San Diego, California, USA
| StoreTags: mic, rode, reality check
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People who enjoyed reading this: astroid, bb01, Fredo, Moriarty, Analog, Unknownforce, chimplogic, populus, room, deltasleep, energygiant, DrexonField, mixedtape
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So a couple weeks ago I picked up a nice new mic - a Rode NT2-A (that's it sitting in front of my krk) - for $400. Ouch! But when I got it home and started tracking with it I instantly understood what I had paid for... clarity. This thing is clear, crisp and accurate! Almost too much so. I'm not the greatest vocalist in the world - far from it - but every once in a while I can carry a tune. But with this mic that proved harder than I thought. Everything's so transparent that even the most minute voice inflections and subtle pitch changes are revealed - making it a completely different experience than other mics that I've used. Needless to say, my first vocal sessions with the new mic were more than frustrating. And while I don't think I've begun to sing much better yet, over the long run I'll have to.
If you're interested, you can hear my latest vocal mixes here: link
Just check out the flash player about halfway down. The vocals are far from perfect, but the difference in quality between this mic and previous recordings is quite large. | |
Comments
11/28/07
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room
i agree fredo
and for acoustic music autotune should not be there at all
but i also think the royksop reference is spot on - it can be an aesthetic choice that works
but if you use it - don't expect people to go on about how beautiful your voice is - it becomes more functional but effective rather than organic - real - emotive
11/28/07
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wakax
better skip the autotune. 
11/28/07
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cbit
I largely agree with fredo+room.
But to me it vocals sound as though the _intention_ was for them to sound quite natural, but that it hasn't worked. If i were producing these tracks i'd either go for slightly more 'artificiality' (eg. experiment with layering like astroid suggested), or keep it unautotuned. Sorry to go on about autotune, when you actually posted about the mic ;)
11/28/07
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Fredo
the mic sounds great!
11/28/07
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xLefr
Not bad. Not my cup of tea, but the girls will love it. The mic seems to be working - I'm mic-naive, but the new stuff has a sheen to it that I imagine is the new microphone.
Beautiful things, the Rødes.
I'm curious about one thing - what happens to the emotion if you sing louder? Curious as in someone who can't bring themself to sing. Yet. Hm. ... but knows what he likes, but doesn't know how it's brought about. Louder isn't really meant as a suggestion to you, rather as a technical question.
11/28/07
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madeofoak
the nt2-a is great sounding, but i still think you can't beat the rode ntk as far as their mics go. it doesn't have the ability to change directional patterns like the nt2-a, but it's tube-driven instead of solid state, which gives it an undeniable warmth. i found one for $300, which seems to be the going used rate. check it out.
11/28/07
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deltasleep
autotune and doublers are about the quickest way possible to date your music to this time period. I really don't like the sound of them, in the same way that I don't like that chimey rhodes-sounding preset on the DX-7.
link
Doublers and auto-tune together combine to produce some sort of horrendous high end distortion and hissiness thats indescribable. Maybe that's just because i have a weird ear(titanium ossicles)- but theres this overwhelming kind of aliased character. Its the kind of character that was on the crappy digital reverb(like the Roland RV-2000) that plagued a decade of female vocals.
When everything you play all fits into a perfect little box as exactly this set of frequencies, you lose a lot of personality and character. That tension and expression you possess when you sing or play an instrument- you should never do anything to compromise that if you want a human sounding vocal!
Also, this mic sounds amazing, I think I might set my sights on getting one one of these days!
11/28/07
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mixedtape
I think ultimately it's up to you, it's your sound. But personally I think that you don't need it. Your lyrics are pretty simplistic in melody and I think it could be worth the extra 4 or 5 takes to get it right if it meant your vox aren't being shifted up/down all the time in every song. I think if it were only one song rather than all then it wouldn't matter to much to many.
That aside, your songs are really sweet and pretty.
11/28/07
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Fredo
ha! Deltasleep, I sent him an emmail saying exactly the same thing about dating it!
11/28/07
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astroid
i wrote a post about it sounding dated and then deleted it three times. lol
11/28/07
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paperpilot
thanks for the comments everyone! i'll try to go some of them.
fredo, thanks for the kind words. i agree about the inflection. the new mic picks up everything and imperfect inflection does get hit with tune in a somewhat unnatural way. and i agree about autotune making voices more uniform. if i thought i had the vocal chops i would definitely leave it raw. but there's too many issues with the clean vocal right now to justify it over the tuned. over time i'll back off, though. i promise. ;)
cbit, you might be right. maybe i'm straddling that no-mans land between artificial and natural vocals that catches you looking for one over the other
chimplogic, the little noises are insane! i tried noise reduction for a while but didn't like the artifacts that were introduced.
autistici, thanks! that's what i was going for. seems to have missed the mark for most, tho.
room, for acoustic music or "band" music i agree that autotune should be used sparingly, if at all.
xlefr, i'm not sure exactly what you mean but the mic can absolutely handle it. recording in 24-bit also helps. otherwise you might want to run light compression on the way in to avoid too loud/soft.
madeo, good point. i'm looking to pick up that warmth with a new preamp. we'll see how it goes.
others, i guess it's all been covered. i know it's come a bit short for many of you. hopefully my next round'll turn out a bit better.
cheers!
11/28/07
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license
I don't care for this kind of music at all (though you can see there's plenty of folks about that do) but you executed it well. your production is very clean and polished. which makes your twee humility (e.g. paragraphs 2 and 3 on your page) seem a little disingenuine. anyway good luck with it, you seem to have put a lot of work into it and I'm sure folks will love this stuff.
11/28/07
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tunalicker
autotune has a novelty factor of 3 ( scale of 1 to 10) for me. i think its in every single reggaeton song these days. eesh. nice mic!
11/29/07
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xLefr
paperpilot: I meant the expression Never mind, unexplainable.
11/29/07
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xLefr
paperpilot: I meant the expression Never mind, unexplainable.
edit: ... but I'm going to try anyway.
Disclaimer: I much respect you for having the guts & gumption to sing into a mic.
What I'm saying is that I suspect that I like more decisive and authoritative singing -- without it becoming stupid or rude.
A bizarre explanation:
Sometimes when dad is happy and pets me or mom on the shoulder, he overcompensates and does it too softly. Us mom would prefer a more authoritative feel to it.
Trust me, I know how completely impossible it is to tell someone to sing differently. That's why I'm muscling and shoehorning this into a sort of technical question:
CAN YOU SING LOUDER PLEAS?
What happens?
I believe that both of these might happen:
* the emotional content of your songs / lines will come through more clearly -- for me at least. (Girls probably like the softness, they are hot for the Postal Service.)
* you'll hit your notes better
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