Is there any such thing as a microphone that can help improve vocals?

[vv83]

I know that is probably a dumb question but I just want to make sure. Basically I am very talented when it comes to singing in key but my voice just naturally does not sound very well. I do proper breathing and technique but some people just do not have it. So I am curious if there is anything like a special microphone or pedal I can run my mic through or anything like that, that can make me sound just a touch better when my band plays live shows. Thank you

[Louis Schwartz]

What do you mean by "better?" And what mic (and other equipment) are you using now?

 

Louis

[vv83]

I guess to make up for my naturally not great voice. Just sound a little smoother and less nasally possibly. I am using a shure beta 58 through an ag60 acoustic amp

[RoadRanger]

Yah, if you're going direct to an Acoustic amp mic choice can make a big difference. Maybe take your amp down to a music store and try different mics? I'm rather fond of the EV N/D767A myself.

[WynnD]

I'm betting that voice lessons might make a bigger difference in a shorter time. One friend with a 3.5 octave range started taking voice lessons and while he was always on pitch, the sound of his voice improved.

[Dogoth]

Funny thing. I'd say YES! any mic that you can record with and critique yourself COULD improve your vocals. You are stuck with the shape of your mouth, nose sinuses and therefore somewhat stuck with the tone of your voice BUT that's not an absolute. There are two ways to look at it, try changing the tonal quality of your voice (something that takes time and will only alter somewhat before you start ruining your voice) OR start singing in a style that suits your voice. I've heard all kinds of different timbers & tonalities work well depending on the style. Country tends to have a lot of nasal twang in it but so does Ella Fitzgerald (and she's FAR from being a country artist). Possibly it's just song choice. Everyone's voice is unique - use yours to your advantage.

 

Just my .02

[Craig Vecchione]

This is one of those "yes. and no" situations. A mic can make you sound different to you, and different to others. Do others think your voice sounds nasally and unsmooth? Use someone who's brutally honest and that you can trust as your judge in this regard. As JR stated, try to choose songs that make the most of what you've got. Definitely "just sing"...don't try to alter your voice unless done so under direction of a voice coach. As far as mic choices, it's almost impossible for us to suggest anything more than "try every mic you can". Even if it doesn't actually make a difference to others, if you sound better to you, psychologically you'll sing and perform at your best.

[wesg]

Before spending money on mics, how do you sound through a good PA instead of that guitar amp?

 

There are other ways to improve your voice, too. TC Helicon makes some pedals. A good effects unit (Lexicon MX-200) might help with a bit of reverb and a super-short delay. Better equalization will probably help, too.

 

Wes

[nchangin]

What Wes said.

[Bobby1Note]

Consider "style" as well. Nobody ever accused Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, or Mark Knopfler of being great vocalists, but they have their "style" to compensate with.

 

How would you categorize your present singing voice?(crooner, baladeer, rocker, screamo punk-rocker, operatic,etc.) ;-)) What style of music are you doing?

[Kalina2]

If the author has in mind timbre voice, then I think he should just pick up a microphone that will "decorate" the timbre ...

I have an ugly tone of voice and helped me Beyerdynamic OPUS 660, which gave my voice a certain creaminess .... + Lexicon MPX550

it was not a radical change, but it helped me

[Telecruiser]

Some folks just do not like the sound of their own voice when it is amplified. You just get used to it.

[hfc7713]

Yah' date=' if you're going direct to an Acoustic amp mic choice can make a big difference. Maybe take your amp down to a music store and try different mics? I'm rather fond of the EV N/D767A myself.[/quote']

 

+1 N/D767A…Excellent mic for the money - Not that the Beta is a bad mic, it certainly is not but I think you would notice a difference in clarity if sounding nasal is one of the problems you are trying to combat. I would also suggest an Audix OM5 for clarity.

Try out some different mics yourself and simply AB them and as Wesg suggested make sure to try through PA - not an amp.

 

[agedhorse]

I have found over the years that the 767 can be the best mic or the worst mic depending on the applictation. Same applies to the Beta, and many mics actually.

[witesol]

I have found over the years that the 767 can be the best mic or the worst mic depending on the applictation. Same applies to the Beta' date=' and many mics actually.[/quote'] That is true in microcosm. The reality is singers sound like themselves plus or minus a small percentage. That small percentage can be tweaked by mics . I've put many a modest and different mic in front of some legendary singers. They always just sound like themselves. Sure, some mics can mate well or exacerbate problems but most of the time that can be mitigated by twisting a few knobs. Learning who you are and rolling with what your physiology and style gifts that you've been given is the key. It can be a long soul searching journey. I love to sing James brown or Otis redding but I don't sound good.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I know that is probably a dumb question but I just want to make sure. Basically I am very talented when it comes to singing in key but my voice just naturally does not sound very well. I do proper breathing and technique but some people just do not have it. So I am curious if there is anything like a special microphone or pedal I can run my mic through or anything like that' date=' that can make me sound just a touch better when my band plays live shows. Thank you[/font']

 

I noticed you mentioned pedals... do you currently use any processing on your vocals live? Any reverb, compression or delay - anything like that? If not, a little of that can sometimes give you a more polished sound, although as with mic selection and EQ, they're not going to fundamentally change the basic timbre of your voice, although they can attenuate or accentuate certain aspects of it.

