Mic & Voice Processor Recommendations

[butlerguy03]

High School student run non-comm Hot AC looking for recommendations on the "best bang for the buck" studio mics and voice processors. In our main studio we currently have a Symetrix 528E with an EV20. I'm looking at having equal equipment in all 3 studios, two have no processing and EV50B's running in place of a true studio mic. If our setup is right in the main studio, we'll copy it, if not, we can replace with new equipment in all three.

We have engineers, but I'm just looking for 2nd, 3rd, 4th opinions. Thanks for your time.

Jered Petrey
WEEM-FM
General Manager/Instructor
Pendleton Heights HS

 

[oldiesstation]

DBX 286A 199.00,50 dollar rebate right now and Audio Technica AT 2020 ,99.00 or less.Nice combo pair..sounds great and warm!! For 149.00 the AT 2035 is a great buy..

 

[RadioMan203]

I had a couple of the dbx 286A units and they were ok, but nothing to write home about. My personal favorite at the moment are the Rane VP-12 processors. I'm having excellent results with Heil PR-30 and PR-40 microphones.

 

[oldiesstation]

Rane VP-12 has been discontinued IIRC..

 

[RadioMan203]

Rane VP-12 has been discontinued IIRC..

Correct, but I've been picking them up on the used market for well under $200. I think the usual haunts for used gear may yield similar results.

I just noticed that the OP is part of a school station, so I would assume budget may be a consideration. I actually used two dbx 286a processors for the high school station I oversee and for student voices it works quite well. Of course, the units are behind plexi covers to keep busy fingers from playing with them.

 

[oldiesstation]

I made a budget suggestion since it's a high school op.Actually the 286a can sound really nice when you dial it to the sweet spot.Now they're bigger toys.We run the Vorsis M-1, very nice and darn clean,maybe too clean...I like the heil mics,too.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I made a budget suggestion since it's a high school op.

I think your original suggestion was right on target. Yes, there are processors and there are mics that should be selected to capture all the nuances of the well trained voices, but for students in high school they are probably over-kill.

The message from the adult-in-charge is that "It is your job to develop your voice to the maximum of it's ability, not to let it hide behind super-duper hardware that may or may not make it sound better than it is."

I think if 15 years of broadcasting and multiple stations, the AT2020 outperforms any of the mics I ever got to work with except one: the RCA 44-BX.

 

[bilco]

Few things beat the 528 E and they are not outrageuos considering what they do. For mics, I've stopped buying the EV 20 and 27's and now only put the Heil Pro 40's in. The DJ's in head to head and side by side competition say they can't tell the difference and the Heil is quite a bit cheaper and just as rugged.

 

[Fenris]

The Symetrix 528e is great but the processors are in reverse order! It sounds a lot better if you use the patch points in the back so it's EQ->compressor->de-esser. For broadcast use we really only use the compressor and gate.

The great thing about an RE-20 is that it's idiot-proof. The Variable-D design provides controlled proximity effect that's independent of distance, it doesn't need a pop filter, and it sounds good on a wide variety of voices with no EQ.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

Dial up WKPW 90.7 at Knightstown High School. New air studio with 4 RE20's or 27's (forget which) and DBX286A's (actually, it's the newer version that changed the A to some other letter). If you like the sound of them and go that route, I'll share my settings with you.

The mention of the 528 processing in reverse order has bugged me for many years...why would anyone apply the EQ after the compression???

 

[oldiesstation]

Never understood that either,Bob.I liked the Valley People gear ,the 400 and 401.Running Vorsis M-1 now.Clean!! Almost too clean.Best i've heard so far.

 

[BobOnTheJob]

I liked the Valley People gear ,the 400 and 401.Running Vorsis M-1 now.Clean!! Almost too clean.Best i've heard so far.

I liked/used a lot of the Valley units....they have a plastic(?) insulated nut/bolt that holds the regulators to a heat sink. They eventually break & the heat sink stops doing it's job and the Valley promptly ceases to function. It's been my experience that replacing the nut/bolt does not restore operation. Thus almost all of the 15-20 year old Valley's are goners...as they probably should be at that age.

I've messed with a low end Vorsis AM processor...pleased with it except that the process of getting the laptop to talk to it was a major pain. Does the M-1 require a laptop to program? When a processor can't be set up without a computer, I lose interest pretty quickly.

It seems that a very clean on air mic is a pretty rare bird. It seems almost all of them have at least a degree of harshness. Your description of the M-1 as 'almost too clean' makes me want to try one of these. The 286A's go for as little as $149...what did the M-1 set you back?

