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I have been having a bit of a nightmare trying to troubleshoot my home vocal recording set up. The problem is distortion from the mic, which seems like it shouldn't be too hard to solve, and yet I can't deliberately avoid it. It's not all the time, but when I happens I can't solve it, I can just come back later.
It very much sounds like the mic being overworked just enough to get a little crackle break up, but the basic solutions to that just don't want to work, or at least not reliably.
Most frustratingly, I don't think the mic is actually the problem. I had the problem on my cheap Behringer XM5800, but I have now replaced it with a Shure SM58 and it still happens exactly the same. The much better mic is not noticably better in this respect.
If I record a take and hear the distortion, then take half a step back it just flatly refuses to fix the problem. I will just get a take that is too quiet to her the distortion, but once amplified to an audible level it's still there. If anything, crowding up on the mic helps more, and certainly doesn't make the problem worse.
I've played with all the various gain and volume knobs I have available too, and it really doesn't seem to make a difference at any stage. In Reaper I hear the distortion whether the incoming signal is at -10dB or -36dB.
It doesn't seem to matter at all whether I get my mic level from the audio interface box, my separate mic pre-amp, or my microphone monitor. Even just going from the mic into the monitor, which has practically no gain, I can hear if the distortion crops up.
All the little tricks like pointing the mic in a slightly different direction don't seem to make a difference, or at least not reliably. Today the Shure did better pointing up at the top of my head, yesterday it wanted to be aimed to my left.
The only reliable solution is "sing quieter" which is, frankly, sub-optimal. I'm recording a demo for a metal band, you know?
Weirdly, screaming so hard I feel feint doesn't seem to cause distortion, not so you'd notice anyway. This problem only shows up in my clean vocals. Yes, only when I'm belting it out, but even so.
The only thing I have yet to look at is echoes and/or resonance - I have a makeshift vocals booth (think blanket fort) and there is no audible echo picked up on the mic. It's possible that only when I'm very loud at specific frequencies (around G5 is where I mostly get the distortion) something slips through, but that's all I've got.
If I might be so direct; what the hell is going on here and how can I fix it?
It very much sounds like the mic being overworked just enough to get a little crackle break up, but the basic solutions to that just don't want to work, or at least not reliably.
Most frustratingly, I don't think the mic is actually the problem. I had the problem on my cheap Behringer XM5800, but I have now replaced it with a Shure SM58 and it still happens exactly the same. The much better mic is not noticably better in this respect.
If I record a take and hear the distortion, then take half a step back it just flatly refuses to fix the problem. I will just get a take that is too quiet to her the distortion, but once amplified to an audible level it's still there. If anything, crowding up on the mic helps more, and certainly doesn't make the problem worse.
I've played with all the various gain and volume knobs I have available too, and it really doesn't seem to make a difference at any stage. In Reaper I hear the distortion whether the incoming signal is at -10dB or -36dB.
It doesn't seem to matter at all whether I get my mic level from the audio interface box, my separate mic pre-amp, or my microphone monitor. Even just going from the mic into the monitor, which has practically no gain, I can hear if the distortion crops up.
All the little tricks like pointing the mic in a slightly different direction don't seem to make a difference, or at least not reliably. Today the Shure did better pointing up at the top of my head, yesterday it wanted to be aimed to my left.
The only reliable solution is "sing quieter" which is, frankly, sub-optimal. I'm recording a demo for a metal band, you know?
Weirdly, screaming so hard I feel feint doesn't seem to cause distortion, not so you'd notice anyway. This problem only shows up in my clean vocals. Yes, only when I'm belting it out, but even so.
The only thing I have yet to look at is echoes and/or resonance - I have a makeshift vocals booth (think blanket fort) and there is no audible echo picked up on the mic. It's possible that only when I'm very loud at specific frequencies (around G5 is where I mostly get the distortion) something slips through, but that's all I've got.
If I might be so direct; what the hell is going on here and how can I fix it?
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