In the small studio and home studio environment, these live sound gladiators shine.
They can be used up close with less fear of P-pops and distortion, and their tight patterns mean that they can isolate a vocal more easily and not be vulnerable to equipment and air handler noise.
Many of these mics have vocal contoured frequency responses, achieved through their fundamental design instead of EQ circuitry, and so do not exhibit some of the issues associated with cranking on an EQ just to get a decent vocal track. Handheld vocal mics can be easier to place in front of a singer/player and also can be more comfortable for them to get used to in the studio, since they already have some familiarity with live mics.
A Personal Tip For My Favorite Mic Set Up:
I have been recording singer/songwriter guitarists for many years and one of my favorite set ups is to use a three mic configuration.
I like a stereo guitar thing. Some may disagree with this, but I love to be immersed in the intricate dance of fingers on strings and picks and strums that make up the acoustic guitar.
But inevitably, adding a vocal to an acoustic guitar results in a lack of isolation and control from either the vocal or the guitar. Leakage from the guitar into the vocal mic and visa versa causes phase cancellation and the accompanying tone degradation. The vocal ends up sounding hollow and nasal and the guitar ends up with the vocal popping out of the left or right channel at inopportune moments in the song. One answer is to give up on the multi mic approach and just place a single mic in front, and treat the vocal and guitar like a single instrument. But this inevitably results in compromises in the tone quality of both instruments in my opinion.
My answer for many years has been a vocal/guitar cluster setup that records the guitar in true stereo and isolates the vocal to retain a fat robust quality to both instruments.
Starting with the guitar, I set up a pair of LDC instrument mics either in cardioid or figure eight patterns, just a few inches in front of the sound hole on the guitar facing toward the pick and neck sides of the instrument, 90 degrees off one another. On smaller sounding guitars, I will use a cardioid pattern to add a touch of proximity, but on bigger, deeper guitars I will go with two figure eight mics. With cardioid mics, I place the mics at the top of the sound hole facing down on the guitar and away from the vocal. With figure eight mics, I will position the 90 degree null point right up at the performers face and the 0 degree on-axis front of the mic pointed at the sound hole.
Steps To The Secret Sauce For This Rig:
1. Set an approximately 6-inch by 6-inch piece of acoustic foam that I lay on top of the two coincident mics that further shades them from the vocal sounds from above. I recommend using a stereo mic rig and custom cutting the foam so that it snuggles over the mics with as much coverage as possible without getting in the way.
2. Then I place a live sound vocal mic facing up and away from the guitar and tucked in right above the foam shield.
3. I have both condenser and dynamic mics, in both cardioid and hypercardioid patterns. I point the cardioid mics more directly up and away from the guitar and the hypercardioid mic a bit flatter on to the singer. I advise the singer to sing out and over the vocal mic and not lean down into it unless that is their natural performing position. I seldom use a pop filter, but will also place the vocal mic so that the singer is singing PAST the mic instead of directly into it.
The result of this setup is a fat stereo guitar, a clear and fat vocal sound and 3 to 6 db less interaction between the two than other more typical setups. In addition, you have more control over the balance of echo and effects that can be applied to either vocal or instrument. Trying to use a non optimized microphone on the vocal would result in a more difficult setup and potentially less successful result.
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Audio engineer and instructor at Omega Recording Studios, Bill Mueller has been an audio/video engineer since the early 1970’s, has a Grammy-nomination, a TEC Award nomination, nominations for a variety of other music awards, and has worked for over 150 major artists.
