Neumann - U 47

I finally pulled the trigger on a vintage U47 telling my wife exactly that, this’ll be the last one because there’s nowhere to go from here… until the guy I bought it from is also selling a vintage C12, FML

Fortunately, I’m in a position where I get to tell the artist which vocal mic we’re using. I work some high caliber artists that trust me to get the sound they want, so 99% of them have no opinion on what mic we use for anything (although I did have one huge artists tell me recently she wanted to sing into an SM7 over my U47). For vocals, it’s U47, c12, u67, m49, Sony c-800, or an SM7 (which of course I got the OG 1970’s one).

My U47 sounds great on probably 50 of singers. Works particularly well on low voices and people Who don’t sing loud. Any high SPL and it falls apart. The UM70 however works on everyone. We have four of them because they’re so useful.

87s already very hard to get right. i despise the 87uis, and never heard an 87 i liked to record with til i got to use a real vintage one. even then i preferred a 67 or 47. I think moreso the 87 is the outlier here because the wa251 is amazing too. dont expect it to be a full 251 sound but if u supplement it itb you can achieve the same sound. which is the purpose of WA mics. get you as close as you can in your budget then supplement from there. also for the youngsters i think its a great way to familiarize yourself with “mic sounds” on a budget. Need to go in knowing its not the real thing but very few get to work with a c800g, vintage 47, or anything above 10k without having great working knowledge.

I got an old 67 and a really old 47 and I love them. BUT, I wouldn't use them for audiobooks. They're both too, big sounding. For big up front vocals or announcer style commercial spots they are the best. U87 all day for audiobooks.

Truth? It’s often a grey area until you get to compare a neumann u47 with any other mike. As far as affordablr mikes go, yeah there’s a noticable difference between a decent and a ‘good’ mike. Not just for audio nerds. It pays to invest in good mikes.

Yeah. I’ve done a lot of studio work and they are almost never used. 414s are way more popular. FET47 is the real go to for that kind of mic. When you have access to KM86s, 54s, U47s, etc. the 87 doesn’t leave the drawer very often.

There’s no magic mic out there that’ll solve it, a U67 or even U47 might get you a bit closer - I guess you’ve tried with your mics plugged directly into your soundcard so you can hear how your voice sounds with no additional processing? If it does still sound toppy then maybe some post EQ processing or even something like Soothe 2 to (very) gently tamp the sibilance down is what’s needed. If the mic plugged in vanilla isn’t boosting your HF then you know it’s some combination of the 1073/CL1B and might be saturation or something in those units that’s accentuating the highs - could you try rolling off a little HF on the 1073? Are you using any form of pop filter? The Hakan pop filters are quite good at being transparent but helping to mitigate issues.

Hard to narrow down, but here’s 5+ mics I like more: Voiceover: TLM49 or TLM103 depending on the voice ADR: Schoeps CMIT 5U, MKH416, Cos11d Music (vocals): C12 (or any of the C12-inspired mics), SM7b, U47 tube or fet, and then completely out of my price range but of course a great mic is the Sony C800G

If it’s a commercial for rent studio, the minimum I’m looking for is: A U-47 or high end tube mic inspired by the 47, A pair of U-87’s, a pair of 414’s, a few KM-184/C-451 small diaphragm condensers, 4 MD-421’s, a few flavors of kick drum mics, at least one pair of nice ribbon mics, a half dozen each of 57’s/58’s.

A 47 or 67 has clarity, but the tube smooths it out. I agree that more could possibly be done with mic placement. I also wonder how the CL1B is set because that also smooths highs. Sibilance can be affected by performance, so perhaps an adjustment can be made there as well. The type of pop filter and its distance can make a difference, too.