Rob I should think that with the style you have, that you will continue to do well in the voiceover arena. Especially TV spot work, and radio imaging. It was a big deal for me to spend until it hurts to get the "right" gear to make a living with. And I will still stand by that notion..to a point. These days there are so many choices, and if one isn't too concerned with "impressing our friends" one can get a nice sounding package cheap, mid-cheap and expensive..Then there is "extreme". I tried going there, and became dissapointed with what I had..i.e. it didn't live up to my wild expectations, but I had spent all that money! It had to be better..but it wasn't..So I scaled back a bit until I found the middle ground that suited me.
When you say the RE20/528 combo isn't the quite the way you want to sound..We need to narrow down just what it is that you want. Us V/O people have almost a sport of looking for "that magic box" or that "elusive secret mic", when really it is a matter of combining what sounds best to you, and ultimitely your clients.
For instance I personally like a more compressed sound on my voice, and a quiet and tight backround (read: no noises, hums, air conditioners, breaths, open grounds, or room echos) I also like a more crisp sound..more upper mids, and less boomy lows. Especially for TV, and to some extent radio..the more we push the low end via EQ, the quieter our tracks will be on the air. Transmitters hear all that low frequency boost, and will faithfully try to reproduce it..but transmitters have a limited amount of available energy, and by using that energy to try and reproduce those lows..they give up some of the other spectrum..and most of those lows will not be heard on the relatively small speakers of TV sets, and car radios..although this is improving.
Clients seem to like a less processed sound (especially the overly-purist union audio people doing national spots) so we need to back off the processing somewhat.
The EV RE20 is a fine vocal mic..and really modifyable using a good quality EQ channel. (not the one on the 528)
If you like a warmer more conversational sound, go for a condenser. The default standard "was" the Neumann U87. Great mic. But some of those crazy Chinese mics are really quite spetacular..so much so that certain trade puplications report Telefunken USA allegedly took the basic guts of the APEX 460 and repainted the barrel and put thier name on it..It is a really sweet microphone. The Marshall condensers are suprisingly good. The Lawson L47 and it's cousins are also excellent values. The AKG C12Vr, and the 414 varieties are also great mics...some are more delicate than others so take note as to weather you think you use these mics harshly or you treat them gently.
As far as processing goes..again it is to your tastes..How do you want to sound? Do you want to be able to adjust, and alter your sound to suit the style of the project? There are tons of boxes out there. The old tried and true Valley Audio 400 series is a good one. The Symmetrix 528, and 528E are good boxes. THe Air Corp 500PH is a very "tuneable" unit. My latest toy is the APHEX 230..jury is still out on that one..so far my clients like it better than I do..which isn't a bad thing. I actually had an engineer install a compressor on the headset circuit because so much of how I sound is how I "percieve" I sound..and I suppose that's just the old disc jocky coming out.
Ya know what tho'? The best tweaking I have done to date was to get a QUIET ROOM built. I had an acoustic science consultant come out and "measure the room" with all of these giz-whizzes and he presented me with plans to offset the walls, and put traps in the corners, and Sonex(tm) treatment so the room would be dead. We moved all the computer CPU towers into closets, and ran really high quality mic cabling and shielded wiring to all key audio gear..so now I don't need to use much external processing at all really. Most is done after mastering to a file..inside ProTools or Adobe Audition. Total cost? 900 dollars and a good steak dinner.
Some good combinations that I've used:
AKG 414B XLS and DBX 376 total around 1500.00
RE20 and the AirCorp 500PH total around 1400.00
APEX460 with a Behringer VX2496 (sweet) total only 500.00!!
Neumann U87 with Focusrite "Voice Master Pro" total around 3200.00
and for my money you can't beat the DBX 231 Graphic EQ around 250.00
Neumann M149 and the Manley Vox Box (or whatever it's called) Manley? Yow..that stuff is steep..jeezamama! The "nearly famous big guys" are most likely buying that stuff becasue someone told them that's what (insert name here) uses..but realistically I think we know that (insert name here) gets all that work because of many other reasons..not just the processors. If I took an ad out in Variety announcing that I just bought a Manley Vox Box should I really expect a run on my 800 number bills? I think not. Feh!
Don't forget Ebay has a lot of this stuff..and I usually have a pile laying around from failed attempts at finding the "holy grail" too.
Sorry this was so long everyone..I'll sit back at listen for a bit..
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Edited by jefflaurence on 07/13/05 02:32 AM.</FONT></P>
