the NT1-A is a good all-rounder, budget mic. I've found that for all female vocals I've done it is too bright, on the point of being harsh. The girl who has sung most for us recently has a high voice which comes out thin and harsh in the rode. Ribbon or tube mics seem to suit her best (but alas, we dont have a tube to keep
). But I still use the NT1-A at home for my vocals, backing vocals that need to be airy and sometimes as a 2nd guitar mic...
Why choose a condenser over a dynamic (like your shure mic):
- Condenser mics have a much flatter and broader frequency response than a dynamic mic, meaning they more accurately capture whatever noise is going on. All the little nuances you make while singing will be picked up by the condenser whereas a dynamic might miss them.
- Condenser mics are much more sensitive and so can easily handle soft vocals and capture large changes in dynamics.
Very basically a condenser mic is a metal diaphragm which acts as one end of a capacitor. This vibrates when sound waves hit it, causing the size of the capacitor to change (the other end of the capacitor is fixed). Introduce a voltage to the circuit and the changing capacitor will give fluctuations in the voltage. The diaphragm is a very thin metal disc (looking at the NT1-A in the light it is quite easy to see it). As this is very light, the sound waves have to do very little work to move it, explaining it's sensitivity and linearity. Of course, as it needs a voltage across to create the changes in voltage (
), it requires a power source ('phantom' power), which most preamps provide.
A dynamic mic has a small frequency response that is not very linear. It also has large areas of rejection (you have to be directly in front of a dynamic and pretty close to it for it to pick you up clearly). It also works with a diaphragm, but this time the diaphragm is pushing a magnet in a wire coil (thus inducing the changing current, which explains why dynamics don't need power). This heavier configuration means the sound waves have to do more work to generate a response, making it less sensitive (and harder to move if you are talking at it from the side, for example).
I remember that wiki had a great image comparing the freq. response of a condenser and a dynamic mic, I'll try to find it.
Dynamic mics are pretty good for loud/rock vocals as they can handle much more noise than a condenser (which is why you should never use a condenser for live music). The vox on the Thriller album were done with a SM57 I believe.
Preamps also affect the sound, but less than a mic. As a rule of thumb, the further down the signal chain you get, the less that has an effect on the sound. I.E the singer and the room has the biggest effect, then the mic, then the preamp (then the converters but they are fairly negliglbelbelilgie. you've gotta be a pretty hardcore audiophile to start comparing them).
