What type of mic for vocals? [NEW]

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2006 7:49 pm

What type of mic for vocals? This is a question that gets asked all the time in our Recording Forum, so as a senior member of the Home Recording Alliance of Malaysia, I thought I'd deal with it as extensively as any dude who's messed with more mics than legally permitted by the Con-federation of Gear Collectors.

From: Charles
Subject: Finding a suitable mic

Hi, i am new here. I am about to form a band and i wanted to ask, if let's say i wanted to get a mic which can produce recording type of singing, what do you reckon? and can i plug it in the comp? is it better to use this kind of mics instead of normal mics for live gigs?

Plz let me know as i am interested in learning. Thank you.

synthdude: First thing to remember is, as long as your PC comes with a soundcard that has a mic input (usually a 1/8" jack on a standard Realtek AC97), you can record vocals and instruments using any old/new/cheap dynamic mic or via direct input.

But unless you can outscream Ozzy Osbourne, you'll find that dynamic mics — even Shure SM58s which seem to work fine in a live situation — are inadequate for recording vocals; they're just not powerful enough to capture the full flavour of your voice.

What you really need to get your hands on for loud, clear and crisp vocal recording is a condenser or capacitor mic. These are either big-diaphragm or stick/shotgun-style mics that are heaps more sensitive (i.e. you don't have to kiss them to get a good signal) than dynamics.

And for vocals, they work best when you set them up 5" to 8" from the singer's mouth.

The one I would recommend to those on a shoestring budget is Yoga's EM9600 (around RM140). This is a decently-spec'd Taiwan-made shotgun mic that comes in a nice hard-plastic case with an XLR cable (you need to get it customised for use with a 1/8" jack, though).

More importantly, it can be battery-powered if you don't have a mic preamp with phantom power (all condenser/capacitor mics need it to work!)

That should serve your needs for the moment. But if recording quality really matters to you, you should upgrade your soundcard (get something like ESI's bang-for-buck Juli@) or seriously consider investing in one of the soundcard/breakout boxes that offer multi-channel recording.

huzai · Angsakawan Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Articles: 1 Comments: 2

where can i find that mic?