what is the best vocal mic for under a grand?

robosaurus · Post by **robosaurus** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 12:11 pm

in your opinion what is the best vocal mic for under a grand

Professor · Post by **Professor** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:02 pm

There's no such thing.

Why? you ask.

Well let's face it, if you can't spend at least $3k on a vocal mic then you shouldn't be recording.

Professor · Post by **Professor** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:24 pm

Well OK, maybe not, but I always wanted to give that kind of response to these questions.
I will stick by the idea that there is no such thing, but hopefully the reason would be more obvious to folks than the $3k price point. Really it is that there is no "best mic" for anything - there never has been and there never will be.
You might occasionally encounter mics that are 'pretty good' most of the time on a particular instrument, or even mic that is 'really good or even 'great' on a particular instrument most of the time.
But how often are there instruments that consistently sound identical from brand-to-brand, model-to-model, or even between styles of music, abilities of the performer, or the weather on any particular day?
Lots of people swear by SM-57s on snare drum, but what kind of snare drum? Does it give the same sound on a 7" deep wood drum, a 5.5" deep steel snare, or a 3" brass piccolo? Is it the best sound for a jazz player with a light tough, a rock drummer, or a metal drummer slamming tree trunks into the head? How does it fair against brushes? on a calf head? underneath the drum?
There are too many variables, and that's just a snare drum.
Now consider a voice. Is it male or female? High or low in that range? Is the singer performing live, recording in a studio, singing rock, jazz, classical, punk, rap, or something else? Is it a loud song, a love song, a ballad, or are we shooting for an arena-rock kind of sound?
Even with a $5000 microphone, there isn't a single catch-all mic, and I realy have to wonder about guys who pull out a U-47 automatically without even hearing what singer is coming in. Yes, that's a great mic for man voices, but it still isn't the right mic or the best mic for every situation - or even for most situations.

So if you are only recording yourself then find a mic that works for your voice. If you are recording other people, then start building a microphone collection and learn when different mics suit different voices.

-Jeremy

lsn110 · Post by **lsn110** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:29 pm

EDIT: Curse you Professor...I read your 1st response, started typing, and then posted after you put up your real response. I have to learn to type faster.

Also, I think there should be a thread called "What's the best vocal mic for under a bus"

My unedited response follows
---------------

Don't mind the Professor...it's just that your question is a loaded one. Vocals mics are always a subjective thing because what works well on my voice may not work well on your voice.

The short answer is there is no perfect microphone for all vocals.

Maybe if you told us what kind of vocals, what kind of singer, their technique, etc people could point you to their favorites for those applications. Even then, I'll often set up several mics for a singer and pick the winning mic that way. Sometimes it's the mic I expect to win that wins, sometimes it's not.

I personally get a lot of mileage out of my Shure SM7 and my Soundelux U195 for vocals. I don't have a huge locker of mics, so I use what I got.

My .02,
Paul

getreel · Post by **getreel** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:34 pm

In less expensive mics, I like my CADs a lot for the money. They seem to sound better than a lot of the MXL/Apex/Nady crowd. Their lower end stuff may not be as good, but I think the M177, M37, M179, e100, e300, 350, etc are good mics. My M37 beat out a MXL V69M in several uses like vocals and ac guitar.

KennyLusk · Post by **KennyLusk** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:13 pm

What kind of pre-amps do you already have? That would help to know too.

robosaurus · Post by **robosaurus** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 2:49 pm

I don't have anything yet i'm looking to set up a personal studio to record myself

i'm a male singer with a higher voice

and i'd be recording nylon/steel guitars

wurlitzer electric piano

various auxiliary percussion instruments

banjo

violin

i don't have an interface yet either i'm just doing research right now

i do have a mac g4

stinkpot · Post by **stinkpot** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 3:01 pm

Check out any of the Audio Technica large diaphragm condensers. I'm a male vocalist (sometimes - well always male) with a higher voice and do well with the 4050. The 3035 is ok, the 4060's are great. They're all nice mics for the money.

See if you can get a couple of loaners to try out and see what works for your specific applications. Don't limit yourself to the AT's either, there's lots of great mics out there for under a $1000. I've just found that they do right by me.

John Jeffers · Post by **John Jeffers** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 4:27 pm

The Langevin CR-2001 is a criminally overlooked mic. It's about $700.

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:20 pm

I'd look really hard at the Rodes with the new diaphragms, like the K2. Or for that matter, you could get a pair of the NT2As, which has the same diaphragm....

slowblue · Post by **slowblue** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:40 pm

yeah as Prof said a collection of mics helps immensely, in my case even when singing different parts I like to track backup vox with a different mic than the lead. Ones I've liked are ADK TC/TL, TLM 103, Blue Bottle even a 57 if the vox needs to be a bit thin. Good luck.

heylow · Post by **heylow** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:56 pm

robosaurus wrote:in your opinion what is the best vocal mic for under a grand

See, the problem here is that the real answer is something more like, "Depends on who's singing and what kind of production you are trying to fit him/her into."

All I'm saying is, a little more info would fetch better informed answers. What does "best" mean? In my world, it means "the one that best sets off what I'm trying to do". I have turned down the use of much "better" mics for something very common before....in fact more often than not.

That said, microphones under a grand that have done me much good vocally have ranged from EV666, to AT4047, to EV635a, to Shure SM7. A careful dude could get ALL those for under agrand. I guess I'm saying that it might be best to have a few different microphones at your disposal.

Of course, the next question would be, are you going into a preamp that's gonna do a thousand dollars worth of mics any real justice?

Curse this life....there's never enough gear, is there?

heylow

Mane1234 · Post by **Mane1234** » Sun Apr 23, 2006 9:41 pm

Well I'm gonna toss out another mic as a suggestion here. I recently bought a BLUE Blueberry for under a grand and it's a great mic so far. I've used it on accoustic guitar and male vocals and I'm pretty satisfied with it so far. But as has been said here, always be thinking about adding to the collection.

junkstar · Post by **junkstar** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 9:42 am

Audio Technica 4047, or the Sennheiser 421. Oh, wait, you can own both for under a grand (hint, hint).

Dave Stanley · Post by **Dave Stanley** » Mon Apr 24, 2006 1:43 pm

Mind if I jump in on this?

I have an at3035, worked for me in the past. I was thinking of upgrading, and have been interested in the AT40xx series line, or a U195. or sm7.

Since I'd like to have something versitile (not for my voice, I play drums) and have a mic that would be well suited for Outside of Kick mic, can you remcommend any others?

Better yet, would you mind recommending a vocal mic for the singers voice in these mp3's below? We've started pre-production on our next project and was wanting to try a new/better mic than my AT3035, 57's, km84's. My best pres are True Precision 8, and Aphex 107.

(all tunes tracked live, no overdubs, Vox into an AT atm63he dynamic)

http://www.thedaves.net/time%20plus%20time.mp3
http://www.thedaves.net/the%20cell.mp3

or for others: http://www.thedaves.net/index_Page432.htm

Any suggestions on a good all-around-er MIC would be much appreciataed! Just tell me shut up and what to what to buy!

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