This thread got me curious about trying out different vocal mics:
Since I have a pristine Sure Beta 52a kick drum mic in my possession that hasn’t seen action for many years, I decided to give it a go on vocals.
I figured that since it is a large diaphragm dynamic mic with a super-cardiod pickup pattern, in some ways similar to the SM7b, the RE20 and other “broadcast” mics, I thought it might work on vocals in a similar way.
Here is a clip I just tracked last night. Apart from a high pass filter on the mic preamp, this has no other eq processing - just some compression for dynamic control:
…think I might have found a new go-to vocal mic in the most unlikely place!
I’m listening to this through my tiny iPad speakers but it sounds quite good. I’m wondering if the kick mic might be good at filtering out some of that hyped up high end air that we get with the standard condensers that are sold as vocal mic’s, acoustic guitar mic’s, or drum overhead mic’s. I’m also curious to know if the kick mic adds some lower frequency thickness or lustre that might be missing from the typical large condenser vocal mic. I might have to test this out with my crappy Samson kick drum mic.
If you can get a mic to make a vocal sound so tonally-full through the low-mids like that, devoid of any real processing, the only way’s up imo.
The darker tone feels perfect for this gritty rock vibe.
Cool tune, interested to hear more.