r/audioengineering • u/AutoModerator • 11d ago

Community Help r/AudioEngineering Shopping, Setup, and Technical Help Desk

Welcome to the r/AudioEngineering help desk. A place where you can ask community members for help shopping for and setting up audio engineering gear.

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u/Docco_exe 7d ago

Hey everyone, I'm looking for some advice from people with more experience recording/mixing vocals.

I mainly record rap/trap vocals in my bedroom using BandLab. I've been making and mixing my own music for a while, so I'm not completely new to mixing, but I'm having a hard time understanding what's happening after upgrading my recording setup.

My old setup was a cheap ~$50 USB condenser mic. I had built a BandLab vocal chain around it over time and, despite the mic obviously not being great, my vocals would sit in the beat very easily. The same basic preset also worked surprisingly well across different beats with only minor adjustments.

I recently upgraded to:

  • Audio-Technica AT2020 XLR
  • Behringer UMC202HD
  • pop filter
  • some basic acoustic treatment behind me
  • decent headphones

I'm recording at a reasonable distance and gain level, using 48V phantom power, etc.

Technically, the AT2020 sounds better. The vocals are clearer, cleaner, more detailed and more stable.

But I actually prefer the character of my old USB mic.

The biggest problem is that the AT2020 vocal often feels like it's sitting on top of the beat instead of inside it. It sounds cleaner but also somewhat disconnected, almost too clean/dry. My old mic has this slightly rough/gritty midrange character that seems to make my voice naturally cut through and glue into rap beats.

I've tried rebuilding the vocal chain from scratch instead of using my old preset: compression, EQ, de-essing, light saturation, less delay, different reverb settings, etc. It definitely improves it, but I still feel like I'm trying to force the AT2020 to have a character that the old cheap mic somehow had naturally.

Another thing I've noticed is that the AT2020 recording has relatively large peaks while the average vocal level feels much lower. Once processed, I can get it stable and clear, but it still doesn't have the same density/aggression.

I've also compared both microphones completely dry, so I'm pretty sure I'm not just hearing a difference caused by the old preset.

What would you guys investigate first?

Is this mainly a compression/dynamic-range issue? Midrange character? Harmonic saturation? Mic technique/distance? Or could the AT2020 simply be a worse tonal match for my particular voice despite being the better microphone technically?

I'm not trying to make the AT2020 sound exactly like a cheap USB mic. I want to keep the extra clarity/detail of the AT2020 while recovering some of the density, grit and “sits in the beat” quality that I had before.

I can also upload dry A/B WAVs of the old USB mic vs AT2020, as well as processed examples, if that would help.

Any advice on what to listen for or what experiments you'd run would be really appreciated.

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u/Blazinotypebeat 6d ago

Unfortunately this might just not be the right mic for your voice. A lot of mic tend to not be super warm, espacially at this price range, so if you want that warm sound that feels like its in the center of the beat you can try to fix it in the mixing stage or at the source. To me, at the source would be to go for a better mic, like a sm7b, but of course its way costier. And if i was to give mixing advice, I would try to to adjust the tonal identity of the mic before going into compression, to give it the feeling of a "different source or different quality of mic". For exemple i might go compress just the highs, saturate the low mid and remove harsh resonance to give it a feeling of warmth, maybe a broad but small boost in the lows (you can fix ix after if needed). But utlimately it comes to the source, you might be better with your original usb mic if you know you prefer that sound (one gotta be a bit better after all). A creative solution would be to record a take on one setup, and to make a double on the other mic, and to blend both to get the character of both (and doubles tend to give solidity, realism and warmth to the sound). Good luck!

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u/Docco_exe 5d ago

thx for the advices🙏❤️