Vocals Mike

ukelele_al

New member
What I want is the kind of mike I see rock bands using on stage: unidirectional with a short pick up, and the singer is able to work right up against it, lips touching it, without popping plosive sounds.

What mike is that?
 
Yeah, the SM58 is the one that would look like an ice cream cone if you were a droid.
 
If you can afford the extra $$$, try for the Shure SM58 Beta. Huge difference--hotter signal, more presence--a very impressive mic that has the durability of a dynamic mic with (at least some of) the definition of a condenser. Also, its side rejection pattern is designed to reduce feedback most effectively at the angle you would normally have it inclined at in relation to your monitor. Best of both worlds, I've found.
 
What about the Audio-Technica ATM41HE?
When I decided to buy a vocal mic for rehearsal duties with my band, the salesman at my music store plugged a SM58, an AKG something and the ATM41HE, the ATM was really the hotter (in terms of gain), like in 50% more gain than the SM58 and it had a lot more clarity (the SM58 sounded dull, that was without touching any of the EQs on the console). However we're having a lot of problems controling feedback, it is true that my band play REALLY loud so we need to turn the volume really high on the mics. At least this one gives us a very good sound and much more feedback control than the other mics we have (an old high-end Electro Voice and a lower-end Audio Technica, a MB1000H to be exact, a high-impedance mic which I bought because I wanted to connect a mic straight in my computer). Sometimes I'm wondering if those feedback problems are caused by the brighter sound of the ATM (it's "treble" feedback we get, not "bass" feedback), or if the Shure would yield the same problems, supposing we would try to get the same sound by EQing.
 
Feedback could be from monitors or the mains. Do you know what system sets it off? If it's the monitors, maybe you need to turn down the stage volume and let the sound reinforcement guy bring it up for the FOH.

If the FOH is triggering it, and you have any flexibility in speaker placement, try moving them forward into the room a bit more.

You may also need to try a feedback destroyer type product. Behringer and peavey make these type units, they are sort of automatic EQs.
Never used one myself.

You could also try the old trick of reversing the phase on the monitor speakers which can sometimes help matters.
 
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