This weekend I had a gig and forgot the T1 power cord so I went straight from my vocal mic into a TC Helicon G and then the Compact.
Not for the first time, I noticed much better vocal sound than running through the G and into the T1. I don’t know exactly why this would be, but the vocals are stronger sounding and clearer to me.
I’ve decided to go this route in the future. I will still run the guitar and any backing tracks through a T1. I’m guessing I’ll have to set the vocal and work the volume through the T1 for the guitar and any tracks off of the volume of the vocal, since I’ll lack a quick adjustment of the vocal level.
That is interesting.
This past sunday morning i noticed that there was a champagne brunch thing going on at the neighborhood clubhouse - so I popped in to hear the band. It was a jazz trio (drums, guitar and upright - with backline) and a female lead vox singing through a Compact (direct - no T1).
This was the first time i had ever heard vocals through a Compact (I had heard a muso on the street in San Fran - playing sax through one - sounded great). While it was a clear Bose like sound that I am used to - I thought it really lacked guts. It just seemed so thin compared to what I am used to hearing from the Model 1 and 2 (with or without T1 in the M1 case).
The vocalist is a university trained singer (and the backing band were all topshel jazz fellows) - so the problem was not her, per se. Not being familiar with the Compact - I was wondering what they could have done wrong to make it sound so thin - or even if a T1 would have been helpful to her.
Surely the Compact can be made to sound good - or so many of you would not be big fans. I now wonder what they were doing wrong.
Hey Sundog,
I use and love using a Compact for most of my gigs.Although I have a Classic and a Model II as well,I prefer the Compact for smaller gigs.What I have noticed is if a guest singer comes up and doesn’t eat the mic,it does sound very thin,but get right up on it,and it becomes full and warm.It maybe a lack of mic technique,or channel eq settings.To me,a female singer always sounds thin versus a man.A soundmans nightmare is a singer that keeps backing away from a mic as (s)he turns them up to keep them in the mix.
quote:Originally posted by J.D. Puente:
Hey Sundog,
I use and love using a Compact for most of my gigs.Although I have a Classic and a Model II as well,I prefer the Compact for smaller gigs.What I have noticed is if a guest singer comes up and doesn't eat the mic,it does sound very thin,but get right up on it,and it becomes full and warm.It maybe a lack of mic technique,or channel eq settings.To me,a female singer always sounds thin versus a man.A soundmans nightmare is a singer that keeps backing away from a mic as (s)he turns them up to keep them in the mix.
IMO she had good mic technique. I am a mic eater so I tend to notice these things. The thinness was definitely not due to air between her and the mic. The vocals were plenty loud - i just suspect that the product was not real representative of her voice.
I would wager that she'd sound off the charts through a Model 1 or 2 via a T1. She may even sound great through a properly adjusted Compact.
I don't think it was the singer. I suspect that something was mal-adjusted or in the vey least not optimized.
Also - I did not recognize her mic - so that is something worth suspecting. It never fails to amaze me how little thought people put into chosing a vocal mic that suits them.
I own a Classic too but haven’t used it in quite a while. Not sure what experience I would have.
The one thing I know for sure, skipping the T1 and going vocal into a TC G and into the Compact sounds fantastic!
Somewhere in the chain for the vocal, the T1 seems to adversely affect the sound. The guitar and tracks sound great. I’ve tried multiple settings, including a flat vocal setting.
Wayne
quote:The vocalist is a university trained singer...so the (thin vocal) problem was not her, per se. Surely the Compact can be made to sound good - or so many of you would not be big fans. I now wonder what they were doing wrong.
Hi Sundog,
A while back a friend and forum member, Baby Blue Eyes and his quartet used my Compact in a venue with known bad acoustics.
He has excellent mic technique, and has been a Classic L1 owner/user for many years.
This day, he sounded thin, terrible, and the band was freaking out.
We tried all manner of EQ/volume adjustments but it never came out of it completely.
(We did not physically move the Compact, maybe we should have).
In other rooms the Compact has sounded absolutely fantastic for him.
So, it can just be "the room".
I think the same can be said for any L1.
There was a gig, a gym, where our vocals fell flat, about 20' out.
We played that gym numerous times, and setting up about 10' out from the middle of the short wall,
playing toward the length of the room was only time we failed.
Usually we sat up on a long wall, about 30' from a corner, closer to the middle of the gym, and tight against the wall.
When setting up, the first inclination is to direct the center of the speaker toward the audience. All of the L1s have very wide dispersion and it is not always neccessary to aim the center of the speaker to the heart of the audience. In this case 30 to 40 % of the dispersion pie is directed at the wall. Just guessing, reflections might have cause interference that would affect sound quality.
In a situation like this I would have moved the Compact one window closer to me (the singer) and aimed the speaker center 90 degrees from the wall and let the wide dispersion work for me.
O…
quote:Originally posted by Drumr:
So, it can just be "the room".
I think the same can be said for any L1.
I agree that the room matters. In this case - I've had my M2/B1/T1 set up in there before and it sounded awesome. Here is a picture of my son belting out some Karaokee at a Baby Shower for his wife:
The M2 was set up on the mirror image side of the room from where the compact was.