This week has been interesting. Not at all as busy with voice work, but with other things. Some things related to the “business”, some not. 

It was the first week working inside the new sound booth. Plenty of auditions and smaller bread & butter jobs. Plenty of time spent marketing and mailing, social networking, community work, developing a new logo and outreach campaign, and awaiting patiently a new Neumann TLM 193 microphone, which finally arrived last night. The mic’s arrival was of immense importance, and cause for giddy celebration.

This mic was recommended to me by some studio engineers at the very successful Studio West  in San Diego which has been around a long time. The discussion began a few weeks ago after a recording session in which I used a Neumann U87i, long considered the best microphone for voice over work. Of course, this mic comes with a high price tag, of anywhere from $1500 for a used one to close to $3800 new, retail.

When I asked what might sound good with a female voice in the Neumann family of mics, the engineer geeks told me that the TLM 103, while it is a fraction of the price, they highly regarded the TLM 193 as the next best thing to the U87.  All feature the large diaphram capsule that brings forth that incredible, close, warm sound, with a sensitive wide ranging dynamic frequency response.

The U87’s sound fantastic with most male voices,  I was told.  I didn’t particularly think my voice sounded that exceptional with that mic. But  I learned the king of condenser microphones can leave some female voices somewhat flatttened,  and without mid-range unless it is processed, they told me.  They regarded the 103 “the poor man’s U87”, and it is a good mic ($500-900), – yea  sure—-“poor” – by who’s standards!

They considered the 193 a bit closer to the U87 in  polar response,  circuitry construction and durability, but with a wider dynamic to capture the essential tones of the female voice, with little signal processing.  I think retail for the 193 is around $1899- So I won an ebay auction and actually received  fabulous 2 mics for well under $1000.  The other was a Rode NT1A, a fine mic in its own right. So now I have a total of 4. (MSRP on the Rode is 229.95) I know a successful voice guy who says he has 100 mics! It’s a collector’s passion, for sure.

So next week will entail some experimentation and getting accustomed and acquainted with my new “Mr. Mic”, and the Rode, too. Think I ALSO better start selling some more stuff on ebay to afford this “gear jones” I’ve developed!