condenser mics for live singing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Mr Blues
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Mr Blues

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I have a Audio technica ATM 610 which is a hypercarioid dynamic mic but I am thinking of upgrading it for the ATM 710 which is a cardioid condenser mic.

http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/re..._artistser.pdf

They have stated this is a live use mic but i would need phantom power in which I have on my powered mixer.
I hear that some good condenser mics sound amazing live with great vocal detail so I am tempted.
Is this a good practice in general or are condenser mic to sensitive to lets say monitors or speakers?

Dave
 
oh no!
That link was working fine about ten minutes ago and the page seems to be down . these mics are on the Audiuo technica website under the new artist series of mics just incase youwanted to check them out.

Dave
 
Our singer uses a Shure condenser mic (forget the model, but there can only be one or two, I imagine). Mixed results, IMO. While it does sound a bit more 'detailed,' we've experienced phant. pwr noise issues (not the mic's fault - the house wiring was noisy, but switching to a dynamic solved the problem), and it's probably prone to feedback more so than the SM58, for example. On occasion, we've ditched the condenser for the stage SM58, and SM58 sounded absolutely fine. I really can't see the point in spending $$ on a condenser for live use. Perhaps through a really good PA with good sound management, otherwise, a straight dynamic works just fine and has less to go wrong with it.

Recently I spoke into a Sennheiser condenser that was on stage, and THAT sounded really nice and clear. But maybe the setup just happened to be great, and switching to an SM58 would have produced equally impressive results.

Sorry, I use the SM58 as a general example, as it's the most likely to be found up on stage.
 
robin watson said:
Our singer uses a Shure condenser mic (forget the model, but there can only be one or two, I imagine).
Click to expand...
That's probably the 87.
 
MadAudio said:
That's probably the 87.
Click to expand...
yeah, i think they have a ksm handheld, but that's either just coming out or not out yet
 
My wife sings in the worship team at church and they only use condensers, its a church of 2,000 or so spread across three services. Anyways they have Milabs, Sennheisers, and Neumans, guess which she likes the best. Why the KMS105 of course. The church sound guys/gals tried a Shure KSM9 on her the other day and they didn't like the results, as my brother inlaw, said "How is it possible they didn't like it?" He runs sound for a large church as well, and he can't find it in the budget to get good condensers. His thinking kind'a goes if he had to pick between upgrading their dynamics vs getting something usefull like better monitors, better signal processing, etc. He would do the latter. If everything else is in place shoot for the moon and get the KSM9 or the KMS105, but first make sure the rest of the gear is up to snuff, because after all its live, the audience is gonna hear it once, and if you have a good guy behind the board/s you are probably fine with what you got. But then to come full circle the church is migrating to head worn DPA mics for the vocalists and giving the hand helds to the people who play and sing at the same time, on a boom of course.
 
Honestly considering how badly I have seen our church's gear get abused by the several choirs that use it I would never trust them with anything other than a dynamic. I mean how can anybody mishandle a SM58 enough to actually destroy it?
 
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/DPA4065FL/ <---that is what they are trusting the vocalists with, then of course you have to figure in the wireless body pack....if I had any say in it, I would have put booms out there for all the vocalists and let them dance, with in reason with a regular handheld. The churchs worship director wants everybody on headworns cause she wants the vocalists to get everybody in the congregation clapping and moving around, some of the vocalists are like statues though...they are so not used to the freedom a headworn gives ya.

Anyways that is way of topic, stick with a dynamic until the rest of the stuff you will be using is up to snuff. Unless that dynamic sucks for your vocals then make a change.
 
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