microphone upgrade

[Karel Lootens]

Hello,

Since my girlfriend's microphone was stolen last week, and her birthday happens to be just a few weeks ahaed, I was thinking about getting her a new mic.

She's a lead singer in a jazz band, I guess she'd qualify best for a soprano, so I'm not necessarily looking for excellent low frequency performance

Her last microphone was a rather cheap SkyTronic, but I'd prefer to get at least a decent one for, say, about 100 euros.

The mic's I've been looking for in that price range are the Sennheiser E835 and the AKG D880. are there other options I should look out for?
And of those two, which one would be the "better" choice?
It's supposed to be a dedicated vocal mic.

If there are seriously better performers which are more expensive, I'm willing to invest a bit more, but things have to remain reasonable off course

thank you in advance,
Karel

 

[baekgaard]

You mean for live usage (i.e. not for recording)?

SM-58 is another choice, and is a proven workhorse. I prefer those to the D880, although others might disagree. May depend on the actual voice also.

SM-57 can be a nice vocal mic also, and can double as instrument mic... but for mainly live usage, I'd get the SM-58 between the 3 I mentioned above. Not sure about the EV, as I have only limited experience with that.


-- Per.

 

[Karel Lootens]

well, it should be used mainly for live performance although I was hoping to get some recordings out of it as well...
I can't yet afford a real recording microphone and accompanying gear, but it should be able to handle demo recordings for auditions.

 

[savageblues]

Our band has an E835 (have some 825's too) and I think its a pretty good live vocal dynamic.

From what I recall it has slightly higher gain that the SM58, so we would often dedicate it to the mousiest voice.

 

[Karel Lootens]

well, I've read through about 40 pages of microphone items now

I gues that since she does have a relatively high voice, I'll go for the E835, or maybe an 845 since that appears to be a good bet. (I'll see what the price is)

It was mentioned over a month ago already, but indeed the AKG's "value" mics don't really get any attention here... are they really inferior? I quite liked the D880 style... but that's a non-issue off course

I'll peep around on the board for a while before deciding, so I should have a decent idea on what to buy...

thanks already!!!

 

[baekgaard]

well, it should be used mainly for live performance although I was hoping to get some recordings out of it as well...

You can use a SM58 for recording voice also, depending on the actual style you're after.

I'm sure the same applies for some of the other mics you've mentioned.

The trick is to find a suitable pre amp with enough gain and clarity to make it sound ok. If your live mixer is a Mackie or Soundcraft, they are probably OK (at least for the gain part).

Rgds,


-- Per.

 

[baekgaard]

It was mentioned over a month ago already, but indeed the AKG's "value" mics don't really get any attention here... are they really inferior? I quite liked the D880 style... but that's a non-issue off course

Probably because they are less common o'er there than here in Europe...

We use a bunch of D880 and a couple of D3700 every week for live performances. They are quite OK, but I personally like the sound of the SM58 a bit better. It has a different "colour" to it (and I also like the D3700 better than the D880). In addition, I think the D880 has a slightly increased feedback sensitivity. Not sure about the EV's here.

Good luck anyway, and happy birthday.


-- Per.

 

[Karel Lootens]

Hello everyone,

Thanks a million for the info, not just in this thread but the bbs has been of great help in understanding how things work.
Since I also share the meaning of the wise man that said... 'buy cheap means buy twice', I upgraded my budget just a tad and went for the 119 euro sennheiser E845 since it's supposedly superior to the SM57/58 on female voices. I do have a return option so I can't really go wrong I guess.

Apparently I'll still need a pre-amp... but since we can use a cheap one for the scouts, I'll probably buy me a 60 euro 2 channel mike/instrument mixer (not the dj type ) for starters which I can offer then to my beloved youth group in a while when I've saved up for some decent gear. That way I can actually DO something now and the money won't be thrown away.

Keep up the good work,
Jessica

 

[xstatic]

The 845 sounds like a good choice. My other choice would have been a Shure beta 87. However, when I read your first description the very first thing I thought of was the Neumann 105