Live Vocal Mic.

B

BlindCowboy

New member
Hey. Looking for a couple of options.

I'm sharing frontman duties with my buddy in the band. He's got a Shure Beta 58a and i'm using either a shure 58 or a berry 8500. I need a mic that's gonna stand well with the beta 58 and wondered what was out there now...

Thanks,

Blind Cowboy...
 
at my work i use those b58s everyday and im pretty damn sick of em. they are alot hotter than the regular 58 but imo are very brittle and harsh at 3.5k and 5k. i brought a regular 58 to work just because i was sick of fighting the harshness of the other ones. regular 58s just seem so much flatter. ive used a beta 87 quite a few times and like it alot for some things. if your band is quietish id say get one of those, their condensors ( i think) so will need phantom from somewhere. if your loud or do hip hop id say stick with your 58 .
 
well, you really need to find one that works for you.......so unfortunately :D that means you're gonna have to go check out a few mics before you plop down the visa.....so here's my thoughts:

i'm not a big fan of the 58. it always sounds ok, rarely sounds great. it takes quite well to eq, which i suppose makes it easy to work with. and usually, easy to work with = the holy grail in live sound reproduction. :D

i like the senn e835 for voices that the 58 doesn't "get along with" (mine included). the 845 is a nice mic as well. no experience yet with the new 900-series mics.

you'd also be selling yourself short if you didn't check out the ev 357/457/467 whatever number they're on these days, as well. nice forward sounding mics.

enjoy! :p


cheers,
wade
 
ATM 61 HE, Senn 835 ,Audix OM5...all of these represent the 'new' wave of live vocal mics as far as clarity,sensitivity, off axis rejection, and tone. As was said, you'll need to get several in to compare. In our live set-up, we used to use the Beta 58's. No problems really....Then one night I brought an AT61HE just to try it out. It blew the Betas away in tone and clarity. I still like the Beta 58's as well as the old 58 and the 57, but these new generation mics are really getting to be quite good. BTW, I've owned as many as 20 58's and 57's at one time as I had a rental PA for years. Every one is different. These newer mics are very consistant.
 
There is a reason that the sm58 is still the industry standard and is still used just about as much as all of the other choices combined. If you want something a little brighter, I like the shure beta 57a alot as well. There are plenty of good vocal mics out there. The 58 though is the only mic to have stood the test of time. All the other companies have put out their own "58 killers". Often times they even catch on a little, but after a year or two they just sort of dissppear.
 
I'm constantly extremely impressed by just how good the Sennheiser E845 is. I have a few E845s and an E835, which tends to end up on snare or amps but is certainly an extremely capable vocal mic in its own right. I sold my SM58s because I couldn't find a combination of vocalist, PA and venue that made them a regularly viable option. You need some top end, and the Sennheisers provide that - as do the Beta 57 and 58, which I would be more interested in if they weren't more expensive than the Sennheisers.
 
Incidentally, as I was watching the UK Live 8, I noticed that there was a roughly 50-50 split of people using Sennheiser Evolutions and Shure Betas for the vocals. I only noticed one or two people using SM58s (Chris Martin being one) and one or two using Audix (the guy from Velvet Revolver if I remember right).

I guess cream rises ...
 
just a few notes:

I would say that sm58's are great if you're a live sound tech who is constantly working with different acts/singers. they are so forgiving as far as mic technique goes, and they work ok most of the time. I cannot say that for other mics. i find that once in a while an 835 or OM3 work brilliantly, but often they are mediocre, or sometimes pretty terrible.

but since this mic is just for you, i would try some mics out before you buy. it really depends on what sounds good on your voice, and you can't really make that call untill you try it in actual use.

also, someone recomended a 421 for vocals....NOT a good choice live. they are not near directional enough to use effectively.
 
Incidentally, as I was watching the UK Live 8, I noticed that there was a roughly 50-50 split of people using Sennheiser Evolutions and Shure Betas for the vocals
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Really, I was surprised to see more Neumann KMS105's than any other mic on vocalists. I saw shure's the least...and I watched the whole damn thing :D
 
Has anyone used a Beyer Soundstar MKII as a live vocal mic? It *seems* like it would work well, but I don't have any experience with one in a live setting.

Anyhoo, that's my contribution and I'm sticking to it. :)

- Jerfo
 
xstatic said:
There is a reason that the sm58 is still the industry standard
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and that's simply b/c most live sound professionals know how to deal with them. they're built like a tank and take a beating well, they perform after repeated soakings in beer (and spit), and they take eq very well. these are the reasons the 58 have stood the test of time........it's not b/c they're "the best sounding". most soundguys would say "put up a 58 and forget about it", b/c they've dealt with so many that they can deal with em in their sleep.

if i were running a sound company and had to pick 1 mic to use for every vocalist i came in contact with, it'd be an sm58 (like i said earlier--they rarely sound great....but also rarely sound bad). however, if i were running sound for a band or an artist looking for my own mic, the 58 would be about the last mic i'd pick (for me).


cheers,
wade
 
I actually never said they were the best sounding mic though. In that I actually agree. However, if you can not get a good sound out of an sm58 on any singer, than something else in the system needs to change as well. I run a pro audio company and the reasons you listed are the reasons why we stock so many sm58's. I actually prefer them to a beta 58 myself. I really like the way beta57a's sound, but it has to be the "a" version. The problem with a lot of the other offerings from other copmpanies is that there mics may sound better on certain sources, but often can be very troublesome if you try and just throw them out there. I certainly agree that if the mic is for you personally, give some other mics a try. If you are constantly doing sound for thes 4+ band shows though, an arsenal of 58's and 57's can be invaluable. I really hate it when people talk badly about FOH guys and how they just throw anything out there. It's not that they don't know what sounds good or know about any other tools. It is important to consider that when you are running a live show, especially with multiple acts, that there may not be time to have little mic shootouts. In the live business, especially with a rental company, time is money. If you take too long, you lose business. It would be great to be able to really take the time to do all the little things, but more often than not, that time just isn't there. To me it is far more important to spend 20 minutes tuning the PA, than to spend 20 minutes testing different mics and re ringing the monitors around those variables. I certainly don't hesitate to use other mics if they are available and requested, but other than that, you will get an sm58 or a beta 57a if you play on one of my stages. In the end, by the time a little EQ from a Midas hits it, you won't notice a difference until you plug in a Neumann 105 or something of similar quality. Is this the right way to do things? Not necessarily. Is this the practical and efficient way of doing things? Most likely. Dealing with live venues combined with multiple bands, limited time constraints, and flaky promoters most often means a combination of compromises. in the studio, it's a whiole different story:)
 
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