We took the opportunity to try out our three favourite ribbon mics on jazz singer Kate Williams whilst she was taking part in our Neumann vocal mic shootout.
This test was female vocals on a bossa nova song, Corcovado by AC Jobim, sung by jazz vocalist Kate Williams. The backing track was provided by www.saltwellstudio.co.uk with the vocals removed from a recent session by Kate. Some spill can be heard as the original session was all recorded in one room.
There are three sections to the video:
Chapters
0:00 Vocals in the mix - some reverb (space designer), compression (Slate), and mastering (Izotope Ozone 7).
01:20 Raw vocals - no treatment
Results:
No surprises for us here, they all sounded fantastic. In comparison with the LDCs (see other test video), all offered a more natural sound that especially works for jazz / bossa. Kate also instantly responded to the sound in her monitor headphones and her delivery was affected by it.
The AEA R84A is our go-to vocal mic for jazz and bossa and it once again proved it’s place at the top of the list, sounding warm but also with clarity in the top end. The Coles was warm as ever but you do have to be mindful (as with all ribbon mics) about proximity effect and require the singer to have good mic technique to get the best from the mic. It was great to try one of our new Extinct Audio BM9s alongside these other two mics, it absolutely held it’s own and sounded fantastic.
Ribbon mics are amazing vocal mics, especially for jazz / bossa but you do have to be careful about air movement (always use a pop filter) and require good vocal technique from the singer.
Recording chain:
- AEA R84A - UA 4-710 (100% trans) - Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 - Mac running Logic
- Coles 4038 - Cloudlifter - UA 4-710 (100% trans) - Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 - Mac running Logic
- Extinct Audio BM9 - Cloudlifter - UA 4-710 (100% trans) - Focusrite Saffire Pro 40 - Mac running Logic
See also the LDC tests: [ Ссылка ] (female vocals) and [ Ссылка ] (male pop vocals)
