Mic for Male Vocal

JimiTime

Hello to all,
Does anyone know of a place in Dublin or surrounding counties, that will let you take mics home to compare them before you buy? I am looking to match my Vox (Male, powerful, little raspy) with an ideal mic. My soul mate:) I currently use an SE Z5600 tube mic through a focusrite platinum preamp. I just find its a bit...Harsh. I have worked with U87's and Rode K2's. I liked the U87, but its a bit out of the budget at the minute, but it was a little bright. I really like the K2, but it was a tad muffled, however, that was in a studio, and I'd like to get hold of it to give it a whirl myself. I've heard people talk about the AT 4050, 4060 and 4047, also the Shure ksm44. I'd just love to get them all back to back and give them a good goin' over. Probably very unrealistic, but hey!

While I'm at it, would anyone here have any recommendations of a mic that would be up my street?

Cheers,
J.

dav nagle

Paul Brewer is your man I will private message his number

JimiTime wrote: »

Hello to all,
Does anyone know of a place in Dublin or surrounding counties, that will let you take mics home to compare them before you buy? I am looking to match my Vox (Male, powerful, little raspy) with an ideal mic. My soul mate:) I currently use an SE Z5600 tube mic through a focusrite platinum preamp. I just find its a bit...Harsh. I have worked with U87's and Rode K2's. I liked the U87, but its a bit out of the budget at the minute, but it was a little bright. I really like the K2, but it was a tad muffled, however, that was in a studio, and I'd like to get hold of it to give it a whirl myself. I've heard people talk about the AT 4050, 4060 and 4047, also the Shure ksm44. I'd just love to get them all back to back and give them a good goin' over. Probably very unrealistic, but hey!

While I'm at it, would anyone here have any recommendations of a mic that would be up my street?

Cheers,
J.

studiorat

Could try a CAD E300. Or a Bluebird.

brettzy

JimiTime wrote: »

Hello to all,
Does anyone know of a place in Dublin or surrounding counties, that will let you take mics home to compare them before you buy? I am looking to match my Vox (Male, powerful, little raspy) with an ideal mic. My soul mate:) I currently use an SE Z5600 tube mic through a focusrite platinum preamp. I just find its a bit...Harsh. I have worked with U87's and Rode K2's. I liked the U87, but its a bit out of the budget at the minute, but it was a little bright. I really like the K2, but it was a tad muffled, however, that was in a studio, and I'd like to get hold of it to give it a whirl myself. I've heard people talk about the AT 4050, 4060 and 4047, also the Shure ksm44. I'd just love to get them all back to back and give them a good goin' over. Probably very unrealistic, but hey!

While I'm at it, would anyone here have any recommendations of a mic that would be up my street?

Cheers,
J.

Not to throw a spanner in the works but the focusrite platinum is most likely the weak link in your setup.

I had (still have) a focusrite platinum trak master pro and got great use out of it but it is harsh sounding and generally **** to be honest.

The Z5600 is a great sounding mic for the money, I bet if you pair it up with a really nice preamp you'll suddenly fall in love with it.

Don't know what your budget is but here is a suggestion

http://cgi.ebay.ie/FOCUSRITE-ISA-One-ISA-1-Single-Channel-Pre-Amp-NEW_W0QQitemZ250214180507QQihZ015QQcategoryZ23790QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

or

http://cgi.ebay.ie/FOCUSRITE-ISA-220-Session-Pack-Chnl-Strip-New_W0QQitemZ7375158776QQihZ014QQcategoryZ23790QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

The ISA pre amps in both of these units are streets ahead of the platinum series! Hence the price I suppose:rolleyes:

PaulBrewer

brettzy wrote: »

Not to throw a spanner in the works but the focusrite platinum is most likely the weak link in your setup.

I had (still have) a focusrite platinum trak master pro and got great use out of it but it is harsh sounding and generally **** to be honest.

The Z5600 is a great sounding mic for the money, I bet if you pair it up with a really nice preamp you'll suddenly fall in love with it.

