ART tube preamp for vox

I have successfully used the ART Tube MP for vocals, always as a preamp before sending the signal into the board. As you are "EQing" the band, consider the vocalist as an additional instrument. That means other instruments like that pesky guitar might need to turn down the volume a bit to balance the sound. The vocalist should be the primary anchor followed by everything else. You might also add some reverb or echo to the VOX to fatten the sound.

 

Yes. I've also used the Tube MPs as preamps for a "Blumlein Pair" of condenser mikes to record the whole room. Always on the front end of the board, not inserts. Those little cheapies are good work horses for average recording situations.

 

I use two ART tube preamps, a Tube MP and a TubePAC, for mics. I run each mic directly to its pre, then through one side of a Lexicon MPX500 for a little reverb, then to the board. The built-in compressors are nice, I get no noise, and I think they warm up the sound from the mics a lot. The only issue is that we now have 3 vocalists, and the one without an ART sounds horrible in comparison.

 

TC Electronic Voicetone Correct XT will blow the art out of the water for live vocal use. On board compression and warmth controls help my fairly thin voice. The anti feedback seems pretty effective as well. A smidge of pitch correction, well as long as it is just a smidge...

If i am singing on someone elses mixer I use it, period. Have a pair and put one on little Miss Stage Candy

If I'm using my board then I have comps and 4 bands on all the channels, no need for the voicetones.

I also own an ART Tube Channel which sees some studio use. Nice tool but the TC Boxes aredesigned for live vocals and they do it well...

 

Step one is choosing the very best mic for each vocalist, and I can't stress this enough.
The days of "stick a 58 on them" are long gone.
The goal is to have almost zero EQ on the mixer beyond bass rolloff when it comes to lead vocals.
Board EQs are getting better and better these days, but whenever you have to crank the knobs more than a little the phase shifts and quality suffers.

I'm leaning towards condensers these days, as the results on thin vocalists have been miraculous.
At the same time, amazing sound is happening with a budget line Shure on a male country singer I just started working with. I was skeptical when he whipped it out, but results are all that matters. Works for him, but would suck on a female singer.

Finding the perfect mic is often cheaper and always easier than adding preamps.
Hopefully it leaves enough $$$ in the budget for a better quality compressor.

Look at EV and Sennheiser dynamic and condenser mics, as they seem to have a fuller and richer bottom end with less annoying upper mids than the usual suspects.
I'll never understand why singers have zero clue what mic they really need, but are willing to spend similar $$ on shoes.