New Mic Day

[Aahzz]

OK, so as you may or may not know, I do voice over work, and am looking to grow my business. As such, I've been working with some coaches - one on tech/recording stuff, one on improving my reads. I was surprised when the studio coach mentioned he doesn't like the SM7B for VO, even with an inline preamp. Turns out, that's not an uncommon feeling among the VO community. They don't like the amount of gain it requires to pick up the sensitivities of speech, while fully admitting it's an excellent mic for music recording purposes.

So, at his recommendation, I picked up a Neumann TLM 102. I did a quick comparison video - utterly raw, straight into Photo Booth on the MacBook, no settings tweaked. Will be playing with it much more in Adobe Audition, but I dig the way it sounds. I still dig the SM7B, may keep it as another option, may sell it, haven't decided.

 

[bodia]

Sounding good!

 

[RickP]

Interesting comparison! What did you think, having listened to them in their non-compressed versions? That bigger diaphragm seemed to pick up the quieter portions very clearly.

 

[Aahzz]

Interesting comparison! What did you think, having listened to them in their non-compressed versions? That bigger diaphragm seemed to pick up the quieter portions very clearly.

Listening back, I can hear the Shure's relationship to the SM57 and SM58. The presence boost on the Shure seems rather pronounced to me when I compare it to the Neumann. The Neumann sounds more balanced to me, and I agree, it seemed like it got the quieter portions more clearly. I think they both sound good, and both work well with my voice. Unrelated to sound, I prefer the Neumann's smaller profile - takes up less of my visual space when I'm reading copy .