Audio-Technica!

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

So I'm going to be recording a metalcore band in a couple weeks with a male screaming vocalist and a female clean singer. All I have for vocal mics at the moment is a Rode NT-1, which has done alright on dirty vocals in the past, but I want to pick up another mic for the girl. Ideally I'd like to get the AT4060, but the 4033/4050/4047 are more in my price range. Anybody have any input on those three, or have something similar to suggest in the $400-700 price range? Btw, my signal chain is basically going to be Mic-->Presonus Digimax 96k-->003 Rack, maybe hit the limiter on the digimax but do all the eq/compression/efx later.

 

[JBroll]

Why not try an SM7? Works great on clean and dirty vocals, and runs quite a bit less than all of those...

Jeff

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

Why not try an SM7? Works great on clean and dirty vocals, and runs quite a bit less than all of those...

Jeff

Yeah, I was considering that too... I was going to get one eventually for a screaming mic, I just don't know if I like the idea of using a dynamic mic on female vocals. But hey if it sounds good then oh well. Is my digimax going to have enough gain to drive it? I just got it today and I'm at work so I don't know it very well yet

 

[beyond dead]

Michael jackson used one lol

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

Michael jackson used one lol

For some reason that actually convinced me
Gonna go pick one up today, thanks guys

 

[JBroll]

Yeah, I was considering that too... I was going to get one eventually for a screaming mic, I just don't know if I like the idea of using a dynamic mic on female vocals. But hey if it sounds good then oh well. Is my digimax going to have enough gain to drive it? I just got it today and I'm at work so I don't know it very well yet

Female vocalists: It works, deal with it. This is not one of those situations where the categorical stereotypes of "SM7s are only for screamers, growlers, Michael Jackson, well-trained melodic vocalists like Warrel Dane, female operatic singers like... oh, fuck it" will help. Use it, if something doesn't work it means you've broken music.

As for gain... I don't know how much gain your unit provides, but you don't need to worry as much about squeezing out that last few decibels of gain if you're running 24-bit. Even if you have to run a small booster before it, or raise the gain digitally after it's in the board, you'll be fine.

Jeff

 

[Soundlurker]

As for gain... I don't know how much gain your unit provides, but you don't need to worry as much about squeezing out that last few decibels of gain if you're running 24-bit. Even if you have to run a small booster before it, or raise the gain digitally after it's in the board, you'll be fine.

+1

In fact, when I'm dealing with bands who want to record stuff on their own I always have to emphasize how much more important it is to not have clipping, yet very often the pre would be overloading at some point. I guess a hi-end tube pre would be an exception but how many bands have one of those.

 

[ChrisTanakaCanwell]

Right on
Yeah I'm definitely not going to argue that you have to use a condenser on a female, I just haven't tried anything else yet since the audio school I went to is stuck in the 70s and discouraged experimentation most of time.

 

[el-biczel]

The AT4050 recorded vocals really well at our session, both the clean and dirty ones.

 

[JBroll]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the AT4050, except that you could instead buy an SM7 for half that price and send me the other $300 because I'm awesome.

Jeff

 

[el-biczel]

Jeff, you've convinced me! Send me your account number and next time I'll sure do