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Need the best new vocal microphones for the lowest buck...


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Oh, then you want a Neumann KSM0.000105.

 

Until they make that, maybe you can find a good deal on some used EV RE-16s. The Rode S1 is kind of a poor man's KSM105, but that's "kind of poor" - they're about $300 unless you can find a good deal on a used one.

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What mics do you already have?

 

 

 

I have none of the newer microphones which came on the market in the last 30 years - all my microphones are older Neumanns.

 

 

I want some new ones, I somehow believe there must be some great new microphones which recently, so in the last 10 years, came to the market

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For about $50 you can get an MCA SP1. It's a surprisingly good mic and sounds a lot like a C 414. I have also heard good things about the Mojave mic, too.


Steve

 

 

ha, also thought there even mics below 100 bucks with a good sound, one only has to know which ones

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When you said "vocal microphones" I thought you meant for live performance. Everything else is just a microphone, including microphones that are used in the studio for vocals, as well as other things. I don't think I have any studio mics that I use just for vocals, but I know that a lot of people associate a certain look and large condenser capsule with "vocal mic" in the studio.

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When you said "vocal microphones" I thought you meant for live performance. Everything else is just a microphone, including microphones that are used in the studio for vocals, as well as other things. I don't think I have any studio mics that I use just for vocals, but I know that a lot of people associate a certain look and large condenser capsule with "vocal mic" in the studio.

 

 

Semantics. The guy is looking for a mic to be used on vocals. Some mics do in fact excel on lead vocal duty and are designed with that in mind to a large degree. The fact that it can be used on other things is not his concern as far as I can tell.

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Mike, no mic for live events.

 

I want at least one excellent new microphone for use at home, a mic which captures any kind of vocalist in pleasant sonics, and this mic should not cost $7000, it should cost as less as possible, so in the price range from $100 to $500

 

I am aware that some mics by their nature capture a more pleasant sound - that must be the same with the newer microphone model which hit the market in recent years. I am aware that the sonic difference is often minimal between an expensive $7000 microphone and some of the $300 to $500 microphone brands & models, at least theoreticallly I believe it is that way

 

 

It is difficult to make a sure choice by all those new microphone brands and models available.

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I want at least one excellent new microphone for use at home, a mic which captures any kind of vocalist in pleasant sonics, and this mic should not cost $7000, it should cost as less as possible, so in the price range from $100 to $500

 

 

OK, that's a reasonable price range. I have a lot of mics, and usually the first one I get out for a male vocalist is a Neumann U87. If it's a female vocalist, though, I'll try an AKG C-414 first. Sometimes the first guess works fine, sometimes, I'll listen and decide to try another. While I've often recorded vocals with the first mic I've tried, I don't think I have any mic that would be best for any vocalist, because voices are all different, and songs are all different. But a particular microphone always sounds like that particular microphone.

 

I've used a Newmann KM-84 with a good pop screen for vocals, but tha'ts usually my go-to mic for guitars. I've had excellent vocals from bluegrass bands that play and sing around a single mic using my Studio Projects LSD-2 (the stereo version of the C3). I've used that one not because I thought it would be best, but because it looks more like the kind of mic these people want to sing into than anything else that I have. That makes them feel good, and when they feel good, they sing good.

 

I wouldn't mind using Sennheiser 414s as a first choice on any vocal, but that doesn't look one bit like a vocal mic. You need to consider the psychoacoustics of it all. For a singer who sings best when hand holding a mic and is accustomed to an SM-58, you'll get a better track giving him an SM-58 than to have him stand in front of a U87.

 

If you're willing to spend up to $500, don't try to get a $500 mic that will sound great on every singer, but maybe get two or three mics, and check the used market. As far as new mics are concerned, the Mojave line is a good buy, as is Studio Projects. You might like their C3, but I see it's now discontinued (though they still make the LSD2, the stereo mic with two C3 capsules). The C1 is a similar design but a fixed cardioid pattern that would probably work well. And it's hard to beat an EV RE-20 (how could I forget that?) Don't get snockered into the the "tube microphone" craze. If you really want a tube, get it in the front end of a preamp.

 

 

It is difficult to make a sure choice by all those new microphone brands and models available.

 

 

It's also difficult to make a choice among all the models that people will recommend, many of which they've never used themselves, but the ad copy looks good or the trade show demo sounded sweet.

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.. lead vocals



something which has the sound quality of Neumanns but cost at least 1000% less

 

It sounds like you want colors, if you have Neumanns, I have the HEIL PR-40 might be cool but it is $325 new technology and not a RE-20 clone

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I have a couple of those. Cool little mikes -- especially for the price -- but not exactly my first choice for a vocal microphone.

 

 

Nor mine, really. But I'm skint at the moment, so one has to use what one can afford...

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Color, or not color is difficult to judge, even with the microphones I have. In the last month I recorded all female vocalists with a Neumann TLM170, sounds very good. I only produce female artists, only about four times a male artist in the last 30 years, and in the next months to come all female singers.

 

Decades ago we often tested the new mics right simultaneously with what we where using usually with singers. Today it is different, I only go to the studio when I have to record something which I can't do at home.

 

sweetwater.com has dozens of cool looking mics, but talking to a sales manager you hear only nonsense. I appreciate that you guy post what particula mic you actually use of this newer mics, and a short desciption of what you think of that microphone.

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the Heil has not do well for the fairer sex. I would say fathead if you don't already have one. I would also go high on the budget and get a powered one. but i don't have the powered one so i can't give empirical advice. I love my fathead regular, I have beyers m-160 and m130 they work at times for vocals, but the fathead is more popular for me.

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I would say




if you don't already have one.

 

 

that fathead looks cool !

 

 

No artist with similar timbre as Sarah McLachlan. But the artists in the next few weeks all tranfigured romantic pop...

 

however right now a 16 year old R&B singer from Miami in the timbral region of Alicia Keys, or Beyonc

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My newest favorite cheap microphone for vocals is the Cad M9. Not at all in Neumann territory, sound-wise; if I had to compare it to a (relatively) expensive mike it would be the AT4060. The price has been dropped and I'm seeing them for $220 to 250 US new.

 

Lovely on nylon strings, too -- my go-to ukulele mike!

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My newest favorite cheap microphone for vocals is the Cad M9. Not at all in Neumann territory, sound-wise; if I had to compare it to a (relatively) expensive mike it would be the AT4060. The price has been dropped and I'm seeing them for $220 to 250 US new.


Lovely on nylon strings, too -- my go-to ukulele mike!

 

 

the mentioning of Neumann was only meant as reference of what I used so far,

 

---> but the idea is that I want to discover new possibilities with newer microphone - it is also a money thing because I may equip two new studios at the places I work most, and want to check alternatives price wise, excellent new mics which don't cost a fortune

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here the young singer in work right now, recorded in my office with a TLM170

 

 

She is a good singer, not sure if it is the mic or the mixing, but her voice does not sound full bodied enough to me, a bit thin, the mic might not have enough bass to mid response.

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