A "vocalist" NEEDS a handheld mic to "get int

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takeout
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A "vocalist" NEEDS a handheld mic to "get int

Post by takeout » Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:02 pm

What do you do? What- Do - You - Do?[/keanu]

I'd like to pick up something, since I've had this happen twice in the last year. Screaming, growling nonsense, but I'd still like decent frequency response. Terrible mic technique is a given (eating the mic, cupping it into being a semi-omni, etc.)

57's and 58's just aren't cutting it (at least mine aren't). Like a hi-fi telephone.

Beta 58? Beyer M88? SM7 (a little awkward as a handheld, but...)? The secret weapon make/model you're about to lay on me?

Please advise.

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Post by mjau » Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:03 pm

I had a guy in that wanted to hold the mic, so I used a beyer m69 and it worked out fairly well, all things considered.

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JGriffin
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Post by JGriffin » Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:09 pm

One of the guys who engineers Aerosmith gives Steven Tyler a handheld mic but also aims a shotgun mic at him and tracks most of the vocals with that.
"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."

"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." ? Brian Eno

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Post by Randy » Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:50 pm

I have done something similar to punk singers. I give them a 58 and set up an omni mic against a flat surface directly opposite to where their mouth points (3 or 4 feet away) and tell them to think of the omni mic as the audience. I record both mics and take whichever sounds best. Sometimes you can EQ the handheld and mix it with the omni mic if the singer doesn't move around too much.

If that doesn't work, I have run the handheld mic through a PA and mic'd that. Obviously it's not HiFi, but if the band wants to sound live, it's the way to go.
not to worry, just keep tracking....

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Post by apropos of nothing » Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:24 pm

Give'em a 58 to hold onto, while they're standing in front of the LDC. If you're a really nice person, you'll hit record on the track that the 58 is routed to.

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JGriffin
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Post by JGriffin » Sat Oct 20, 2007 10:26 pm

apropos of nothing wrote:If you're a really nice person, you'll hit record on the track that the 58 is routed to.
:twisted:
"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."

"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." ? Brian Eno

All the DWLB music is at http://dwlb.bandcamp.com/

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Post by rydaken » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:31 am

Mos Def uses a 57. Hand held at that.

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Post by drumsound » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:51 am

M88 will take EQ well, plus it has great rejection if you want to track vocals while tracking basics. I usually use onr or scratch vocals because I can actually listen to the scratch without the drum being all fucked up like when you use a mic with crappy rejection...

How's the Club these days?

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Post by KennyLusk » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:33 am

rydaken wrote:Mos Def uses a 57. Hand held at that.
Yeah, but Mos Def is an amazing artist with years of experience. Huge talent.
"The mushroom states its own position very clearly. It says, "I require the nervous system of a mammal. Do you have one handy?" Terrence McKenna

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Post by apropos of nothing » Sun Oct 21, 2007 8:50 am

KennyLusk wrote:
rydaken wrote:Mos Def uses a 57. Hand held at that.
Yeah, but Mos Def is an amazing artist with years of experience. Huge talent.
I'm tempted to guess that Mos Def says he uses a 57 to record vox.

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Colin F.
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Post by Colin F. » Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:24 am

Beyer M88 or M201 or an SM7 (kind of a chode to hold but it works great)

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Post by takeout » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:16 pm

drumsound wrote:M88 will take EQ well, plus it has great rejection if you want to track vocals while tracking basics. I usually use onr or scratch vocals because I can actually listen to the scratch without the drum being all fucked up like when you use a mic with crappy rejection...

How's the Club these days?

TS
Yeah, a friend of mine who tracked Coalesce back in the day used to hand Sean Ingram one of those. Watching some on Ebay now.

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Post by cgarges » Sun Oct 21, 2007 9:33 pm

A Beyer M-88 can sound really great, but one of mine did blow up on a session with a "Cookie Monster"-type singer who was cupping his hands around it. I don't know if this is directly related to the mic's destruction or not, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Another excellent mic for this kind of thing is the Sennheiser MD-431. No one ever talks about those mics. Mine sounds exactly like a 421 (have compared them directly side-by-side on a couple of sources) but it's actually designed as a hand-held sort of thing. Because no one seems to know about them, they can usually be had kind of inexpensively on ebay.

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Post by rydaken » Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:12 pm

apropos of nothing wrote:
KennyLusk wrote:
rydaken wrote:Mos Def uses a 57. Hand held at that.
Yeah, but Mos Def is an amazing artist with years of experience. Huge talent.
I'm tempted to guess that Mos Def says he uses a 57 to record vox.
I've seen it followed by a 1272 and a CL1B, straight to "Tape" (pro tools)

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Post by JGriffin » Sun Oct 21, 2007 10:28 pm

cgarges wrote: Because no one seems to know about them, they can usually be had kind of inexpensively on ebay.
Now you've done it.
"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."

"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." ? Brian Eno

All the DWLB music is at http://dwlb.bandcamp.com/

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