Recording Mic for Female Vocalis

[Genghis]

I'm about to start a really cool new project with a local female vocalist and songwriter. She has a raw natural talent and a much more soft and delicate voice with a fairly high range. She writes and plays a lot of acoustic instruments from all over the world and her vision is for something that builds on her style, but modernizes it a bit and makes it more accessible. (She has lived all over the place studying yoga in India, plant medicine in the Amazon and a few places I don't even know about yet.) When she described what she wants to do, I pulled up Steve Vai's Ultra Zone and played her the song Blood and Tears, and her eyes lit up and she said this exactly the type of thing she is looking to do.

I know which of my mics work for myself for the various styles, and will try out all of them on her, but I don't record a lot of vocalists other than myself. Looking for starting points with what I have as well as any suggestions I should consider. Here are the main mics I have:

• Shure KSM44 - My favorite for my male voice with most sounds, clean to power rock.(I range from mid-baritone to tenor and cover abiut 3 and half octaves or a bit more on a good day.)
• Shure SM7b - sometimes this is better for the harder and edgier metal I do.
• Rode NTK - decent, but not as smooth as the KSM44. Am considering a capsule mod to see what it is really capable of. Anyone have any suggestions on mods?

Any suggestions on something else that might be great?

 

[pauly]

Definitely a Neumann U87 - That mic is magic and IMHO often blitzes mics worth twice the price. This is particularly true for soft female vocalists, and will capture the soft subtleties you appear to be talking about. I had my daughter singing some songs for me and we all actually preferred the U87 to the M149 which is my usual goto for vocals.
Ah the price though - It seems expensive until you start using it (Just like the Axe FX). Also, from Neumann it's really a mid priced mic.
Thanks
Pauly