a decent condenser vocal mic (singing)

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DAVE M
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Joined: May 17 1999

a mate does a lot of home recording and is looking for a decent vocal mic around the £300-500 mark

he's looked at the AT4033 and an AKG414

comments welcome

paulears
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Joined: Jul 8 2008

The 4033 is a nice microphone, as is the 414. I've used both and quite like them on female vocals. I don't like how they handle male singing voices, although speaking - as in narration is pretty good.

There are plenty of mics around that will do a pretty good all round job. Do you need the multi-pattern response?

The chinese sourced SEs are good, and for the budget available, even tube mics are within reach.

If he is able to go up to £750, he'd have access to something like a Neumann TLM103, which is a great mic for all things cardioid.

To be fair - this amount, budget wise, gives you access to some really nice mics, bar the most expensive brands, so he could be wise to buy two identical not quite so 'strong' brands that may sound very similar, and then be able to record two important sources at the same time, or in stereo, or .......

DAVE M
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Joined: May 17 1999

he's been offered a pair of 4033's at £150 each (second hand)

or our audio bloke swears by 414s

£750 might be a bit steep as it's a hobby based studio

paulears
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Joined: Jul 8 2008

Take the two 4033s. I would without much thought. Handy mics, and they're endorsed by people who can afford anything. As in Alan Parsons and Metallica!

414s are the kind of mic people love or hate.

MAGLINK
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Joined: Mar 8 2007

414 is a great V/O mic and we used them at Oasis TV for that but they are not good for vocals. I also dont really rate the U87 and whilst it is a classic mic it is fairly lifeless for V/O or vocals, I've seen top studio engineers winding +15db of 10k into it to make it punchy.

The AT's are good mics so you cant go wrong for that price, I personally now use a rode NT2000 for all my V/O and vocal needs.

John Willett
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Joined: Jun 1 2001
DAVE M wrote:
a mate does a lot of home recording and is looking for a decent vocal mic around the £300-500 mark

The new Neumann TLM 102 was launched at the AES a few days ago and should be available around the end of this month / early next month.

Exactly in this price band.

Also available in black:

John
 
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