The RE20 is a popular radio staion DJ studio mic. Ever watch Howard Stern's tv show? He uses an U87 but the guests will sometimes get a RE20. It can be quite good in a close miced vocal recording situation as well. Just used one on a recent rock band tracking session. I'm pretty sure a RE20 was used for Bonnie Rait on her block buster comeback cd of several years ago. They can work quite well on female or male vocals.

If the vocalist is back 8 or 10 inches, I'd say it's not the mic to use. A condenser is what I would put up. If you have some control over the situation, ask the vocalist to get close to the RE20 like a 58. If not, put up a condensor. Don't know the Rode NT mics, may be ok.

BTW, the RE20 can be a great kick drum mic :)

Steve

Originally posted by GZsound:
I am working with a church that has an EV RE-20 and wants to record their soloists..mostly female. I suggested they get a Rode NT1, NT2, etc with better frequency response. The EV sounds thin and checking into the response I can see why.

Isn't the RE-20 used mostly for bass drum? Anyone familiar with the EV mic?

The RE20 probably sounds thin because of its lack of proximity effect.

I actually like it very much for this reason. It is easy for me to control gain after the fact, but controlling bass boost is not so easily done.

There are a couple of things about this mic, first you are going to need a preamp with a ton of clean gain and second, make sure that the lo cut is not engaged.

It has been stated that the RE20 is the closest to sounding like a U47. I do not know if this is true, but I really like it for certain vocals. I thasd a really dry airiness to it without being sibilent.