Another thing worth mentioning on the 286A's is the noise gate. I generally try to avoid gating because it almost invariably sounds un-natural. The 286A has an exceptionally natural sounding gate--it actually does not make me want to scream at the radio! IIRC, I set both of the gating pots to about 10 o'clock for starters & if I need more, I slowly turn them both clockwise by the same amount. Don't get me wrong...it can sound awful with the best of them but when set up properly, the noise in the room is knocked way down with almost none of the typical phony sound of the noise level riding up & down with the spoken words. 286A is a really well though out box for that kind of money.

 

[oldiesstation]

Been there done that with the regulator on the Valley and even the Aircorp 500PH,which i really liked.The M-1 can be used alone,but the GUI is easy to do.Has several presets you can select with the remote software ,but i just dialed up my own.Don't even use the remote now.Contact Vorsis for a demo. Talk to Paul at BSW,he'll cut you some slack.A super star V/0 guy put me on the M-1,he's been known to frequent the board and may chime in..

 

[dtube1]

If you guys don't mind a bit of tinkering, I've found the "channel strip" processors from the recording world to sound substantially better than the current crop of "mic processors" out there. In one application, I have a 4-mic, college on-air studio using Presonus Eurekas. As these boxes don't have gating, I have a staple of the live sound industry, the Drawmer DS-404 quad gate, inserted on the Eureka's send/returns (this is an excellent-sounding gate/expander unit). A word of caution though: with SM-7's, the Eureka has just enough preamp gain to run only moderate levels of compression. On the higher end of the budget, I'm demoing a Grace Designs M103 with and RE-20 right now. Again, I'll probably use a Drawmer 2ch or 4ch gate with these in the studio. Again though, this approach requires tinkering with equipment with more knobs than the blessed old Valley 400's (which I hated because any change one made with the EQ typically caused grief with the following compressor stage) and more rack security/real estate.
-D

http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=15
http://www.drawmer.com/products/pro-series/ds404.php
http://www.gracedesign.com/products/m103/m103.htm

 

[Groove1670]

Has anyone used the Marshall MXL series mics. Your thoughts VS RE-20, and if so what model do you use.

 

[jwmarsh]

If your budget doesn't matter I am running a Neumann BCM-104 with a Aphex 230. It sounds real sweet until the talent talks about 1 inch from it but under those circumstances I do not think anything would sound good

 

[jefflaurence]

I am another real cheerleader for the Vorsis M1. I use it in tandem with a 500 series modular system that includes a high end preamp. We take the output of the 500 rack, and use a SHURE attenuator to input to the M1. I also really like the sound of a good shotgun mic..but VoiceOver is all I do to make a living, so it's overkill for non-comm.

A really good mic chain..that is not overly expensive is the Audio Technica AT2020 going into a DBX mic processor (286S) less than 300.00 for everything, and it sounds right nice.

 

[wgliradio]

I've messed with a low end Vorsis AM processor...pleased with it except that the process of getting the laptop to talk to it was a major pain. Does the M-1 require a laptop to program? When a processor can't be set up without a computer, I lose interest pretty quickly.

It seems that a very clean on air mic is a pretty rare bird. It seems almost all of them have at least a degree of harshness. Your description of the M-1 as 'almost too clean' makes me want to try one of these. The 286A's go for as little as $149...what did the M-1 set you back?

Hi Bob

The M1 can be set via the front panel like a traditional mic processor or by the GUI.

Which processor did you have an issue connecting with. If you need, please feel free to reach out for support if you are still having a problem or have any other questions.

[email protected]

Mike Erickson
Vorsis Technical Engineering

 

[Charlie]

I've just got my home studio gear sorted - A Rode Broadcaster, dBx286s and a TC Electronic Triple C processor. I had previously used an Audio Technica AT2020 and a borrowed dBx286a (older black model) which I found far superior to my aging Behringer VX2496. The newer 286s is the silver-panel version - and sounds extremely clean. With the crisp, clear clarity of the Rode (all Rodes sound good IMHO) it's a joy to use. I've got the 286 compressing to about -12dB and I'm still not sure whether I prefer the slow attack/release or fast. This is because I'm using the Triple C to give 3 bands of processing and then driving the final limiter so the overall sound is very "in yer face". I read that the Triple C only adds about 1.3mS in encode/decode delay so it's ideal for "live monitoring", even with the "Look Ahead" of 3mS it's still comfortable.

For "proper" voice work I would almost certainly bypass the Triple C, but for that radio sound - I'll keep tweaking ;D

The following sound clip is after about an hour of trying different settings with the Triple C... The dBx on it's own sounds amazing (I use Beyer DT-100 headphones) but there is a distinct lack of mid-range on this sample although I'm getting there. There's a link to the full-quality WAV version on the page, too: http://soundcloud.com/charliedavy/rode

Picture (sorry, it's off the phone camera): http://twitpic.com/7jlzat

For those who have not tried the dBx286s, it's well worth the money - Even more so as it's considerably more expensive here in the UK!