Phil O'Keefe Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 The E/V RE20 and the FMR RNP would be the items I'd look into if I was in your shoes. The RE20 is legendary on voiceover / spoken word, and the RNP is probably the best deal you'll find on a two channel, pro level mic preamp for $500. As far as "ambient noise", there are all sorts of sources for that... air conditioners, structure borne noises from other locations within the building, sound leaking in from outside, vibrations from someone tapping their foot or walking on the floor (same room, or elsewhere in the building), machine noise from refrigerators, clocks, airflow noise from ducts, passing traffic (trucks, cars, trains, aircraft)... I could go on and on... Of course, it might not be just the ambient noise... it could be that your current preamps are contributing to the "noise issues". Do you have any acoustical treatment in the room? Can you post a clip of the Rode sitting in its usual location where you do your voiceover stuff with no one talking into it? Two clips would be nice... one at normal preamp levels, and one with the gain cranked up to bring up the background noise... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil O'Keefe Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 Should have read the whole thread first... The SM7B is also a very good choice for spoken word. I personally prefer the RE20, but the SM7 is a great mic too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stereocoyote Posted March 12, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 12, 2010 Glad to hear your recommendation on the SM7 Phil. It'll be here by next week and I have a gig lined up that I'll be using it for so I'll get a chance to test it out right away... I'll post a clip of the my room's 'silence' so you can hear/see (spectrally) what I'm talking about. Before I hit 'send' on this post, I messed around and found that my computer which is in the other room, is the culprit... which is unbelievable to me (tho it shouldn't be)... not sure anyone can complain about the NT1's sensitivity. So I need to get it off the floor and onto something with rubberized or vibration absorbing feet... as a HPF... it's on a carpet already, figured that wouldn't transmit... yet another 'aha' learning for this guy... Thanks for the help in this all... Now that my noise floor issue is resolved, I can focus on my lip sound/clicky/mouth sound issues I deal with, along with the help of my SM7B... Here's hoping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Majoria Posted March 12, 2010 Members Share Posted March 12, 2010 Majoria, What mic do you prefer with spoken word? I use my SM-7b and love the results. If you watch radio shows on TV you'll see they almost always use the RE20 which is thought of as just a touch better than the SM-7b. I bought the 7b as I find it is more universal than the RE20 and I just run a hobby studio. I run the SM-7b through an API A2D for preamp and conversion with great results. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurfu Posted March 12, 2010 Members Share Posted March 12, 2010 Speaking of the SM7B, here is a nice video of :love:St Vincent:love: playing live in a broadcast studio singing through the SM7B... Good stuff:http://www.kcrw.com/media-player/embed/v/videoEmbed.swf?id=mb100210st_vincent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stereocoyote Posted March 13, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 13, 2010 nice vid kurfu... so I got the sm7b today and wow.. I really do like it.. but here's what I found: Coming off the NT1A, I feel the need for the presence boost for sure, no need for the bass roll off as the room is rather quiet... I REALLY like this mic. However... the pre's in my motu 896 can barely push this thing to what it deserves. So... I'm selling a bunch of my older gear that I don't use (ART MPA, 2 alesis 3630's, Tube MP & M-Audio DMP3) plus I still have about $200 in my budget. So I'm thinking once I sell all this, I'll have about $500-$600 for a preamp... I'm looking for one thats VERY silent, it can add color, but I need a noise floor that's clean and quiet, even at the higher gain settings. Here's my potentials: FMR RNPGrace 101Groove Tube BrickPresonus Blue TubeFocusrite TrakMaster Pro Help me decide? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rsadasiv Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 The Brick really doesn't have enough gain for the SM-7b. RNP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stereocoyote Posted March 14, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 good to know... any suggestions on what preamp might have enough? Even if it's not on my list and ideally within my $5-600 budget? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurfu Posted March 14, 2010 Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 I think you're probably going to hear a continual refrain of "RNP RNP RNP RNP" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stereocoyote Posted March 14, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 14, 2010 Kurfu, just listend to some of your tracks... great stuff my friend... Yea, I'm 51% sold on the FMR and 51% sold on the Grace, which by my math you can tell that I'm sure I'm getting ONE of them, but still not sure which to choose over the other. Here's what I've found: Both have similar amt.'s of headroom, around the same price point, but of course, with the RNP, I get 2 channels. Grace = more clean and clear at high gain settings FMR RNP = adds slight color (but not much at all), adds small amount of noise at higher gain settings If anyone knows differently that this above, please tell me and take me out of my misery. Ideally someone that might have had experience with both pre's and this mic. Again, I'm in a soundbooth and do a lot of VO. Thanks all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kurfu Posted March 15, 2010 Members Share Posted March 15, 2010 Thank you! Depending on what you listened to, all the vocals were done with an SM7B through a Great River preamp (which is a little beyond your stated budget... )Kurfu, just listend to some of your tracks... great stuff my friend...Yea, I'm 51% sold on the FMR and 51% sold on the Grace, which by my math you can tell that I'm sure I'm getting ONE of them, but still not sure which to choose over the other.Here's what I've found:Both have similar amt.'s of headroom, around the same price point, but of course, with the RNP, I get 2 channels.Grace = more clean and clear at high gain settingsFMR RNP = adds slight color (but not much at all), adds small amount of noise at higher gain settingsIf anyone knows differently that this above, please tell me and take me out of my misery. Ideally someone that might have had experience with both pre's and this mic.Again, I'm in a soundbooth and do a lot of VO.Thanks all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stereocoyote Posted March 16, 2010 Author Members Share Posted March 16, 2010 I'll make it to the Great River someday... for now... I do believe I'm going the way of the RNP. Thanks for all you help!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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