Small Capsule Vocal Mic for Stage

harky

New member
Hello,
Im in a band.
It appears to me - so much of a compelling stage performance and connection to audience is lost by an SM58 blocking the mouth / lip movement of the singer.

Especially ruining the possibility of lip reading for hearing impaired audience members.

Is there a small capsule dynamic probe-shape mic that could deliver good vocal capture and also have similar feedback avoidance qualities as a 58?

thanks
my band is NOUM and our first release is CANARY
you can find it on you tube and spotify and everywhere
 
A lot of that size of a vocal mic is really just pop/wind protection. There are condenser elements 1/4" across but to make them resistant to wind (either from weather or from a person's mouth) it needs a foam and/or mesh surround at something of a distance. At one of my "day jobs" we use a small condenser on a gooseneck. It has a small foam windscreen which doesn't really prevent plosives at all. It reduces them from incredibly bad to just very bad. We also use a headset mic with a tiny (1-2mm?) condenser element. That works pretty well most of the time because it's not in line with the blasts of air coming from the user's mouth.
 
A lot of that size of a vocal mic is really just pop/wind protection. There are condenser elements 1/4" across but to make them resistant to wind (either from weather or from a person's mouth) it needs a foam and/or mesh surround at something of a distance. At one of my "day jobs" we use a small condenser on a gooseneck. It has a small foam windscreen which doesn't really prevent plosives at all. It reduces them from incredibly bad to just very bad. We also use a headset mic with a tiny (1-2mm?) condenser element. That works pretty well most of the time because it's not in line with the blasts of air coming from the user's mouth.

That was to be my suggestion BSG, the things you see Kylie and Madge wearing. But as someone registered deaf and who probably relies a bit on visual clues, I doubt singers can be 'lip read' very well? The mouth shapes formed when belting out a song are probably quite different from those of speech?

Then, if a singer has to have a mic practically touching their lips the band is probably too loud and/or they are striving for a seriously loud SPL ? They and the audience will ALL need to lip read soon!
If you watch top pro singers 'working' a hand held mic they rarely have it obscuring their mouth? They tend to have it at chin level, pulling it away for the loudest parts.

IMHO except for certain genres, if the singer has to eat the mic to get a good PA level before ring the overall level the band is striving for is too high or the PA rig is a poor one or badly rigged?

Last observation, if you are really concerned about us deaf 'uns, put a HPF in the mic circuit (SO many bands/DJs don't!) and have the singer a little louder ref the instruments than is commonly the case.

Dav
 
Yes, I shouldn't suggest a headset mic for high SPL situations. And I agree that a ball style mic can be used in a way that doesn't overly obscure the singer. But it is important to be as close to the grille as possible and in line with its primary axis of sensitivity.
 
I work with bands that are amazingly loud, and sadly, I'm in one! I started wearing IEMs purely to reduce the level the drummer and guitarist produce. Lips on a Beta 58 is the only way to give the sound guy something he can use. Of course there is no musical need for them to be that loud, and all of us now are on IEMs, I just n' convince the guitar his tone would be the same lower in level.

To push the point, I normally for the bigger shows use an 8 x 10" cab on my bass, as the keyboard guy was positive he could feel it. Looking at the file on the M32 desk, I noticed that my bass was hardly in the mix - being loud enough on it's own. So I hit on a plan. A month later when the keyboard guy arrived we were setup and ready to go, and he said "Oh no - have you forgotten your bass amp." I tool pleasure telling him that for the last 6 shows, it wasn't turn up at all, and all he was hearing was my bass in the IEMs, DI'd direct from the guitar, and this was the first gig totally silent from me. The sound guy loves it, and the level on stage is nicer. He is of course now convinced he can't feel the bass! We have 4 vocal mics live on every song, and the rubbish they capture is amazing - lips on grills it needs to be. However in panto we can get decent level from omni headsets on stage - BUT - we cannot have monitors on stage. Gain before feedback is whisper level.The house PA is split into audience sectors and can run VERY loud, but the singers on stage just have to work without their voice in the monitors, which just gives them the MD's keys and a low level blend of the band, plus sound effects. When we do shows at our theatre - (1400 seats) some are excruciatingly loud and we all wear earplugs or isolation headsets. I've got very bad with very loud sound as I got older - so for our walkie talkies I bought Pit Lane headsets that clamp your head like a vice but make levels much nicer.
 
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