three microphones (perhaps DIY?) for voice overs for three women.

[dandandandandandandan]

Greetings,
I am producing a strange film.
It has three female voices overs.
The film is a moving image plus three characters' voiceovers.
Since these voice-overs are so important I wanted to have a different microphone and preamp for each of the three. To help produce a vibe.
I have been looking at preamps from sound skulptor.
Do you have microphones to suggest?
I have a short list, but would love to hear what the knowledgeable people here at Group DIY have to say.
Thanks in advance!
Dan

 

[Ricardus]

I think at the end of the day if you want a very dramatic difference between the characters, you're not going to be able to achieve it with mics and preamps unless you use a mic like the Carbonphone or something like that.

We all make big deals about the differences between preamps (and gear in general), but once they're in the mix, I doubt anyone would be able to tell you which is which.

I would think using effects and EQ would be the best way to achieve a different vibe for each person. Do some creative sound design.

 

[dandandandandandandan]

I think at the end of the day if you want a very dramatic difference between the characters, you're not going to be able to achieve it with mics and preamps unless you use a mic like the Carbonphone or something like that.

We all make big deals about the differences between preamps (and gear in general), but once they're in the mix, I doubt anyone would be able to tell you which is which.

I would think using effects and EQ would be the best way to achieve a different vibe for each person. Do some creative sound design.

Thank you!

 

[kingkorg]

Thank you!

To add to Ricardus' phenomenal reply, if you go for heavy effects in post, you would want to go for clean, transparent, characterless mic/pre and above all noise free mic. If you stack a lot off effects like distortion, compression, heavy eq you might get noise build up especially if voices have spots where there's no background layer of music, fx...

So maybe something like Neumann's TLM series, or Røde NT1 if you are on budget.

If you absolutely want to analog, DIY-re have some great colour modules.

 

[Icantthinkofaname]

To add to Ricardus' phenomenal reply, if you go for heavy effects in post, you would want to go for clean, transparent, characterless mic/pre and above all noise free mic. If you stack a lot off effects like distortion, compression, heavy eq you might get noise build up especially if voices have spots where there's no background layer of music, fx...

So maybe something like Neumann's TLM series, or Røde NT1 if you are on budget.

If you absolutely want to analog, DIY-re have some great colour modules.

I find the MKH 8050 to be pretty clean (though that might change if you use the low cut and pad module.), and if they need other audio they can use it on location too, plus that extended frequency response and pre that supports it will make the processing a lot more flexible. On a budget for SDCs I'd recommend either the Oktava MK-012, AKG SE300B+ CK93 (or CK91 if just cardioid is needed) Audio Technica AT4053b (the Line Audio CM4 might be a bit wide depending on the environment), all of which are 16-18 dBA of self noise, and I don't find them to have any more noticeable noise than my C414 B-ULS (the preamp noise kicks in before I notice the SDCs being noisier). I don't particularly like shotgun mics on VO but there's also the Rode VideoMic NTG which is pretty quiet and sounds decent (I think the SDCs I mentioned blow it out of the water though), the only drawbacks are the low max SPL of 120 dB and potentially the unbalanced 3.5mm cable having issues with interference, and should their budget permit it there's the Rode NTG3, or they could try to get a used MKH416.

 

[dandandandandandandan]

I find the MKH 8050 to be pretty clean (though that might change if you use the low cut and pad module.), and if they need other audio they can use it on location too, plus that extended frequency response and pre that supports it will make the processing a lot more flexible. On a budget for SDCs I'd recommend either the Oktava MK-012, AKG SE300B+ CK93 (or CK91 if just cardioid is needed) Audio Technica AT4053b (the Line Audio CM4 might be a bit wide depending on the environment), all of which are 16-18 dBA of self noise, and I don't find them to have any more noticeable noise than my C414 B-ULS (the preamp noise kicks in before I notice the SDCs being noisier). I don't particularly like shotgun mics on VO but there's also the Rode VideoMic NTG which is pretty quiet and sounds decent (I think the SDCs I mentioned blow it out of the water though), the only drawbacks are the low max SPL of 120 dB and potentially the unbalanced 3.5mm cable having issues with interference, and should their budget permit it there's the Rode NTG3, or they could try to get a used MKH416.

Thank you!