which mic works best for this vocalist?

i thought it'd be fun to put up three (very) rough mixes of songs featuring a vocalist with whom i work quite a bit. i'm always changing up mics, pre's and compression -- it's one way of testing new gear -- but i'm going to post mp3's that use different mics.

in each song, the pre is the same (phoenix drs-1). a reissued 1176 "compressor" was used on most vocals, though an empirical labs distressor was used during mixdown for one of them.

please know that this is in no way approaching a valid scientific test. the songs are different, the performances are different, they were recorded at different times, the rough mixes had different amounts of effort put into them, et. al. All will have or have had further work done on the music. i.e. these aren't finished pieces.

that said, i think the vocal performances do reveal some qualities of the mics used. these are all sub-$1000 mics. so without further ado and in no particular order:

these songs have music done by other producers (mashup guys), i was merely the vocal engineer (i did dock up the roughs, though, as my interpretation of how the vocals should be mixed):

1. Solsbury

2. Supergrass

this song is an original by my band:

3. Mixtape

anyone have any thoughts on how well the mics worked or didn't work in each song?

i'm an idiot. they're fixed now.

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SuperCompu2 said:

very talented singer

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yeah, she's a rockstar. not literally, but colloquially. and her harmonies are effortless. i'm quite jealous, actually.

SuperCompu2 said:

solsbury sounded very clear, but the last one complimented the voice much better

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noted. i'm going to wait for more responses before posting what mics they were, but we'll be revisiting this observation.

e-clipse said:

Song #3 is similar to my style of music I write. I really dig the electronic track.

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well, that's good news, since it's the only original. the song was written by my friend guy, but the electronic track was rendered by my friend matt. matt has a project called mathgeeks, his album Numerology is on itunes (under the name Math Geeks, which is a misspelling).

Keep in mind that I am monitoring on a set of...

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doesn't matter. in the end, the music gets played on all kinds of systems. if it even gets played, that is

i went back and had a listen to the raw vocal tracks. though i do think it's important that the track be judged in its final context, i fear my inconsistent mixing efforts may be clouding the issue. so i'm providing more data. here are some samples of the raw lead vocal tracks (the only processing is hardware on the way in and any SRC/dither required to get it to 44/16):

solsbury vox sample
supergrass vox sample
mixtape vox sample

right. here are the mics used:

solsbury: rode nt-1
supergrass: shure sm7b
mixtape: akg c414 eb

solsbury: the reason i put up this thread is because of the rode (note that this is the nt-1, not the nt-1a). i hadn't used it in a couple years, but i wanted to give it another shot. after hearing it, i almost unplugged it (as you can hear in the solo sample, there's some really annoying hi-freq distortion, and the lows and mids are really weak), but i wanted to see if i could make it work in the mix. i was pleasantly surprised.

supergrass: because i'm stubborn, i decided that the conventional wisdom of using an LDC for such a voice should be challenged. so i tried the sm7b -- an excellent mic, imo, and the solo sample isn't too bad, though i am missing that LDC detail. it doesn't stand up in the mix very well as is, but i reckon some more careful EQ'ing and some delay processing could improve it.

mixtape: i acquired a pair of non-consecutive 414 eb's last year. the one i used is actually the brighter of the two, and though i love its tone, it's missing some high frequences. i'll get them serviced at some point. for those who don't know, the eb's were made in the late 70's and early 80's. mine seem to be from the middle of the run, so they don't have the much-coveted brass capsule rings. maybe after servicing, they'll be alike enough that i can actually use them as a pair.

for completeness, here are the recording chains:

solsbury: nt1 -> phoenix drs-1 -> reissue 1176 -> apogee rosetta800 @ 44/24

supergrass, low lead vox: sm7b -> drs-1 -> rosetta800 @ 48/24
supergrass, hi lead and bak vox: sm7b -> drs-1 -> 1176 -> rosetta800 @ 48/24
supergrass mix: lead vox (both high and low) also went through an ELI distressor

mixtape: 414 -> drs-1 -> 1176 -> rosetta800 @ 44/24

i hope this was interesting. i'm going to have to rethink my attitude about the rode mic.

Killyp said:

Wow, does your singer also go by the name of Natalie Merchant?!?!?

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yes. yes she does

okay, i've got another one. this time it's a B.L.U.E. Dragonfly, thought you guys might wanna hear it. same chain (phoenix drs-1 -> UA 1176 reissue -> apogee rosetta800), @ 44/24.

same mix deal, too -- it's not my song, so just a rough mix. about an hour's worth of mix time, if it matters. that's an hour for vox only, btw, the music came to me as a 2-track.

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