Don't know what your budget is but here is a suggestion

http://cgi.ebay.ie/FOCUSRITE-ISA-One-ISA-1-Single-Channel-Pre-Amp-NEW_W0QQitemZ250214180507QQihZ015QQcategoryZ23790QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

or

http://cgi.ebay.ie/FOCUSRITE-ISA-220-Session-Pack-Chnl-Strip-New_W0QQitemZ7375158776QQihZ014QQcategoryZ23790QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp1638Q2em118Q2el1247

The ISA pre amps in both of these units are streets ahead of the platinum series! Hence the price I suppose:rolleyes:

At the risk of missing a Sale I agree!

The Fousrite is probably the weak link. Whilst the Z5600 is a good mic ( and a great one for the money) it's still a mid range mic in absolute terms.
In order to perform to it's peak it needs a superior pre.

In general I find the Focusrites to be disappointing overall. They made their name when Focusrite was Rupert Neve's company and have not produced anything to match the original ISAs since that I've heard.

Of course I will sell you one if you desire.

PaulBrewer

Another source of Harshness can be Analogue to Digital and Digital to Analogue Conversion ..... but that might be for another day.

JimiTime

PaulBrewer wrote: »

At the risk of missing a Sale I agree!

The Fousrite is probably the weak link. Whilst the Z5600 is a good mic ( and a great one for the money) it's still a mid range mic in absolute terms.
In order to perform to it's peak it needs a superior pre.

In general I find the Focusrites to be disappointing overall. They made their name when Focusrite was Rupert Neve's company and have not produced anything to match the original ISAs since that I've heard.

Of course I will sell you one if you desire.

Ahh, the famous Paul Brewer:) If you were to recommend a preamp, what would it be? Oh on a budget that is. My system is Protools digi002 Rack, focusrite Octopre, through Powermac G5 2Ghz Dual. Also, I know its just educated guesswork, but do you really think that the preamp would make that much difference? Also, if you were recommending a mic, what would you personally recommend? Again, can't afford U87 end of the market.

Cheers,
J.

frobisher

A classic mic for recording powerful, raspy male vocals is the Shure SM7b. Not too expensive either when you consider you're getting a mic that has been used on countelss rock vocals that have sold in their bazillions.

teamdresch

DAV BG-1, FMR RNP, Universal Audio 610/110, Summit Audio maybe?, EH 12AY7, Groove Tubes Brick.
There's about a billion mic preamps worth looking into.
Do whatever research you can, and then borrow or rent one.
Some people even rent out studios for a few hours to try out a bunch of fancy gear in one place.

PaulBrewer

JimiTime wrote: »

Ahh, the famous Paul Brewer:) If you were to recommend a preamp, what would it be? Oh on a budget that is. My system is Protools digi002 Rack, focusrite Octopre, through Powermac G5 2Ghz Dual. Also, I know its just educated guesswork, but do you really think that the preamp would make that much difference? Also, if you were recommending a mic, what would you personally recommend? Again, can't afford U87 end of the market.

Cheers,
J.

Surely you mean the Infamous Paul Brewer?

What's the budget is the first question?

In fairness the Octopre isn't too bad at all - we've supplied loads of them to RTE.

The important question I think is does it have the digital out card fitted?

Then you can bypass the definite bottleneck in your system, the 002's analogue side and it's A2D conversion.

That may be the most cost effective way to make an improvement that will ensure you're maximising what you have and not spending too much.

In my mind the performer, instrument, room, mic, cable, mic-pre, compression, A2D and D2A are all part of the one chain. If the quality of any of them drops so does the quality of the output.

Mic Preamplification isn't just a purely technical process - because different quality pres give MUCH different results, it's very much a musical process too.

By extending that idea there's no real point in sticking a U87 on an Octopre into a Digi 002 as you don't get it's real benefit.

(There may however be an argument for a U87 or similar investing in the future, but that's another days argument)

An SM7 is a good mic and is often used on rock vocals as well as guitars - think of it as a 'posh' SM57 .

I type this from a studio at the moment. Greg Haver (manics , lost prophets etc) is using one this very moment on a guitar amp!