We all want a great vocal sound. Most beginners seem to think that a microphone with the brightest tone is the way to go. This is why we live in a world where every budget microphone seems to have this enormous 10Khz bump. It seems that the more expensive a microphone gets, the less it is to have excessive brightness, thinness, or whatever you want to call it. In a nutshell, the microphone companies are catering to the inexperience of most home recording engineers.

Neumann U47 / Soundelux E47 Shocking!!

I've heard hype for years and years on home recording forums about the Neumann U47. To many engineers, it is considered the holy grail. I must say that I was very excited to use one at Michael Wagener's recording workshop. When we fired it up, I was a little surprised by what I heard. First of all, I must admit that we were not using an actual, vintage Neumann U47. We were using a Soundelux E47. It's not exactly the real thing, but it was good enough for Wagener to own. That's good enough for me.

I was devastated by what I heard. The U47 clone wasn't crystal clear at all. It was midrangy!! AHHHH!! Then Wagener explains that THIS was the tone that everyone really wanted. It turns out that when you accept the fact that brightness isn't your number one goal with a vocal mic and understand that capturing lots of midrange character in a microphone should be a bigger priority, it becomes a lot more obvious why experienced engineers use the U47 so much. It's because the big boys don't use overly hyped microphones as much as you may think! Seriously listen to the vocals on 10 records that you think sound great. You'll get it, then!