One of my favorite interviews on the David Barrett blues site is with Joe Filisko. He extols the virtues of ribbon microphones for voice and acoustic harp.
Tin Lizzie, I can't find it anywhere. I tried a quick Google search but the only result that looked promising had been taken down for copyright infringement and between the pay wall and the kind of confusing layout of his site I can't find it. :(
Oh well, without ear training and something to compare it too I can't make too much of a judgement, but the Billie Holiday clip really has a nice sound to it, but that could just be Billie Holiday!
hmmm. I must have seen it during that trial month when I subscribed to blues harmonica. The interviews were what interested me on the site. I tried to get David Barrett to offer a subscription for just the interviews, but I think he was insulted. Not my intent. Anyway here are the notes I took about Filisko said.
Beyerdynamics M160 double ribbeon microphone is what he recommended for voice and acoustic harp. Draw backs to it are expense and fragility, as I remember.
Dynamic mics are moderately good and condensor mics have the worst sound for this purpose.
Shure SM57 and Shure SM58 are examples of the dynamic type.
That interview with Joe Filisko made me fall in love with him. He is so excited about the harmonica and sharing what he knows. ----------
@Tin Lizzie - thanks for highlighting that Filisko interview. I just watched it. Another thing he says - his challenge is making sure the single mic is eq'd flat or a bit brighter so that EQ doesn't muddy his vocal. Conversely, he is very sensitive about using his hands to get the beefiest sound possible to avoid the shrillness of the harmonica. He talks about using a good cup below the low end of the harmonica and he exposes the high end. That's how he balances the vocals and the harmonica going into the same mic. That's the gist of the interview. Elsewhere, I've heard Howard Levy recommend the Sennheiser 440.
Last Edited by on Jan 11, 2011 3:56 PM
ribbon mics are great. I have a beyerdynamic M500. It is a performance mic that was built to take the abuse of being used at live gigs. I have read that Sinatra amoung others were big fans of the M500. They still can be had fairly cheap if you keep your eye out. I used it for a long time for my vocals/harp in my studio. The problem I found was it would do a great job on each individually but not at the same time. Other than top Neuman and such mics, finding a mic/preamp combo that will capture the voice and acoustic off the mic harp at the same time is tough. The voice basically loves the highs and the harp hates them. I have since gone to a Michael Joly modified Oktava MK 219 LCD. This mic does a great job of finding middle ground on the 2 and I am not going nuts trying to eq the track to where both sound ok. Michael is a big supporter of my music and he set this one up for me with special mojo. The M500 still sees use on my guitar amp and snare drum. Walter ---------- walter tore's spontobeat - a real one man band and over 1 million spontaneously created songs and growing. I record about 300 full length cds a year. " life is a daring adventure or nothing at all" - helen keller
