I own a NTK, and love it. It can be a bit bright for male vox. It is great for micing acoustic guitar, and even as a room mic. If you are looking for something that will pick up really lowmids, you might want to go with a really good dynamic mic, this can often disguise a substellar vocal performance more so than a condensor. I wouldnt even rule out the sennheiser MD421. Great tom mic, and suprisingly well at vocals, and you can score these for about $250. All of the mics you listed were good mics, just giving you an opinion hopefully outside the rhelm you were thinking.
If you mod your oktava you would be suprised how good that mic will do at vocals.

This kind of music is not exactly my cup of tea but I was rather impressed by both your performance and the quality of your recording and mix! Sloppy? Amateurish? I don't think so!

I heard a substantial amount of second harmonic distortion on some of your vocal lines which I attributed to the use of a tube microphone or preamplifier? I thought it sounded cool! You're sustained vocals were quite nice and I think quite contrary to what most other screaming singers are capable of. Well done! I think you have put together a nice combination of microphones and are utilizing them quite well. I really don't think you need another microphone but if you want to spend your money, spend it on an interesting microphone like the Neumann TLM-170? You Texans always do it up good!

Not easily impressed most of the time
Ms. Remy Ann David

Well, thanks there Ms. Remy Ann David. i truly appreciate it. Texans are good at about 3 things. Music is somewhere in the middle :)

Haven't been able to find much on the TLM-170. How much do they usually go for and who carries them? i know alot of folks have the 103, but i've heard very polarized things about it.

yeah, jeremy, i've heard good things about the NTK, as opposed to the K2. More people seem to like it but its still about a 75% split.

do you have any links to that oktava mod you are talking about? i have two, so i can alwas frankenstein one of them, hehehe

i wish people had rent to own programs on mics so you can find the exact one you like before you drop some cash on one :)

How about an SM7? Works for James Hetfield. I think Anthony Kiedis has used it in studio as well. Typically, LDC mics are preferred for pretty singing, but often dynamics can be preferred for high octane rock vocals.

FWIW: I have an NTK and really like it too, but it's best on sources that benefit from a little high freq. push.

yeah, i had thought about an sm7, but from what i understand, its a beefed up sm 57 (could be wrong). i've tried recording with a 57 and didn't like it.

to me, the shure stuff tends to be pretty dark, and my voice is already pretty dark itself, so after a while it starts turning into mud :)

would you think the re20 would be comparable to the sm7? i like the idea of the re20, because it doesn't have any proximity effect, so that might cut down on boominess.

i heard a clip of a soundelux U99... wish i could afford one of those, damn :lol:

might be TOO pretty though, hehehe

thanks for the examples of singers, by the way. i wish there was a repository of info on what singers used what mics on what tracks for which albums. that would be ideal

I should first say that I come from roots in Pantera, Tool, Sepultura, Metallica, Damageplan, etc so this is my area of interest both musically and professionally (maybe that doesn't matter, but just in case...).

Second, I really dig you guys and especially like your vocals.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it sounds perfect for the track considering it's not a commercial record. I think you should stay with the handheld mic because it keeps the motion of your performance untethered. Being able to move and hunch and really emotionally involve yourself in a recording is often much more important than an expensive mic to sing into. You are capturing not only your voice, but a mood. You are already doing what I would recommend: get a good handheld condenser and belt your sould into thing.

If you are stationary and singing into a completely stationary mic I honestly think you might loose some of the passion in the performance.

Don't change a thing and job well done my friend.

p.s. do you have a demo you could send me? email me if that's possible cuz I can't get my pm's

awesome, thanks for the input and kind words :)

you can always just go to:

http://www.myspace.com/cordialblade

add us as a friend. post a comment to let me know who you are. you can probably download anything you want. this is acually a track for the full length album we are self producing. we'll probably post more tracks as they get done.

i try not to belt, i just try to make it sound like i am. even on the screaming parts. belting, to me, is similar to playing a piano with a hammer sometimes. starts loosing tone :)

i agree with you totally on hand helds. it still suprises me how many people shy away from doing it when even people like Bono us 58's on some tracks. i have an akg c535eb i use half the time (they are pretty good for overheads too, i used two on this track), even a cheapo audio technica mb 4000 that i use consistantly for vocals on lighter songs. for the screaming the om2 or the oktava mk 219 usually get the most play. some songs, like this, are just straight om2 all the way through.

i've still got the NTK on the brain but i'm thinking about getting the audio technica 4050 just because i heard somebody claim it sounded damn near identical to an AKG 414 ULS B. I wish he had said the TL II or the XL II, however...

plus its multipattern and i don't have one of those yet. any thoughts on that mic?

hey, has anybody ever heard the m-audio sputnik? that's a new one i'm seeing with good reviews

I have used AT4050's in studio work and they do sound great for the money (as does most of AT's 40 series).

As for the the Sputnik, M-Audio came in here 2 days ago to show us that very mic. However, strangely, they didn't plug it in to let us hear it. I've never seen a mic like it, but when the day is done, who cares what a mic looks like. People care what it sounds like :wink:

p.s. your myspace link says it was deleted. I guess I can't state anything about giving anyone deals on stuff b/c the mods delete it. Didn't realize that until I saw the colorfully worded edit they did.

sory, i had it in there wrong :)

http://www.myspace.com/cordialblades

plural, not singular... you'd think i'd know by now

you have been sent a "friend request" 8-)

not sure if this helps, but here is a (vocal) recording i've done with a combination of a C414 into a focusrite Voicemaster Pro and an RE20 into the preamp of my 01v96. I intended to put the RE20 on the kick, but didn't like it, then ended up using it on bass guitar and vocals...

http://www.myspace.com/dhrthrash

awesome. reminds me of old school Clutch and Sick of it All

Chris