by Keith Hatschek
October 4, 2009
Fast Forward’s Pro Studio guru puts four mics through their paces
One of the key elements in any popular song is the vocal performance, and an essential part of capturing a vocal performance accurately is the microphone used in the recording. Top recording engineers know how important it is to match each singer’s particular vocal qualities and timbre to the microphone that will best capture the power and subtleties of that voice. This month, Fast Forward brought four high-quality vocal microphones (i.e. list price of $1,000 or more) into the studio and ran each through its paces, recording male and female vocal tracks and some narration. By the end of the session, you’ll have a good idea of which of these mics may be worth the investment for your home recording studio and what you might want to look for in studios near you. The four contenders include: the Kiwi, from BLUE Microphones; the TLM 103 from Neumann; the Black Hole BH-2 from JZ Mics; and the KSM 44 from Shure. I invited my colleague Jeff Crawford, a local producer and engineer over to provide a second set of ears for the evaluation. Two singers were asked to help with the testing, each one bringing a backing track of a song that they were familiar with to use for the test session. Read more…
by Disc Makers
September 15, 2009
Audiotuts+ has put together a simple, helpful guide on microphone basics. This is a quick read of the fundamentals and will help you understand the different types of microphones, how polar patterns describe the way a microphone picks up sound, and what other factors you should consider before purchasing new equipment.
At their most basic, microphones are transducers. A transducer is an electrical device that converts energy from one form to another. In this case, the transducer is turning sound — acoustical energy — into an audio signal — electrical energy. Read more…
Anyone shopping for a new podcasting microphone, or a voiceover microphone, or even a studio vocal microphone should know that the broadcast industry has relied on a very small handful of mics for the past 30 years. Broadcasters know something that you might not: how to get a great vocal sound. Read more…
Many people have a limited budget this year to upgrade their home recording systems. Because of that, it’s helpful to prioritize what is the most important element you need or would benefit from upgrading. 
One of the themes through many of the articles on Echoes consider the practicalities of how to make the most of home recording, both the equipment needed and the techniques for getting the best results from your own efforts. 
We took three drum mic packages into the studio for a live showdown.
