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Im going to take my first stab at recording vocals and I've gone through all the tips and stuff which were great but I was wondering how you guys would go about using this stuff, Im going for clean but hard rock vocals. Here's some sample music Ill be recording vocals for:
myspace.com/massiveco

Ill be recording in the closet too since I cant sing very well... hahaha
Anyhow, this is what Im using... If there's any advice you guys can give me specifically about the set up I would really appreciate it.

AT2020 mic
Line 6 toneport KB37
Gearbox
Logic Pro 7

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anonymous Mon, 07/20/2009 - 20:45

I can't stand the AT2020 on vox; it has this annoying high frequency buzzing that acts like a super-esser (as opposed to a de-esser) on male vocals. Maybe if you backed up a ways it would be better? What exactly are you doing with the toneport? If you are using it for emulation, you will be in for some seriously brittle and tinny sounds (cheap condenser + modeling = ugh). And if you run into a Gearbox on top of that... I don't even want to think about the digitalness. But hey, give it a try and see how it is, and then go out and buy a sm58.

hueseph Mon, 07/20/2009 - 21:00

An sm58 might be better but the only way you're going to know is to give it a try. A condenser is not always the best bet. The AT2020 is not going to bring out the bottom end in your voice very well but neither is an sm58. Get a good pop filter or two(seriously and double up.) and see how close you can get to the mic without distorting it all to hell. These mics are supposed to be able to handle 128 db. Can you sing that loud?

The band has some great music. Do it some justice and post a finished link if you can. Production was done with some reasonable thought. I think it deserves equal effort in vocals.

Guitarfreak Mon, 07/20/2009 - 21:07

hueseph wrote: The AT2020 is not going to bring out the bottom end in your voice very well but neither is an sm58

You really think so? How about that massive low end boost you get from the prox effect on the 58? Surely that should help? What other mics (short of top shelf and tube mics) will give the bottom end that you describe? Perhaps a ribbon mic?

hueseph Mon, 07/20/2009 - 21:12

Sure proximity will help, but proximity will help with any mic. Of course once you start to ramp up the dBs you have to back up. The 58 has a noticeable drop off below 100hz.

A ribbon mic? I wouldn't be screaming into a ribbon mic necessarily. Again, I would double up the pop filters to protect my investment.

anonymous Sat, 07/25/2009 - 23:55

Thanks for the feedback!!!
I actually just posted in the song and mix critique a link to the vocal test recordings. And thanks for the compliments on the music, I wrote and recorded it all myself! yay!
Anyhow, I would really appreciate it if you guys checked what I have so far...
(Dead Link Removed)

Thanks again!