 

I think microphone selection is a bit more crucial in the studio than it generally is live. I can definitely hear significant differences in the sound of a AKG C12 and a Neumann U47; the high frequencies sound more extended and open with the C12, and the mids and lows fuller and smoother with the U47. If you want to try to match the mic to your voice, you can take stuff like that into consideration. For a bright, nasally singer, I'd recommend avoiding a mic with an overly pronounced presence peak in the 5-10 kHz range, while a person with a darker timbre might greatly benefit from a mic with a lot of boost in that region. Mic selection can help you with stuff like that, and if you audition several models and find one that you think you sound good with, it can help you with your confidence as a singer a bit too, but as witesol said, singers still fundamentally sound like themselves regardless of which mic you put in front of them...

[trevcda]

And before you go tossing hundreds of dollars away on mics and processing, make sure that your mic technique is good. If you are not properly working any given mic, nothing is going to make up for that, particularly in a live sound setting. Each mic has it's own pattern that affects how it responds. The EV 767a, which is my go to budget mic, sounds very good and can have great GBF if set up properly. But if you're the kind of singer who is afraid to get right on the mic, turns his head to hit high notes or pulls away from the capsule for whatever reason, it's not going to work well for you as the proximity effect falls of quickly the further you get away from it. This will be true to some extent for almost any microphone. Not knowing your technique, the first thing I would recommend would be to turn it down your mic and get intimate with that microphone capsule. Lips touching it close. Let the proximity effect fill in some of the "body" or low end of your voice.

 

And as I just remembered that you singing through an acoustic amp with two 8" speakers, you need to have realistic expectations from that amp. It may have an XLR input on it, but that doesn't make ideal for vocals. Start by flattening the EQ. What sounds great for guitar isn't necessarily going to be complimentary for vocals. At the end of the day it IS an acoustic amp and shouldn't be what you define your vocal quality with.

[agedhorse]

What acoustic amp?

[trevcda]

What acoustic amp?

 

I guess to make up for my naturally not great voice. Just sound a little smoother and less nasally possibly. I am using a shure beta 58 through an ag60 acoustic amp

 

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ampli...itar-combo-amp

[agedhorse]

Probably not your best choice for vocals, it will work but by the very nature of what it is, it's not going to have the response of a real PA, even a small one.

[GtrGeorge!]

All I can do is share my hard-won experiences. There is no "special mic" that makes a singer. When you hear a great vocal its a combination of many things.Lots of them start LONG before the choice of a mic. Example: Know what you can "pull off". If you have a raspy voice, people will find it easy to accept you singing songs about rough things. If you insist on Choir-type songs...you may not please many people. So choose material that suits what voice you naturally have. Then find out your range..what notes you can sing everyday, no matter what. Then try various mics. If its for live use try to use them thru your PA...so you can REALLY hear what you plus that mic are going to sound like. All of these factors and more go into sounding like a pro singer. Mic choice? If you know nothing: buy a Shure SM58 or a Beta 58, a great place to start..and begin your journey. It takes time,and various experiments/efforts. You may have a number of false starts. Make some notes, it can remind you of what seems to be clicking and what is not. No 2 voices are the same..and no matter what you have..you CAN do it. Pavarotti has fans...and so does Bob Dylan. They both get paid to sing. Have fun.

[lonotes]

Mic choice can definitely make a difference. Years of practical experience have shown that for my voice in particular, the mic that works best is a Shure SM58/s. It's simply a standard SM58 with the addition of an on-off switch in the body. I've been told by several people whose opinions I trust that it works best for me with the switch in the off position. YMMV.

[hfc7713]

Mic choice can definitely make a difference. Years of practical experience have shown that for my voice in particular' date=' the mic that works best is a Shure SM58/s. It's simply a standard SM58 with the addition of an on-off switch in the body. I've been told by several people whose opinions I trust that it works best for me with the switch in the off position. YMMV.[/quote']

 

LOL !!!

 

[Randyman]

Like Trevceda said, you can use proximity effect to your advantage to give your voice a significant bass boost, and that varies from mic to mic, some are designed to have less of that than others.

 

It's worthwhile too finding a mic that has good GBF, which not only helps with feedback obviously, but gives you more flexibility in terms of setting hotter levels. Being able to whisper sing gives you an unexpected new range that is not as nasally. For example, when I speak my voice sounds pushed, I've learned over time to project my voice by literally pushing it out there, but when I remember to, I relax and scale back my voice, which ends up being much softer, but it has a much richer and deeper tone, and is much closer to what I hear in other mens voices that I really like. Whispering up close into a mic, using the proximity effect, and going from whisper to quiet singing, can give very satisfying results, but is obviously not for punk rock singing or the high notes.

 

I've heard that the Heil PR40 mic has a natural mid-bass presence/boost that would warm up many mens voices, and overall has a lot of enthusiastic endorsements for being an excellent live and studio mic.

 

Less is usually more when it comes to vocal fx, but done in small doses it can definitely help. Using a small amount of delay and doubling, a smidge of chorus and reverb, all of these help to thicken up the voice, all of which you set. But some of these boxes help with the more technical aspects and mostly do it for you. From a TC Helicon ad:

 

Like a great audio engineer, VoiceLive 2 listens to you and adjusts to make your voice sound smooth and produced.

 

• Tone tailors adaptive EQ, compression and de-ess to your voice
• Adaptive gate reduces mic input when you’re not singing
  
• Digital mic-gain control is engaged with your feet
  

 

Also, the higher end pedals give you lots of options. With a continuous sweep pedal you could control dynamically how much of an effect is applied, and with footswitches, you could switch in and out of more/less dramatic use of fx. For example, sometimes a harmony part is killer for the chorus, but the rest of the song sounds better and more natural without harmonies.

[agedhorse]

Yes, it allows you to screw up the vocal signal before it even gets to FOH!