condensor mic and eq

[kip4]

I was always taught not to hardware eq at the input stage when recording.
Haveing said that i have a cheap and nasty Behringer C1 condensor mic and when recording it picks up really well on the top frequancies and reflections so i decided to experiment and eq a little on the mixer thats providing the mics phantom power and i found that by adding just a couple of db of the mid frequancies it didnt sound so harsh
i know this cannot be undone once the recording is done but i think i get a much more natural sound
please dont have a go cause i only have limited resources to buy equipment and do the best that i can with what i have
i was just wondering if anyone else does this or should i stop now and reconsider.
thanks in advance  for any help you can provide

[stainless]

while it's generally recommended to have as simple a signal chain as possible,

before plug-ins,  back "in the day" it was quite common to use EQ, comp, (and sometimes reverb or a tape loop) on tracks on the input signal chain

I still use EQ, or compression on the signal chain if I'm familiar with the artist and the gear being used. I have a pair of old Altec 31 band active EQ's that I slap in the chain.

For myself, I'm stronger at ~ 1.25K so I'll cut slightly, but at ~800 I'm a bit weak, so I'll boost there, and because the tube mic picks up a lot of "room" I'll cut everything below 160- If I'm using the A-T E3300, I'll use the lo freq roll-off built into the mic instead of the EQ cuts down low

I have a female singer who just blurts out really noticeably ~2.5K on the ribbon mic

another friend who's nasally and sounds especially thin above 3K, so he gets a boost regardless of what mic I use on him

In all three cases the same set-up with person is used and the adjustments seems to eliminate the distractions (each of us is aware of where the trouble freqs are for us)

as to the C1, is it just your voice that the mids sound harsh in, or most any use with the mic.? I've not seen a curve for that mic, but perhaps there is a boost inherent to the mic at those ranges...
OR it could be placement in the room (reflections/standing waves)
or- for that matter could be an artifact of the pre-amp

and there's always using a splitter and taking a dry track- signal level may diminish slightly but may not be enough to warrant concern beyond boosting the gain slightly

[kip4]

mainly female singers and some acoustic guitars sound harsh in the 1 to 10khz range and
you might have a point about the standing waves that would make sense as my sound proofing and acoustic treatment is rudimentary to say the least and leaves a lot to be desired. as mentioned before i'm on a tight budget. but in time i want to change that as the room is still quite lively.
i eliminate some of it by close mic'ing and using a custom built reflexion shield that attaches to the mic stand  (my brother inlaw is a welding fabricator and did me proud)
the shield and sound proofing can be seen in my slide show videos on you tube as posted in the post your work here dept
if this is helping let me know as further suggestions are very welcome
thanks 

[stainless]

1 - 10K is a pretty big range... and I'd hope your room doesn't have that many acoustic issues

Is the C1 cardioid? (curious)- is it in a shock mount?

try turning 90° in the room...  or if no acoustic treatment, place a heavy blanket few cm off the wall on one of the rooms short walls (assuming it's not a perfect square) facing away from the blanketed wall place the mic and try one side/corner, mifddle, other side corner and see if any one spot tends to improve the broad range of harsh sounding freqs

next- if you can get the top of the mic off, often they have multiple layers of screen... see if you can remove one (or 2 if there's 3 layers)- this seems to benefit a great many of the less expensive mics

[kip4]

the room is 10 x 11 feet
and has a 6'x4' window on one wall,  opposite that window i hang sleeping bag
another wall has the same treatment and the opposite wall to it has 5 foot high book case
oh and a solid wooden floor that gets some treatment during recording (small scattered rugs)
i know its a broad range but i think the problems lie in that area not through its full spectrum of it
i'll have a look at the inside of the mic
and i'll try the other techniques too
thanks for that
i appreciate it

[stainless]

how tall is the ceiling?

[kip4]

oh and i forgot to say yes its cardiod and in a shock mount and usuallly apply a 75 hz low cut switch on the mixer too
huuum is this not helping i wonder

[kip4]

7 feet 3" tall mate
walls are single lava block with dry board and plaster skimming

[kip4]

dash can't get the top off the mic blast lol

[stainless]

I found the curve for the C1


 it's flat till right at 2K then there's a gradual increase by +5 dB to ~14K before it falls off... so  it's going to be more responsive to those fregs.... if anything I'd expect you'd be more inclined to cut rather than boost... which puts us back into the "room"

I'm gonna guess there's not much in the way of an airspace behind the dry-board and the block? so these walls are quite reflective. Ceiling is low... but at least it's not a convenient 2:1, 2:3, etc ratio

EQ would work... but it's more a band-aide with that big a range, you're basically masking an acoustic problem which may result in your mixes sounding on other systems not at all like what it sounds like while mixing...

do you mix with headphones or on monitors?

[kip4]

monitor with speakers
only occasionally (middle of the night  when its bugging me and i can't sleep) with headphones and then i finish it off with the speakers to make sure .

[kip4]

this is really helpful and the longer i stay the more i like it here
thanks mate

[stainless]

when you mix, make a CD, does it sound the same on a different stereo?

[kip4]

only mildly but i put this dont to the system (car stereo or room speakers)

[kip4]

i kinda learnt my lesson early
when i first set up i was using a pair of fairly flat speakers and a powered sub woofer that i was using to monitor the mixing and when i transfered the another source the lack of bass was such that i rerouted my monitor mixing through a rotel amp and again fairly flat speakers this fixed it to a degree that i didnt have to compensate so during the mixing.
 

[stainless]

do i take this to mean the car stereo is just so so?

or put it this way- a commercial CD- you play in your car, does it sound better/worse/same on your monitors?  What I'm looking at is whether the monitors may or may not have a flat response (any EQ on the monitors?... any treble/bassboost cut on the car stereo) and perhaps you compounding the issue

[kip4]

i got yer
ok they're not the best monitors in the world and thats whats next on my ebay shopping list lol
and im not sure if its compounding the problem as i dont have much to compere them with
thanks