Lance Blair Atlanta Voiceovers Goes Upmarket (Neumann TLM-103, Speck Electronics 5.0 Mic Pre)

Okay, enough of the whining about things going downmarket with the bad economy. How about helping a fantastic American audio company like Speck Electronics by adding the Speck 5.0 Mic Pre to the Lance Blair Atlanta Voiceovers studio arsenal? Sounds good to me!

The Speck 5.0 has 70db of clean gain (great for my PR40 dynamic and my ribbon mics) and a lovely switchable output transformer that has a clean tone for character and narration voiceover without being overbearing. There's a -20db pad, phase reversal, and sweepable HPF, a whole "mix matrix" and a linkable option to their amazing EQ unit or additional 5.0 Mic Preamps. Ted Fletcher of Boston's Mercenary Audio has compared it favorably to Millennia's HV-3C...adding that the Speck's sound has an added "opulence" that the Millennia lacks. That's more than good enough for pro voiceover work...and now I'm proud to offer it as a part of my signal chain. I tried a Speck out a year ago with the fine folks at Atlanta Pro audio and I should have taken one home then. I wasn't going to make that same mistake again.

I've compared clips of the Speck 5.0 against two other vo preamp champs, the Great River and the John Hardy. I'll admit that the very low end on both are a bit better than the Speck...you know, the bit that gets taken out of the signal in post. However, the transistor in the Speck is much more tasteful for vo...if you want more grit and color leave it to the project's engineers. What really won me over, was the "opulence" that Ted Fletcher of Mercenary was referring to: this opulence comes from how the Speck creates a greater sense of three dimensional space than the John Hardy or the Great River. They might sound bigger or have more presence at times, but the Speck sounds naturally intimate - much better for voice acting and helping the voice connect to the audience. The sound seems to come from all around your ears more than just from a point in front of you; at least as much as a mono voice signal can without processing. Good stuff.

Yet what's a microphone preamp without a good microphone? Got it. Now I have the Neumann TLM-103. I've turned my nose up at this mic in the past because it sounds very harsh on more nasal and thin/cutting American voices. Thankfully, that doesn't apply to me. I borrowed one from my colleague Mike Filosa from Advanced Field Production to check my signal chain as a part of my continuous QC. My thinking was "I know how the 103 can be harsh, let's see how harsh it is in my studio". I was shocked. Even through my plain old Yamaha monitoring board I sounded great on it. No sibilance issues. No harshness. Plenty of low end. No muddied mids. What I liked best was the amazing focus and articulation which I've heard the 103 lend to quality voices. There's no second guessing if the verbs are past-tense or not (did he say "walked" or "walk"?) that you find with the woofy mics. There's no crazy shrillness that you find with dozens of other mics in that class range. Finally, I was surpised how the mic is focused on the voice. No excessive ambience or mouth mechanics. All this being very surprising to me because I've heard too many DYI voiceover talents suffer with the TLM 103 from a.) poor mic placement - you can't crowd this mic! and b.) simply not having the right voice for the mic. If you check out the mic test at transom.org, the guy with a rich low voice sounds like an ace on the 103 (better than on the U87ai, I might add) while his more nasally thin typical American guy partner sounds like an utter dork on it (and the 103 may be the worst mic of the lot on his voice).

So I'm man enough to admit I was wrong about the TLM 103. It has its many uses, and fortunately a really good use for this mic is to capture my voice! Paired with the clean "opulence" of the Speck Electronics 5.0 mic pre, I've found myself really nice set of tools to make great recordings. That's what it's all about, really: I find myself much freer and more confident to make the right choices in the vocal delivery knowing that my chosen tools are up to the task. If I push them loudly, they respond without saturation. If I whisper, they don't let me fall away. If I make brash consonant sounds, nothing distorts. I can even physically act out my characters without worrying about going off axis. It's a beautiful thing.

PS: I still don't like the TLM 49 or 93. The 49 sounds a lot like my PR40 dynamic, which is just flat out wrong for a $1500 condenser.