a very worthwhile bundle, it does move the package out of most people’s ‘my first mic’ price bracket. And as a second or third mic, you may not want all the bundled extras, which again makes it less attractive for a lot of people.

No idea why it’s not sold on its own.
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by Arpangel »

Tim Gillett wrote:
Kwackman wrote:
Tim Gillett wrote:
Arpangel wrote: Yesterday I tried a Beyer M201, it wasn’t bad, it had a very intimate, breathy, sound, that picked up all my mouth noises ...my voice is very quiet, breathy, and I like to be close to the mic...

A quiet voice can seem breathy, have prominent mouth noises, sometimes overly sibilant simply because the meat in the voice is weak in comparison. If so this is not a mic issue but voice.

You quoted Tony, but missed an important bit out- he's not complaining about his voice quality...

Arpangel wrote:Yesterday I tried a Beyer M201, it wasn’t bad, it had a very intimate, breathy, sound, that picked up all my mouth noises, which is what I’m after


Kwackman, Hugh says Tony already has, apparently, an MKH40 and asks why he doesnt try that. I second that.

I few months back I posted here about the MKH40, just didn’t work for me, I don’t like singing into small mic's, or mic's that seem to be fragile and pop at the drop of a hat, I did use a shied with the 40 by the way, and it still popped. The 201 sounds much better on my voice and pops less than the 40, but I do find I hold back, and get all hesitant with small mic's I think a ribbon may be bad too, close-up, not good for the ribbon I guess.
Budget? Not sure, trouble with this situation is that it’s difficult to try mic's out, and there are so many! If you make a mistake with a cheap one it’s not that bad but if you’re spending thousands that’s bad, not that I want to.
The cheap option would be to stick with the 201 and get around the gain problem, I’m using it through a channel on my A&H MixWizard, I haven’t tried it with my main preamp which I think will be a lot better, it has a lot more gain, I’ll try that today, it’s been hiding away and I found it last night, see how that goes.
The expensive option I’m thinking, may be an AKG 414, I like that mic, on tracks that have used it, it seems to have a bright sound, not sure.
Enya? MKH40? I would never have thought that, I’d like to know how she used it.
My vocals are half spoken, I wouldn’t call it singing as such, the nearest I get to that is a cross between a drunken Laurie Anderson Tom Waits, on a bad day,
I am content with my voice, it’s not anything really, it does the job, so I’m not after looking to improve it.
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by Guest »

My bottom line:
just stick with the 201 and get a booster. It’s my prefered alternative to the more frequently suggested SM57/SM7 for that kind of situation...
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Re: Large diaphragm mic for vocals.

Post by Arpangel »

sound bites wrote:My bottom line:
just stick with the 201 and get a booster. It’s my prefered alternative to the more frequently suggested SM57/SM7 for that kind of situation...

Seems to be, yes, I’ll try it today with another preamp, the A&H is a great line mixer, but as usual, on a lot of mixers, the mic amps aren’t anything to write home about, a bit noisy, with quite bad gain bunching, they only give me a usable range when turned up full, with a 201.
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