Trying to get a new mic

[Wordz AhGod.]

ok, so I have an ST55 Class A Cond. mic that I am using with my PT 8 + MBOX 2. I have a pretty open room that allows for natural reverb during recording sessions.. I use some basic pluggins and shit to get a good sound. Here's my issue.. you know how artist like "tiger, Kanye, Jay Z, Drake" always record with little to absolutely no overdubs or adlibs because it sounds so nice and clear, and the beat is perfectly fitted to where it is not over powering the vocals and the vocals don't seem to be upped higher then it needs to be just for this.. Id like to know what do I need to do or get to make this happen? I even notice this on youtube videos too.. a lot of the tracks recorded sound so clear even when it looks like they do it live... help please..

[framework]

well, that "sound" you're talking about has so many different factors.

- an amazing (really expensive) microphone.
- an amazing (really expensive) preamp.
- properly treated vocal booth.
- grammy award winning engineer.
- and of course, a good artist.
- etc...

engineer's hate a "fix-it-in-the-mix" approach.
which means that "sound" basically sounds like that right off the bat.
when you're working with "million-dollar" studio equipment, you don't have to do much to the raw recorded files (besides making it sit-in-the-mix).

i hope that explains it

[Big Question]

@ wordz

Actually a lot of artists use loads of overdubs and stacks, they just dont sound obvious to you beacuse they are mixed nicely, also your listening environment is probably not up to par. its not as simple as doing 5 overdubs and get a magic sound.

i have a gt55 mic which is the same as your st55 and due to moving house ive not had chance to use it yet, but from the quick test run i gave it did come across quite dark on my voice.


The main problem youre dealing with (im asuming) is you are trying to fit a vocal into a pre mixed instrumental, the reason commercial artists vocals sound clean and pesent is because they are mixed with the instruments before bouncing to a stero file, you cant ever get near that quality doing what youre doing, you can try to carve the beat with eq cutting at the freqencys your vocal occupys. (around 3k is a good start) a spectrum analysis plug would be usefull here. To get the next step in quality you want to get your beats tracked out and mix from their.

if you already are using tracked out beats then its just a case of improving your mixing skills and upgrading your gear if possible

[MoretimeProd]

well, that "sound" you're talking about has so many different factors.

- an amazing (really expensive) microphone.
- an amazing (really expensive) preamp.
- properly treated vocal booth.
- grammy award winning engineer.
- and of course, a good artist.
- etc...

engineer's hate a "fix-it-in-the-mix" approach.
which means that "sound" basically sounds like that right off the bat.
when you're working with "million-dollar" studio equipment, you don't have to do much to the raw recorded files (besides making it sit-in-the-mix).

i hope that explains it

couldnt add much more to that^^

plus, isnt Jay-Z kinda "freestyling" his lyrics anyway? That'd be impossible to overdub.