As a recording engineer I see microphones similar to the way
a painter sees paintbrushes. A painter will hardly create a piece of artwork
with one brush and one color. Microphones are often overlooked in the recording
process. Understanding how they color the sound and how you can use them to
begin shaping your song is very important to all recording engineers.
Before choosing a microphone to record with it’s important
to listen to the voice and style of the artist you’ll be recording. Does the
artists voice have a lot of high or low frequencies in it? Is the artist a singer, rapper, or voice over
artist? How dynamic is this artist? Once you know the answer to these questions
you can begin choosing the right microphone.
When recording vocals we typically use two kinds of
microphones; Condenser, and dynamic microphones. Condenser microphones are very
commonly found in most home studios. Don’t under estimate the power of a couple
of dynamic microphones in your microphone collection. When picking a microphone
to record lead vocals I normally go for a condenser microphone. Condenser
microphones generally have a open clean and detailed sound. For example an AKG
c414 XLII will give you a clean sound with a nice presence boost in the high
mid range. This works great for male vocals that have a lot of low end. The
bump I the high mid range will balance out the signal.
Dynamic microphones have a slightly darker sound. They sound
tighter and slightly compressed at times. This is great for very dynamic
sources. Some singers can go from a quiet whisper to loud powerful singing this
is can be a problem if the right microphone is not in use. I found that dynamic
microphones handle these vocalists best. They tend to round things off nicely.
Paired with the right preamp they can be important tools to your studio.
Dynamic microphones also work well for rap, especially “old school” hip-hop
tracks. They offer a nice gritty sound right at the source. For people with
lots of high frequency content in their vocals dynamic microphones can offer a
nice balance to give the vocals some body and tame the highs.
There’s no right or wrong choice of microphone. Anytime you have a collection of microphones
available take some time, listen and make a decision that fits the song and
fits your vocalist. It’s important to
use your ears try things out you might find great results from microphones you
wouldn’t have normally tried.
