Neumann - U 87 Ai

Depends on if you have an original or the 'ai' version. the new ones do suck, but the og's are magic.

Curious about your 87s? Are they original or reissue? Cuz the new 'ai' versions suck on vocal, but the originals are amazing. It's such a difference I'm mad that they didn't change the name. That being said, don't sleep on the 47fet. Take that thing off your kick drum and use it on anything else cuz it slays.

I love mine. What do you think is better for the same price?

I use a Neumann U87ai If I only had £150 --- I'd pick up a 2nd hand AKG C2000b or an ADK Vienna Edition very good quality for the money you'll need phantom power though

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.

U87ai is over priced and overrated

I don’t think it sounds bad rather but there’s mics considerable cheaper that sound just as good. I never use mine but just keep it in the studio cause I know some people think they’re great. I just can’t think of anything I’d use it for before another mic. I don’t mind spending money on a mic - I love my U67’s (my favourite mic) but I think the U87ai is a very boring, overly bright sound that feels too pokey for me. It’s just a fine back up mic if all the others a being used already. Once it’s gone through some tube stuff it sounds much better but I just don’t get the hype at all… Heard a lot of good things about the Soyuz 017s though! Thinking about replacing mine for one of them… the get one sounds great and the tube sounds even better!

If cost isn’t an issue the Neumann U87ai is industry standard for voice work. Neumann also reissued their U 47 FET microphone which is relatively clean and handles big/deep voices very well. I’m a also a big fan of Brauner mics for a cleaner more neutral sound and the Myburgh M1 for a richer “Neumann” flavor. Your technique, vocal delivery, and the sound of your room are as important as the mic. I’d reach out to a reputable dealer where you can try two or three different high-end mics in your space to compare.

I find the TLM 103 downright unbearable in the highs. The U87 Ai can get pretty ruthless on s-sounds too (especially with female voiceover talent). Personally, I’d take the U89 any day. Far more versatile and flattering to the human voice. Many engineers seem to get unsettled by its low-end, probably because modern sound has trained them to equate violence with clarity. The old original U87s can be nice, but every one’s a surprise on it‘s own. God, it’s been a while since I’ve mansplained to fellow sound people on the internet. One does miss it!

With the exception of the U87 I I think all the mics you mentioned should be fine regarding sibilance. If there’s too much sizzle that’s another thing but that’s easily fixed with EQ. My suggestions in order of priority: Technique - easy to experiment with, just repeat a sibilant phrase over and over from different positions til you find the best result Good pop filter - there can often be a decent amount of breath that comes out with some sibilant consonants, grab a dual layer fabric one. Difference between a cheap and good one is $20-$100 so pretty cheap in the overall scheme of things During editing/mixing - instead of lunging at de-essers and eq’s, set up a hot key for clip effects (if your in pro tools, if you’re in another program then figure out the equivalent) and have a few presets for EQ settings that just go on the sibilant parts. Some presets I keep are something like 1) HPF 250hz, -8dB gain 2) -10dB gain 3) HPF 250hz, -8dB @ 2.5khz or 5khz or 7khz As I go through the song I’ll just apply one of these to the waveforms where needed and suddenly you can just EQ for taste and tone rather than trying to chase problems. Gain staging - make sure you aren’t overloading the 1073. Output trim on full, gain reasonable and the the CL1B set your threshold at 0dB and trigger a few dB of gain reduction whenever you go above 0dB What converter are you using? This is the least important part but some converters tend to do weird things to the high end in sibilance, presumably coz of cheap IC’s or something. Can almost always tell when something was done through a Scarlett, to a much lesser degree Apollo’s and even some high end converters can subtly distort the top end in some cases. Someone above me got shat on for suggesting a C800 but I don’t find sibilance to be an issue with that mic. Way too much sizzle but that’s all around the 10-12khz region and above the sibilance. The sibilance will come through loud with that mic but it’s clean so easy to attenuate and de-ess. Not usually my first choice but if an artist insists on it then I’m happy to throw it up there. Also try a Manley Gold, or a high end U47/M49/C12 clone (Telefunken USA, Wunder, Flea etc not bullshit like Warm Audio etc). Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

I have U87ai and use for clean vocals mainly. It can get a bit hard in mid range depending on vocalist. I don’t really Use it for much more than vocals. I do agree it’s not the holy grail, but what truely is? Use what you like that gets you the results you like. So many mics these days and lots of cheap good ones.

Pro here working at a top-ten studio with over 200k in microphones. I use the U87 set Ai and even vintage U87 for roughly half of my vocal sessions. Its a bit of a Swiss Army mic. If you can't make a U87 work for your vocals, you have bigger problems than your mic. It is not over hyped in the highs or scooped in the low-mids. It's a fairly vanilla mic all things considered but with minimal preamp eq or DAW eq, you should be able to get a natural balanced tone out of most vocals and instruments. Proximity is the key determining factor when used commonly in cardioid.