Best vocal mics used by pro Nashville engineers & producers

Back in mid May I went to Nashville for the very 1st time & attended a 2 day audio recording conference called Mix Nashville 2012 sponsored by Mix Magazine. This is an annual event featuring 2 days of expert panels & pro audio exhibits. The panels consisted of top notch engineers, super hot producers & studio heads etc. As a singer/songwriter with a home studio I was interested in picking up as many tips as possible to bring my engineering & production skills to a higher level & I was more than pleased with what I came away with.

One of the 1st & best things you can do for your home studio is invest in 1 or 2 pieces of the highest quality gear you can afford. Of course, the 1st & most important gear in your chain is a good mic & preamp. I’m not going to go into all the gear specs but I will tell you what I heard from the various expert panel members.

The most frequently asked question from audience members was, "What are your favourite go to mics & preamps" for vocal sessions. So, today I'll focus on mics & here are the mics that were referred to in the various sessions:
Neumann U67, Shure SM7B, Neumann U87, Sony C800G & the ubiquitous SM57. The Sony C800G is hugely expensive at around $11,000 but apparently amazing. Check out Alison Krauss’s new breath taking song Paper Airplane where she used the Sony. But, & here comes the Mix Nashville nugget, the most mentioned “go to” mic emphasized by every producer & engineer in every session was the SM7B. This is a popular dynamic broadcast mic with a flat, wide range frequency response perfect for close mic’d vocals or sung vocals. It requires a preamp with at least 60-70 db of gain, more than average. Michael Jackson used an SM7B on his Thriller album. The good news is it's very affordable at $349.

OK, so there you have it for mics. Next time I’ll talk about Nashville's favourite preamps.

Cheers,

Ron

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