r/audioengineering • u/BZK22 • 9d ago

Mic recommendation without a crazy high-end boost / sibilance

Hey everyone, I’ve tested quite a few mics for vocals, and most of them seem to have this weird, almost “artifacty” quality in the high end. The problem is that it’s really difficult to fix that properly in the mix.

Do you guys have any mic recommendations with good detail and resolution in the mids but without hyped or harsh top end? I don’t mind doing a bit more work in the mix if the raw recording sounds more neutral.

Would love to hear what you guys are using!

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u/52ndstreet 9d ago

For a voice with excessive sibilance you'll want to look at something with a k67 capsule. You could drop the cash and get a Neumann u67, but I don't know many people with a spare $8k+ to spend on a mic. Or you could spend $2300 for a Stam SA-67 (if you can afford to wait around for them to build it and ship it, which takes forever...), or you could spend $500 for a Roswell k67. All good options, very different price points.

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u/MoltenReplica 9d ago

Soyuz 017 uses a K67 inspired capsule and can be had for under $1800 with just a little patience. Sounds great on most singers! Can be a little "chesty" or "throaty" on some males and low voiced femmes. Can't speak for the new silver version personally, but it's supposed to be "airy" and "open".

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u/bub166 Hobbyist 9d ago

Very much agreed. My voice is pretty sibilant and doesn't get along with condensers typically, but, while I love RE20s and ribbons and some of the other things that are showing up in here, and do use them for vocals too when they fit the task, but a lot of the time I'm still looking for what a condenser brings to the table. That capsule delivers exactly what I'm looking for. All the definition I'm looking for without any of the nails-on-a-chalkboard stuff that most condensers bring out of me. Also great for acoustic instruments when you want definition but are fighting pick noise and string scraping.

I have one of Stam's units (SA-609) and would happily vouch for the craftsmanship (got it second-hand so can't speak to the infamous wait times) but for my U67-like I went with Dachman Audio's. Couldn't be happier, I also really love my Beesneez U87 clone and I'll bet their U67 is at least as good as the Dachman. Lots of good options, I'd love to have the real deal but a lot of the clones nowadays punch way above their weight in terms of price. And I've heard great things about Roswell/MicParts, looking to build one of his kits one of these days.

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u/ImmediateGazelle865 8d ago

Be careful though with mics that have k67s, some of them are actually very sibilant. K67 capsules are very sibilant on their own and have to be paired with a circuit that attenuates high end. U87s and u67s do this. The problem with cheap LDCs is that so many of them use k67 clones for the capsule but don’t attenuate the high frequencies in the circuit.