In article writes:

the AKG C414 "sound" is all over the map.

So it is, or was it a popular recording mic for vocals ??

I've been fooling around with this stuff for more than 30 years, back
when there were a relatively few mic choices. Back then the C414 and
its predecessors were pretty popular for vocals. I have one that I
often will try first on a lyrical female vocal and more often than not
it works out well enough so that we don't bother to try anything else.
But I can tell by listening to a singer that it won't work and I don't
bother to try.

Today it's hard to say what's popular for vocals, if I had to answer
that question, I'd say a U47 or maybe a Telefunken 251, but they're
only popular to the extend that you read about them in the projects
that make it to articles in the recording magazines. There are far
more people using Neumann TLM103s, or Rodes, or MXLs or Shures because
most people don't have $5,000 or more to put into a microphone.

the cheaper Neumann gave me
the truest representation of my voice. So instead of trying to find
something that "warms my voice up" your saying I sould do that with
maybe effects instead of ending up with a mic that would color my
voice in some way?

Well, it's great if you can just walk up to a microphone, sing, and it
sounds exactly the way you like it. But maybe your voice sounds
different on a different day, or you're doing a different kind of song
and you want your voice to be airy rather than come-here-dark-and-sexy.
If you have a mic that gives you an airy sound you like, and another
mic that gives you the sexy sound you like, and so on, not only will
you have a lot of mics but you'll need to decide which one to use.
This is fine if you have the time and the money, but when you're just
getting started putting money into this hole in the ocean, it's best
to start out with something that you can use for a variety of sounds
by helping it along in the control room rather than something that has
one great sound and you can't really get rid of it when you don't want
it.



--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

IMHO the Studio Projects T3 should also be included in the shortlist.
Their website is www.studioprojectsusa.com

A certain soprano (aka Dolly Parton) sold millions of records at RCA
using an
Electro-Voice RE15. (the RE16 can be considered too) The RE15 has been
discontinued, and Dolly's is probably still inside a RCA vault g.

Elvis' main vocal mic at RCA was also the RE15 BTW.
Ebay is the easiest spot now to pick up a RE15 (also spelled RE-15).

But they're so cheap they're worth trying out sometime to add to
whatever
condenser(s) you select.

Another EV dynamic worth a shot is the 635a omni.

Chris

Here ya go...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

A $100 bid would probably get it.

Al


On 29 Nov 2004 16:48:28 -0800, (Chris Del Faro)
wrote:

IMHO the Studio Projects T3 should also be included in the shortlist.
Their website is www.studioprojectsusa.com

A certain soprano (aka Dolly Parton) sold millions of records at RCA
using an
Electro-Voice RE15. (the RE16 can be considered too) The RE15 has been
discontinued, and Dolly's is probably still inside a RCA vault g.

Elvis' main vocal mic at RCA was also the RE15 BTW.
Ebay is the easiest spot now to pick up a RE15 (also spelled RE-15).

But they're so cheap they're worth trying out sometime to add to
whatever
condenser(s) you select.

Another EV dynamic worth a shot is the 635a omni.

Chris

In article writes:

IMHO the Studio Projects T3 should also be included in the shortlist.
Their website is www.studioprojectsusa.com

Just one of many.

A certain soprano (aka Dolly Parton) sold millions of records at RCA
using an Electro-Voice RE15.

Elvis' main vocal mic at RCA was also the RE15 BTW.

Famous people don't necessarily define the best mics, it's just what
happened to work for them while they were in the process of getting
famous. Makes for good stories, though.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo