Vocal Mic Selection

To start things off, we hopped on vocals. We had setup 11 different mics the night before. It was now time to give them all a listen. It is difficult doing a shootout with vocals. Mainly, because a vocal performance is different every single time. When you ask a person to sing the same line over and over and over again for 20 / 30 minutes, you will have problems. So you need a great singer who doesn't complain. Julie from Hydrogen did great. She stepped up like a pro and sang extremely consistently while we recorded each vocal microphone. For you technical guys, we used the preamp in the Sony DMX-R100 for the test. Michael said that he wanted to hear the character of the mic, not the preamp during these tests.

Here are the mics in the vocal microphone shootout:

• Soundelux E47 (which is supposed to be similar to a U47)

• A Korby tube mic (not sure which model)

• Shure SM 7

• Beyer MC 740 (with U67 capsule)

• AT 4050

• Shure SM 58

• Shure KSM 44

• Korby KAT 4 SYSTEM (C12, 2 different 251s, U67, and U47 capsules)

• Soundelux 251

Results of the Shootout

When it was all said and done, the Beyer MC 740 with the U67 capsule won the shootout on Julie's voice. This mic has the same capsule as mega expensive U67, but uses a solid state preamp (inside the microphone) so it does sound different. This microphone is much cheaper that any U67. So why did we choose the Beyer MC 740? Let's see.

What To Listen For When Choosing A Female Vocal Microphone

Michael Wagener repeated a number of times throughout the shootout that the secret was knowing what to listen for. Many home recording guys would think this microphone or that microphone would be totally accepable. I know I did. However, when you are pointed out exactly what you should listen for, you'll find that the difference is quite large in most cases. It would be like focusing in on small section of a large picture and then switching between photographs. The overall picture is pretty close to the same, but if you focus on one area of the photos, you will notice the differences.

Make Sure Female Vocals Do Not Hurt

According to Wagener, the most important part of selecting a microphone when recording a female vocal is making sure that the vocals do not hurt. Females typically have various spikes in their frequency response that can kill you if you are not careful Finding a mic that can take the edge off of these spikes is extremely important. At first, all four of us attending the workshop listened without Wagener's assistance. I must admit that we were choosing microphones that were simply too bright for Julie's voice.

Wagener was pretty careful with his hearing. He didn't crank his monitors very loud very often at all. He kept the volume reasonable. However, when it came time to selecting the female vocal microphone, he quickly reached for the volume knob. He wanted the vocals to hurt on the wrong mics to make it clear which mics he simply did not want to use. When he cranked it up, it was very clear that most of the mics were fired from the shootout immediately because they had too much top end.

Vocals Sounded Different At Different Parts Of The Song

Wagener looped the chorus for us and we listened to that while the workshop attendees formed opinions without Wagener's help. As I said before, we listened at low volumes and tended to like the brighter, mid scooped microphones. Well, when Wagener cranked the volume up, we went OUCH!! We quickly understand that we had to be very careful with the upper mids and highs with a female vocal microphone. However, when we switched to a verse, the sound of the vocals was immensely different. There were 2 or 3 mics that were at the top of our list during the chorus. It quickly became obvious there was one mic that sounded great through the chorus and the verse. That's why we chose the Beyer MC 740.

Midrange Can Be Okay

Some of the microphones that made the finals had a lot of mids in them. Some of these microphones sort of reminded me of using an old Marshall for death metal without eq. There was the this body in the midrange that could be called cloudy, murky, or even dull (but that's a stretch). I've always tried to stay away from that sound. I've always thought I preferred the hifi mid scooped type of sound. Well, after watching the entire process, I can say that you can get away with a strong midrange. When it gets done to mixing, it will all come together fine. It's much more important to have an upper mid / high end that you can work with.

The U47 Sound

Michael also showed us his Soundelux E47 which is basically a knockoff of a U47. On the wrong singer, it had this weird midrange thing happening. It sounded old, but it didn't sound good, at least not on this singer. Wagener said that whatever character that makes it sound weird on Julie is why it works so often on male vocals. Interesting.

Setup The Vocal Headphone Mix Yourself

Wagener had a tremendous feature on the Sony DMX-R100 that I thought was amazing. He could push a button and solo any aux he chose and here it on his monitors. In other words, he could push one button and hear what was in the vocal headphone mix. This would be HUGE for me. A great feature.

Anyway, Wagener said that the vocal headphone mix is extremely important. Don't just let them set their own levels. What he means by that is you need to hear what's in the cans (headphones) yourself and sort of help them find a great mix. For all you know, the bass may be down 12dB and the guitar may be up 12dB. So make sure that you listen to the mix in the headphones.

I noticed Wagener had the guitars down a lot in the headphones. The headphone mix consisted mostly of drums and bass. The guitars were there, but certainly weren't prominent. I've heard that vocalists tend to have better pitch with a loud bass guitar in their mix and this seamed to be the catch with Wagener's headphone mix. This was my own perception anyway.

Wagener repeated headphone mix 101. If the singer is flat, give them more level in their headphones. If they are sharp, yank them down.

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