Topic: spoken word vocal mic

[Gizby]

My mind is always slowly turning, and I've thought recently that it would be interesting to have a microphone for doing spoken word type applications, kind of like the beat poets used to record. I'm looking for something that feels very warm, strong, and personable. If you have dredg's album El Cielo, the ending of 'Whoa Is Me' has an old man speaking. That's the kind of sound I'm going for, that really flatters and enhances the low end of the voice. Large or small diaphragm, it doesn't matter.  Does anyone have any suggestions for what would best suit this search?

[Gizby]

With some basic Googling for recommended voiceover mics, I have come up with the following candidates:

AKG 414 B-ULS
Neumann TLM 103
Audio-Technica AT4047
EV RE27
Sennheiser MD-421 mkII

I left out the U87 because that is ungodly expensive. There were also recommendations to hunt down a vintage microphone, but I wouldn't want to bother with that. Some people said that the SM57 was surprisingly good for its cost, but nothing great. The RE20 was also mentioned, but the 27 seems be be an improvement. I was a little surprised to see the 421 mentioned several times just because I'm used to throwing those on drums. I hadn't heard of that being used for VO work before. I'm kind of looking most favorably at the 4047 just because it is moderately priced and has good reviews. Does anyone have any experience with these mics as vocal/VO mics?

[Jamos]

Will you be using this in a studio or for live on-stage stuff?

[Gizby]

This would be for personal use. While I do not have room set up for studio recording, it would fall much more into studio than live applications. Also I might have access to studio rooms sometime this year. And it might be possible in the future to fix up a room for such a purpose.

[Jamos]

Well some other mics I would definitely add to your list are the Shure KSM series mics. 

The KSM27, 32, & 44 are all amazing microphones.

If I were you I'd go with one of the above, or an Audio-Technica 4047 or 4050.

I think you'll be happy with the results that any of these will give you.

[Gizby]

Cool, thanks.

[muj]

shotgun mic?

[Jamos]

shotgun mic?

really? for studio-style vox, spoken word?

[muj]

a lot of voice over work is being done with SG.so yes it could be a interesting experiment

[Jamos]

I was thinking about it some more last night...and I could see the benefits of this, esp in rooms that weren't really isolated...

[heath]

AT 4050 would be my mic for that application if I was trying to work on a budget.  I think there's a pair of them in the yard sale right now.... 

[Gizby]

I'm not in a position to buy any one of these mics soon. This is more of something to keep in mind further down the line.

Out of curiosity, what would be good mics for live applications?

[John Willett]

The Sennheiser MD 421 is an excellent speech mic.

[jnorman34]

i jsut did some sessions with a psychologist who makes subliminal tapes for his clients.  we tested several mics in the studio, and for the most intimate warm and soothing sound, we selected a shinybox 46mx ribbon mic.  he did not like ANY of the large capsule condensers (tlm103 - ouch!!), as they all had too much hype in the high end.

[Gizby]

i jsut did some sessions with a psychologist who makes subliminal tapes for his clients.  we tested several mics in the studio, and for the most intimate warm and soothing sound, we selected a shinybox 46mx ribbon mic.  he did not like ANY of the large capsule condensers (tlm103 - ouch!!), as they all had too much hype in the high end.

Interesting. The price is pretty attractive as well.