Straight forward shoot out

[Bristol_Jonesey]

Neumann TLM102

Shure SM7B

Primarily for female vocals

Which gets your vote, and why.

[OutrageProductions]

TLM 102 hands down for clarity & presence if used with a spit screen. I'd take a large diaphragm condenser any day for sung vocals, either gender.

Proximity effect on a SM7b is great for broadcast male & spoken word (which is why it is the standard at so many radio & podcast) applications.

[mettelus]

52 minutes ago, OutrageProductions said:

I'd take a large diaphragm condenser any day for sung vocals, either gender.

^^That is pretty much it. Also bear in mind that you can rotate a condenser to remove some of the sibilant content if that is an issue.

The reason the SM7B has less proximity effect is simply because the screen forces a longer standoff range to the element. It also does not have a transformer internally, so needs to be plugged into a good pre-amp.

[Jim Roseberry]

If you're looking to capture nuance/detail, then there is no debate.  TLM is a much better choice.

 

If you're working in a room with less than ideal acoustics... the SM7B will capture far less of the room.

This is why so many YouTube videos have folks using SM7B mics.

 

If the singer really belts... the SM7B can be the better choice.

 

 

[Byron Dickens]

I think that Michael Jackson was recorded with an SM7.

[OutrageProductions]

@Byron Dickens; MJ used a Sony C800-G almost exclusively, carrying one with him to every session. Bruce Swedien turned him on to it. I always had to rent one in as a spare when he came in.

[Byron Dickens]

Ah ha. Maybe he used one previously.  Could be bad info.

 

😱The price on that sucker!

[OutrageProductions]

2 minutes ago, Byron Dickens said:

😱The price on that sucker!

Not to say that he didn't get stuck on a lesser mic at some point, but from 'Thriller' onwards, it was pretty much the Sony.
IIRC, the C800-G was very nearly the MOST expensive mic on the market when it first came out, even more than U47's and early C12's. Before they became collectors items, anyway.

[HOOK]

Bruce talking about Michael using the SM7.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56ASws38Hxw

[John Vere]

I know this thread is old but I’ll toss in my experience with the SM7b for future information.  
I bought the SM7 to do the tutorials because It does work perfectly for narration recording. And I like that I can mount it on the swing arm. 

It failed me as a vocal mike. I am back to using my Beta 58.  I have always had best results with the Beta. I have no luck with LDC mikes with my voice. Im noisy. 

And I was told the SM7b has the same element as the Beta. Possibly so but because I it doesn’t have an internal pre amp you have to crank you interfaces pre amp to almost max. This of course introduced more noise floor. 

So save yourself $300 and by a Beta 58 if you want a good Dynamic mike. It actually sounds better than the 7b. It just doesn’t look as cool. 
 

[mettelus]

1 hour ago, John Vere said:

It just doesn’t look as cool. 

Or you could buy an SM7B foam windscreen separately and stick it on the end. Then just tailor the video so no one can see the rest of the mic!

[Jim Roseberry]

Shure recently released the SM7dB... which has an onboard preamp (like a Cloud-Lifter).

This allows much healthier levels... without cranking your mic preamp (which may get noisy at higher gain settings).

 

If you have a higher-end outboard preamp, you likely don't need a Cloud Lifter or the SM7dB.

These preamps are usually much cleaner at higher gain settings.

 

The wife is on the local Classic-Rock morning show.

Sometimes the station needs a VO recorded... after she's left work.

Instead of her having to drive back across town, I grabbed SM7b, RE20, RE320 mics (already had Neve preamps).

For station VOs, I like to use the RE20. 

The tone of her voice sounds better than using the SM7b.

The RE320 sounds similar to the RE20... but with more of a presence boost.

The RE20 is more flat... giving the production engineer more room to EQ.

 

[John Vere]

7 hours ago, mettelus said:

Or you could buy an SM7B foam windscreen separately and stick it on the end. Then just tailor the video so no one can see the rest of the mic!

That’s to funny. The SM7 comes with an extra outside windsock. It fits perfectly on the Beta

[Starship Krupa]

On 11/24/2023 at 8:45 AM, Jim Roseberry said:

This is why so many YouTube videos have folks using SM7B mics.

I rather suspect that at this point in time, the reason so many YouTube videos have folks using SM7B mics is because so many YouTube videos have folks using SM7B mics. 😏

Which is neither to say that they are not superior mics for spoken work nor to invalidate the idea of using industry standard equipment. It's just that they are a path of least resistance for would-be YouTube talking heads and podcasters. This person who is doing what I want to do uses THIS critical bit of gear, so I'll get one too.

The other option would be to try out a bunch of mics to see which one sounds the best with your voice, but that is a more difficult path, deciding which mics to audition, where to find those mics, how to audition them....just get a 7B and 7B done with it. Plug it into your Scarlett Solo or 2i2 and you'll have a hardware chain capable of any level VO task (after which the next frontier is working on the recording environment).

I watched a YouTube video the other day of some guy testing (IIRC) an old Shure Beta Green vocal mic for VO. He hated it because among other stated reasons, it had a problem with picking up plosives. I got the idea that he had learned the word "plosives" in the last week or so and wanted to take it out for a spin. He had the obligatory SM7B-on-a-boom behind him and was eating the poor Beta Green, straight into the end, lips within an inch of the grill. If he had taken the huge foam rubber ball from the SM7B and stuck it on the Beta Green, his plosive issues would have vanished. Not surprisingly, he also thought the mic was boomy. I didn't see his technique with the 7B but my guess is that he speaks across the diaphragm at an angle rather than straight into the end. Most YT 7B users I see speak into them at an angle, probably so the camera can see their faces, and I don't doubt that speaking into the mic in that off-axis way helps it to sound "clearer" than other mics.

Disclosure: my vary favorite snare batter mic (and I have tested multiple of the industry leaders in that category) is a Beta Green 3.1 (similar in features to an SM48 in that it looks like a 58 with a mute switch). That thing has so much off-axis rejection that my snare recordings after I started using it need much less gating to keep out the hi hat bleed. I think I paid $6 for it at the local Salvation Army. I am predisposed against those who would make sport of lower end gear, as so much of sound recording is about placement and the environment the mic is placed in.

I generally like cheap unsung "sleeper" mics. My preferred kick batter mic is a Peavey 580i dynamic "vocal" mic that a friend gave me (he wasn't using it). When I first checked it out, I gave it the "hey check one TWO" test and my voice sounded like it was coming out of a Marantz receiver tuned to an FM station and driving a nice pair of Advents in 1974. I had hunch that if it sounded like a classic FM jock talk mic that I should try it on kick, and I was right, by golly. It has also fought off some tough challengers costing multiple times its original sale price. My search for the best mics in those categories long since ended. And I am a gear hound. If I thought there were better mics for my application I would get them.

[John Vere]

The reason you speak on an angle is the friggin thing is big and you can't read your script!  But yes if you talk directly into it is very plosive. That's with the built in sock that I've never tried to remove. The extra sock makes it look vey uncool and I assumed it was for outdoor use as that's what it looks like. 

I used my Beta for narration for the first year of making videos with no issue but I did put a cheapo clown nose wind sock on it. 

I use the SM 7B for scratch vocals which I do sitting in front of the computer as you see above in the screen shot. But for the final serious, get down to it takes, I stand up and use the Beta with a proper vocal windscreen in front of it. I try and go for 4" as the closest I get. I also have to get away from my CPU which has a tiny bit of fan noise.