The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Sober wrote:The only reason to have a dynamic mic in your home studio is if you are recording very loud sources like drums, guitar amps, and maybe horns (all of which generally call for a 57). The only reason to sing into a dynamic mic is if you're playing live, or perhaps certain kinds of hardcore/screamo music.

I normally like your hard edge advice on equipment because I'm with you for the most part, but you are SO out of the ballpark wrong here. You must be under the impression that everyone has the perfect recording environment. Also, you must be under the impression that people don't like smooth focused vocal delivery. Yes, an sm57 is more suitable for loud amp recording, but the sm58 is a SWEET vocal mic. I have condensers, but I hate it when I'm trying to record in my non professional studio and finally do a perfect take and the jet that flew over my house at thirty thousand feet was louder than my voice. Yeah, I know, I haven't stepped up to the high end stuff. But I still have a crappy recording environment.

I'm not saying condenser mics are bad, because I've recorded on them in a studio. I will be buying a set of high quality rodes mics soon as a matter of fact (GC connect). But I'll also be buying a preamp and building a good home studio.

SM58>idiot with a cheap condenser mic

Billy's Little Trip wrote:

Sober wrote:The only reason to have a dynamic mic in your home studio is if you are recording very loud sources like drums, guitar amps, and maybe horns (all of which generally call for a 57). The only reason to sing into a dynamic mic is if you're playing live, or perhaps certain kinds of hardcore/screamo music.

I normally like your hard edge advice on equipment because I'm with you for the most part, but you are SO out of the ballpark wrong here. You must be under the impression that everyone has the perfect recording environment. Also, you must be under the impression that people don't like smooth focused vocal delivery. Yes, an sm57 is more suitable for loud amp recording, but the sm58 is a SWEET vocal mic. I have condensers, but I hate it when I'm trying to record in my non professional studio and finally do a perfect take and the jet that flew over my house at thirty thousand feet was louder than my voice. Yeah, I know, I haven't stepped up to the high end stuff. But I still have a crappy recording environment.

I'm not saying condenser mics are bad, because I've recorded on them in a studio. I will be buying a set of high quality rodes mics soon as a matter of fact (GC connect). But I'll also be buying a preamp and building a good home studio.

SM58>idiot with a cheap condenser mic

I understand the primary gripe, though my response is "man up and do another take, pansy." I don't at all understand the bolded one, though. While singing into a hot dynamic does require a certain awareness and skill, those skills are just as useful singing into a condenser and you are by definition going to lose a good deal of clarity, warmth, and presence with the dynamic. I'll reiterate and wager that 95% of recording professionals wouldn't have an artist sing into an SM58-type mic before trying out 4 or 5 different condensers*, unless they are doing it for the effect of sounding like a shitty 58-captured vocal on purpose. This is the exact reason why, even with tens of thousands of dollars worth in mics, every studio keeps some SM57's on hand, just to have that shitty 57 sound on a guitar or a snare. One example of this is Flogging Molly's kind-of-unplugged album Whiskey on a Sunday, where they have dynamic mics on almost everything to give it a purposefully shitty, drunken quality to the recording (with satisfying effect).

*There are a few high-quality dynamic mics that are widely used on studio vocals, but these are expensive as hell and an entirely different animal than a 58.

Your bolded part above might be my thing, as well as other old school rockers. I just like that sound. Put me out to pasture or let me pay money for your album, your choice.

You know what's kind of funny. I have a VST I down loaded once and one of the presets is called "make that sterile condenser sound like an sm58". Come on dude, if the VST programmer guys are recreating it's sound, it must be good.

Sober wrote:
But I will say that both of us are open to constructive criticism and engaging in healthy recording technique debate without being dogmatic. You seem very defensive in your posts, and I figured you'd been around Songfight to appreciate the immeasurable value a few good verbal lashings can provide. 5 years ago, my entries were embarrassing garbage. I gladly offer a huge portion of credit for my skills as they are today to Blue for relentlessly crushing me week after week. He was brutal, but he was honest, objective and right.

Hey, I was there too. Have you ever heard any of the songs I recorded before you got here? *shudder*

Now I can take a tongue-lashing as well as most people here; my beef with you, Sober (which you've remedied in your last couple of posts), was that you dropped the abuse, but not the knowledge. The great thing about Blue's reviews was that if he heard potential, he wasn't just abusive; he told us how to get better. We both owe him for that.

So if I sounded defensive, it's only because I can't stand posting to the "Help and How To" forum, only to be blasted for not already knowing what I'm trying to find out. Let's move on, shall we.