Vocals, Vocal Mics, gain, and clipping

Long ago when I first started recording CIC I encountered an issue recording Chuck's vocals. He had a tendency to move around, and not get all the way back to the mic. This resulted in serious volume shifting, which was difficult for a novice engineer like myself to deal with. There is also the proximity effect that is inherent in the Shure SM58 mic that I like. The proximity effect will boost bass frequencies creating a warmer and richer bass sound when the vocalist is very close to the mic. So this creates a very different sounding vocal if the vocalist is moving around.

So rather than jump on Chuck about this all the time, I tried to create a more live mic with lots of gain so that he didn't have to be right up on the mic, and I added a new mic with a wider polar pattern and and Better off-axis response. That means it picks up more stuff around the mic.

Well now I am having more problems that when I started. The wider polar and better off axis-response means more noise on the vocal channel. More gain means more clipping. When you hear the latest CIC session you will note that Chuck's vocals are annoyingly distorted and the amount of noise is so great that I cannot effectively compress, condense or gate the vocal channel.

So once again . . . I leave it pretty raw and loud. Next time we record we will spend some time working with the vocal setup to get it just right, with just enough gain that Chuck doesn't have to eat the mic, but not so much that it picks up the whole room. Stay tuned.