Tuesday, November 4, 2008

In The Studio: Vocal Mic Shootout

So in addition to being slightly obsessed with Pro Tools 8, I have now added another irrational inanimate object into my constant-thought-rotation: RIBBON MICROPHONES.




See the skinny mic that looks like it has ears? That is our Royer R-121... sigh. (From Left to Right: CADGXL3000; Royer R-121, M-Audio Nova, and Neumann U87)

If I elaborate it's probably going to sound like a porn script, but seriously: Warm. Supple. Soothing.

Ok, think of a person who you love, and how you feel when they hug you really close... if you could make that a filter and add it to audio, that is exactly what a ribbon microphone sounds like.

Well, I guess we used some other microphones too, the Neumann, the CAD, and an M-Audio mic. The M-Audio I'll post only for comparison, because it definitely has it's own flavor. Since this isn't a post about an album review, I won't tell you what to think, you should decide for yourself:

(Also, I should say that unless noted otherwise, any audio clips posted will have NO effects added to them, sans an EQ3 that cuts everything below 125Hz... just to make sure that these MP3's don't sound shittier than they already do.)
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Neumann U87


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CAD GXL3000


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M-Audio Nova


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Royer R-121


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It should also be noted that we found a fantastic set-up to capture vocals:



Will faced the carpeted walls (there is an official, and less concise, name for these that escapes me at the moment) and sang into them while standing on the green board... it captured a full and lush sound while eliminating a good portion of the room.
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*** Coming Soon on We-Verb: ***

- More electrical engineering geekiness in all of it's glory! We have moved on to several modifications of a Dunlap Crybaby wah pedal. It's going to kick ass!
- Maybe an entry about miking drums? Maybe.
- Will has lunch with Colin McDowell from McDSP on Friday!!! This is probably the pinnacle of awesome.

1 comment:

Kelley said...

i think you're the only person who would understand how much i've heard "it's so difficult to mike drums!"

now that matt is playing a standing-only rig (with a bass drum at the same height as the toms and snare), i bet it just got more complicated. all the radio shows/live shows the band plays are often poorly miked because of the complexity involved with a 5 person acoustic band where everyone sings and plays difficult to mike instruments (oboe, anyone?).

if you ever want to come over and check out the "home recording" set up matt has, i'm sure he would die to have someone who understands it to talk to :)