dynamic Microphone with max. frequency range ?

Bonaventura

New member
Hello !

I want to buy a new dynamic microphone for mainly for recording vocals and for live performing, under 150 €.

Immeadiately saw that the Shure-sm58 is very common.
But the Sennheiser E-835 seems more sensitive to different frequencies, especially mid- and low.

For my singing voice I would need a microphone which covers a big frequency spectrum,
especially high is important, but also mid- and low.

Is there a microphone you could recommend to me besides these two types I have mentioned ?

I would be very happy for tips !
 
Not to muddy the waters, but I generally prefer the Senn E835 over the Shure. Its my go-to mic for PA vocals. To me, the SM58 is better for vocals than the SM57, but the Sennheiser is a bit crisper and clearer to me than either Shure, especially in the upper mids. The 835 can be a bit too strong with some female vocals, but that can be tamed with a touch of EQ. The output on the 835 is also higher, which means you don't need as much preamp gain as with the SM58.

I have a friend that prefers the E945 for live vocals because of the hypercardioid pattern. He said it cuts bleed a bit better than the 835. Another option is the Beta 58 which is a supercardioid and has a similar output level to the E835. I think it is a bit better on the high end than the normal SM58.

The SM57 gets put in front of a guitar cab most of the time, although I found that my cheap CAD TSM411s did a really nice job on guitar amps. In a pinch, I've used it as a vocal mic and it worked, but its not my preferred mic.
 
With a bit of EQ, you can make a good stab at disguising a Sennheiser 835 or 845 as a Shure SM58, or vice versa. My take on them is that a 58 is not the most truthful, but it is solid and repeatable and works win virtually everyone within decent parameters. A bit of HF boost perks them up. I prefer the Beta 58, but in a show yesterday, I happily used a 58 rather than my B58, and the slight dullness was soon restored with EQ. We all have favourites. line 6 made some fine radio mics with acoustic modelling that replicated quite well half a dozen popular mics. I set mine to the Shure setting and never changed it. my voice lacks top end, and the nicest sounding mic I have is the Shure SM86 condenser - which in my IEMs sounds wonderful, better than me! However, 3 separate sound engineers who work for my band prefer the 58, so what do I know .........
 
IMO^^^^rob is right. The SM58 EQ's nicely and certainly has the reputation as the mic of the pros. As well.....I have used both a Sennheiser E835 and an E935....which is a bit more cost. The E835 is sort of "tame" (just my description) and so IMO the SM58 outshines it in most frequency ranges. The E935...however....is an awesome mic that you might want to consider. People I know who have tried my E935 have really loved it...especially for live use.
 
Odds are you would get good results from either mic. The real question is which one, or what other mic, fits your voice best. The only way to know is to try them all out.
 
Sennheiser e845 sounds much better as e835. e845's sound/tone balance is close to SM58, but sounds cleaner. SM58 is better for rock, it is more driven/excited, e845 is better for pop/jazz/etc. e845 has super cardioid pattern, it is more directional as cardioid pattern SM58.
 
I think live the SM58 is fine and hard to find a reason not to choose it.
In a super uber studio they slapped a 58 on my son vocal into some huge SSL board and in the super-uptown control room the 58 sounded fantastic.
In my closet HR room with noise, I just did a vocal mic comparison of Rode NTV tube, RE20, AKG C2000B, Marshall BCD 1, SM58, KSM27 and the SM58 has a clarity as it doesnt seem to grab the low-end which is usually chopped off anyway with a HPF, but the BCD1 is very similar looking capsule as the 58 and similar sound with some more low end if you get close which might not be what you want, probably recommend a pop-filter of some kind and without doing searches imagine theres a lot of studio tracks done wiht a SM58 though cant think of any off the top of my head. This morning check, I always listen to these comparison tracks over weeks, and the RE20 and KSM27, RODENTV and AKG200B have more sparkle and crisp something.... and 58 wouldnt be my pick over those... but

for live and studio.. in that price <150 .. SM58 I suppose though depending on the music the KSM27 was kind of made with live in mind too and is rugged build of steel and has that "studio" LDC sound of a condenser sometimes found $80 - $150. I like the MXL BCD-1 too, it kind of has the HPF built in and good noise rejection but not sure how well its built. Hard to beat a SM58 when thinking about Live built Tough etc...
 
I'm a big fan of EV mics
Rocky Mountain Slides Salidan Middy Ceramic Guitar Slide | Musician's Friend
EDIT: Don't know why it says ceramin slides .... it's a mic ... I swear!
:D

Basically ALL I do is live .... 240-300 gigs a year.

The SM58 is indeed an industry standard and is a perfectly fine live mic but I don't like them .... to my ears there's a murkiness to the sound I dislike so I use EVs.
IF I were gonna use a Shure personally I'd go for the SM57 over the 58 .... same mic, different windscreen so I don't find it quite as dull sounding as the 58.
 
. to my ears there's a murkiness to the sound I dislike so I use EVs.
.

I found something similar, The lead singer in my band came down with that mic, we all had 58s. I thought "wow his mic sounds great" It has a big beautiful low end, but when you EQ that mic with less bass it actually sounds a lot like a 58. If you notice in the frequency chart there's a 10db boost at 100hz in that mic. It does sound really nice on lead vocal though.
 
Our band leader provides 4 Beta 58s at each gig. They're old now, and when he was late one day, I pulled out my own mic box and used 4 of mine and was amazed how brighter mine sound. 10 years of spit, I guess.
 
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