my mics just not crispy enuff.. help a brotha out

I got my focusrite penta/ rode ntk set up to work but it is not sounding too good.

Ive never owned a condenser mic or a preamp so if you guys can give me any advice/tips it would help me alot.

the way i would describe the sound on the vocal w/o any compression is that it is kind of dull,its not sharp, it is not crispy, and all that i was hoping for.
Also i hear what sounds like a little bit of reverb on it, since the mic is sdorta in the middle of my living room which is kinda big it sounds like i have some reverb on it and i dont want that, i want str8 up crispyness.

Should a rode ntk be set upside down or set str8 up?

should i use a trs 1/4 to xlr cable instead of the trs 1/4 to rca cable that i am using from my preamp to my delta 1010 lt soundcard?

should i move my mic some where else? like nearer to a wall, or a corner?


I cant think of anything else that could be wrong!!!!help me out guys, im feenin like a crackhead to finally make a track and this mic is holding me back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's a fairly decent combo you have. I think the dullness that you are hearing is a certain kind of, (for lack of a better word) cleanliness.

If you want to get rid of the reverb, you need to close of the mic from the room. The reverb is probably coming courtesy of your room. Use some acoustic blankets at create a sorta tent around the mic area. That will cut the reflections off of the walls and give your audio the appearance of a dead room. Also add some carpet remnant or a blanket on the floor below the vocalist too.

Crispy??? I'm not sure what you mean, but since you are recording into your computer with a clean signal, you can add whatever crispiness and other stuff to taste after you've recorded it. With a crispy sound, you can't really make that clean.

Peace.

yea im sorryabout the terminology, thats what im looking for a clean sound, no color or nothing. but the feeling that im getting is that the voice is not coming out sharp enough.



someone told me i should wait until 20 minutes that the mic is on to start recording. any other advice is much appreciated

Yeah. The 20 minutes is good idea. That's a tube mic. It has to get warmed up. Make sure your vocalist is not swallowing the mic too. Try the blankets and also try another mic. Borrow a Shure SM57 or SM58. Lots of folks have those. That mic may give you an answer.

Peace.

Isolation, Isolation, Isolation....ect

if you have a small standard closet that you can do without, rip out the clothesline and above shelf, get some eggcrate mattresses, much cheaper and larger than the squares that you buy, line the walls top to bottom, this will not soundproof, but it will isolate the mic into a much smaller space and the eggcrate matresses will dead the bounce of your voice. works good

Also make sure the mic is facing the right direction... Trust me, it happens.

yo, you need to eq your jawn to make it crispy. boost it with a shelf eq around 12k, maybe cut it with a bell eq around 500.

ayo you guys are the shyt... lol i had the mic backwards for one, lol. and secondly I put the mic in a smaller room just close enough that my headphones and the rest of the cables can reach and wow those two things made a big difference. it sounds louder, more clean, the reverb has minimized alot(basically gone).

its still not perfect but im almost there.
thanx alot guys i dont know what id do w/o ya

i glad you got things working, but try using a walkin closet, and using studio foam,,, tak it to the walls and you will have excellent sound. the foam cost about 300 bucks for a whole box....trust me its worth it.

On many vocalists it's not a bad idea to cut out a bunch of low end...pull out your trusty paragraphic eq and experiment, sometimes you'll end up killing everything below 100hz...might give you that crispiness.