Microphone Help!
Microphone Help! Posted on: 21.02.2013 by Carlee Pickard Hey Guys,I've been believeing and debating for a long long time about picking up my own Microphone (I used to use my buddies), and now I finally decided i'll be pulling the trigger soon. I'll be using the microphone for vocals, and mainly female vocals. I've been looking around and I have my choices pulled down to one of these two mics -> Blu Blueberry: http://bluemic.com/blueberry/ Blu Woodpecker: http://bluemic.com/woodpecker/ If anyone has any other options I should consider please feel free to let me know, and any and all opinions are welcome! | |
| Carlee Pickard 26.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by botstein
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| Ervin Calvery 24.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by Coldfuzion
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| Carlee Pickard 26.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by botstein
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| Ervin Calvery 24.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by Coldfuzion
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| Carlee Pickard 27.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by tekki
Read the review: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Blue-Blu...17-i1127332.gc And usually I don't go and buy just based on one review, but this was pretty compelling! |
| Carlee Pickard 26.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by botstein
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| Ervin Calvery 24.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by Coldfuzion
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| Carlee Pickard 24.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by botstein
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| Ervin Calvery 23.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by Coldfuzion
I'm concerned that the condenser you linked to will be too characteristic. What kind of signal path are you using - what preamps? |
| Carlee Pickard 21.02.2013 | Hey Guys, I've been believeing and debating for a long long time about picking up my own Microphone (I used to use my buddies), and now I finally decided i'll be pulling the trigger soon. I'll be using the microphone for vocals, and mainly female vocals. I've been looking around and I have my choices pulled down to one of these two mics -> Blu Blueberry: http://bluemic.com/blueberry/ Blu Woodpecker: http://bluemic.com/woodpecker/ If anyone has any other options I should consider please feel free to let me know, and any and all opinions are welcome! |
| Carlee Pickard 03.03.2013 | R01, thank you so much for your response. This definitely cleared everything up for me. I'll look around and see what all I can test, and then go from there! Thanks again man! |
| Trey Brune 28.02.2013 | Totally depends on what you plan to do with your mic! Vocals are also tricky, because what works for one voice, won't always work for another. To clear up your question about ribbon vs. condenser (Take it with a grain of salt though, each mic is different). A Ribbon sounds sonicly very accurate and above all else, WARM. They also tend to have a bit of a natural roll-off in the higher region of the spectrum. If you believe of old rock recordings, early Abbey road stuff, that's a lot of ribbon. The BBC even developed their own ribbon mics at some point (which I heard and blew me away). Condensers are very clear mics, and are usually perceived sharper sounding than ribbons. Again, this is a gross generalization, it's by no means a set rule. Considering this, usually vocals go through a condenser these days. In a mix you usually want clarity, which in terms of the frequency spectrum lies between 3-5Khz when it comes to the human voice. A condenser does a very good job at picking up the much needed frequencies along with (hopefully) some air. Condenser's do a very good job at picking up most of the frequency spectrum, and especially in the case of vocals, it's better to pick up more and cut in EQ, than miss out on certain tones entirely. You'll probably want a large diaphragm condenser though. They do a slightly better job at accentuating the low-mid areas of a sound, which in a voice can often be very pleasing (don't want it sounding too thin). A lot of explaining, but anyway here would be my suggestions (considering your budget): - Any Mojave Mic. They are basically condensers made by Royer. A couple of nice FET's too, which emulate tube mics in tone but retain the fast transient pickup of a condenser. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MA301FET/ - The almighty AKG C414. It's been used on so many records it's ridiculous. An absolute staple of the studio world when it comes to recording vocals. When I'm in doubt and there aren't any nice U47's or U87's lying around, I'll always try this one out. (Super versatile mic) http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/C414XLII/ - Neumann TLM 103 (or any used U47/U87 you can get your hands on). I'm not too familiar with this mic, but it's (usually) hard to go wrong with Neumann. I'm sure it will do the job just fine. - Blue Mics. I got a chance to try out a Spark and a Baby Bottle at a session once. For the price tag I was surprised by the quality. Don't be fooled, they aren't in the same caliber as real vocal mic staples, but are extremely economic mics. I can imagine them working well in certain applications. They can be quite colored in my opinion, but hey maybe that's just what you want. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Dragonfly/ Hope this info helps you, and good luck on your search. Don't settle immediately, get what's worth the investment. Also, if you get the chance, try before you buy! |
| Carlee Pickard 27.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by tekki
Read the review: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Blue-Blu...17-i1127332.gc And usually I don't go and buy just based on one review, but this was pretty compelling! |
| Random X 26.02.2013 | Dude... Buy this in stead: http://www.thomann.de/nl/rode_nt1a_c...cal_bundle.htm At €189,- you can't go wrong. This mic has such astounding quality, I'm betting you won't even know/hear the difference with the Blue mics. Trust me, we have used this for trance vocal recordings with an awesome female vocalist and we could almost pass the vocals one on one to the reverb settings without regular (EQ) polishing. So for Homestudio (or startup studio) recordings, these would be the best bet to go for! |
| Stan Brevil 26.02.2013 | With a $1000 mic you may want to invest in a better preamp option. It isn't a bad preamp, but you might not get the most out of your mic investment. That being said, you can always record with it until you have the inclination to use something better. |
| Carlee Pickard 26.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by botstein
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| Ervin Calvery 24.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by Coldfuzion
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| Carlee Pickard 24.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by botstein
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| Ervin Calvery 23.02.2013 |
Originally Posted by Coldfuzion
I'm concerned that the condenser you linked to will be too characteristic. What kind of signal path are you using - what preamps? |
| Carlee Pickard 23.02.2013 | Appreciate the reply! I've been looking online for a little while now and I have read up on the technical differences between Condenser and Ribbon, and I was wondering if you could help me by explaining to me what the biggest difference is? I've google'd it and looked through quite a few links but I am still not too sure about sound wise what the difference is. And to answer your question as to why Blu, it's because i've heard great reviews on the Blueberry and as I was looking on their site I stumbled onto the Woodpecker. I'm going to look into the one's you posted as well! Thanks for your response . |
| Ervin Calvery 21.02.2013 | Woah - One of these is a condensor and the other a ribbon, which are really different. Also - why Blue? If you're looking in the $1000 range, which too me seems like a no-man's-land between vocal microphones I would be delighted to use and the realm of the low-end gems, there are some nicer options, in my opinion. Honestly, for the kind of work that you described, I would look at some U-87 clones. The Atlantis, which I love, is 50% more expensive new, but plenty are available used. http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Atlantis The same company makes this http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Clarion/ which is less U-87ish but also nice. Here's one from Neumann themselves that's pretty well regarded: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/TLM103 |
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