Mic Gain Problem

[The Dougfather]

By the way. Why do people always recommend, that people should get a large diaphragm condenser mic to start with. Why not start with a small diaphragm condenser which is way more versatile? And can be used on vocals at least as good.

The OP sated that he was saving for a condenser so my taking was that budget was a key factor. I have used countless amounts of low end mics and IMHO you can get a way more suitable LDC for vox on a budget then you can an SDC. Far too many of the low end SDC's have the high end bump which is too bright at around 7K making them completely unsuitable for vocals unless of course the hisssssssssss is what your after.

As always YMMV.

[Darney]

Originally Posted by The Dougfather

The OP sated that he was saving for a condenser so my taking was that budget was a key factor. I have used countless amounts of low end mics and IMHO you can get a way more suitable LDC for vox on a budget then you can an SDC. Far too many of the low end SDC's have the high end bump which is too bright at around 7K making them completely unsuitable for vocals unless of course the hisssssssssss is what your after.

As always YMMV.

Good call... I have to agree. Of course, you can buy the low-end SDC and have Michael Joly mod it....

[Basstian]

Originally Posted by The Dougfather

The OP sated that he was saving for a condenser so my taking was that budget was a key factor. I have used countless amounts of low end mics and IMHO you can get a way more suitable LDC for vox on a budget then you can an SDC. Far too many of the low end SDC's have the high end bump which is too bright at around 7K making them completely unsuitable for vocals unless of course the hisssssssssss is what your after.

As always YMMV.

That is really a good point!. Have to agree with that. Good sdc start at 500 € and you can get a reasonable ldc for less.
i just think that a sdc is essential for music production and you will need one sooner or later anyway. and because i think you can use a good one on vocals at least as good as a ldc i was just thinking that you can save the money for the cheap lcd an get a good sdc first and you covered much more than with a cheap ldc.

But I really did not what to offend. It was just my opinion. Sorry If you got me wrong.

Sebastian

[Basstian]

Originally Posted by Darney

Interesting comment! You think the piano should be more up front? The 'room' is D-Verb plate... maybe too much? What would you suggest? Tnx.

Hey Darney,

I think the piano is performed really nice as well, so imo it doesn't have to be so underestimated. When I hear that song, I think of one person sitting on the piano singing. So for me the room on piano and vocals should be the same, probably with slightly different pre delay settings, to bring out the vocals a little bit more. and the piano should be a little louder as well. But that is my opinion only. And this is just a matter of taste and not of right or wrong.

Sebastian

[chrisdee]

Originally Posted by The Dougfather

Word on the street is the Mbox 3 pre's are pretty respectable.

The sound quality is ok, but the gain pot is not ok.
It should have been in fixed steps instead of the inaccurate variable gain it has now.
In theory variable gain should give finer detail, but this is not the case on Mbox.

Its also hard to recall a gain setting because the gain pot is to loose and inaccurate.

[chrisdee]

Originally Posted by EZ_Duzzit

Thank you for the response man...
So getting another external mic pre-amp to work along with my interface would be my best solution then?

Yes. Just remember that the Mbox has a 54dB gain, so if that's not enough for your mic you should get a preamp wich has more than 54dB gain. Maby around 70dB.

[N8ty]

I have herd from many sources that some of Maynard's vocal (Tool) are done on sm57. Also, the sm57 is the same as the sm58 except for a slight speak at 1-2khz. In reality, if you are getting a great sound and very little signal noise, go with it. How are you micing the vocal talent?

[EZ_Duzzit]

Well really the problem is its too loud or too soft.. so I try to even have people stand in different spots but sometimes it becomes too distant... but up close it clips a lot... Its a crazy problem, I'm wondering if it's a hardware problem, like maybe i received a defective mbox mini...

[EZ_Duzzit]

Originally Posted by The Dougfather

Word on the street is the Mbox 3 pre's are pretty respectable.

You have to ask yourself what you want here, IMHO the 57 isn't a great mic for vocals, others will disagree. Your going to need around $400 per channel to get something thats going to trump the Mbox in a truly noticeable way.

If it were me, i'd just go and get a large diaphragm condenser mic, then you will have a condenser and a dynamic which you can then use accordingly.

Also bare in mind when recording at 24-bit you don't need a super hot level, peaks around -10 to -14dB are more than adequate. Levels don't need to be all but clipping.

But the primary problem is that without it being all the way up or darn near, it won't even give me a strong enough signal to turn up with the fader and if I add compression to try to boost it just raises the noise floor and clearly won't set in the mix correctly... I will try the condenser mic to use the phantom power and see what the results are there, but at the moment i just can't believe how it's acting... OH and to note that I tried the mbox on my PC on Adobe Audition 3 instead of on my Mac with Pro Tools 9, and the mic gain worked fine, however I would really like to switch to Pro Tools as the work flow is much smoother...