Live vocal mics other than SM58

  • Thread starter Thread starter Chibi Nappa
  • Start date Start date
C

Chibi Nappa

New member
Any ideas? Our singer owns an SM58 and it sounds just awful on his voice. He is a great singer with a great voice and sounds great in the studio, but through that SM58...ugh. We even had one song where a guest came on stage to do vocals and as soon as he stepped up to the mic it was like a switch went on and the sound was good again. It's almost like the SM58 speciffically doesn't like to pick up our singer's voice. So anyway, the band is pitching in to get him a new stage mic, but I don't know where to start.
 
:D I use the EV N-DYN's for the youth group at church. Try one to see if that works.


da MUTT
 
beyer m69 is my guess. just a classy live mic.

but you will have to try a few. vocals are always tricky. go to a nice store and try them all thru a PA. no other way to do this.

but find a store with more than shures...
 
The EV N-DYN's are very different from the 58's. Also c/o Audix OM-5 (my fave..:D
Wayne
 
The EV's are a good choice for different sounds. So is the Sennheiser 421.
 
Audix makes great live vocal mics too. I've never heard a good voice, sound bad with a 58, are you sure it's not the board/eq thing? What's does your live pa mixer/rack effects, speakers, etc consist of? If you don't mynd me asking.

Terry
 
Chibi Nappa said:
Any ideas? Our singer owns an SM58 and it sounds just awful on his voice. He is a great singer with a great voice and sounds great in the studio, but through that SM58...ugh. We even had one song where a guest came on stage to do vocals and as soon as he stepped up to the mic it was like a switch went on and the sound was good again. It's almost like the SM58 speciffically doesn't like to pick up our singer's voice. So anyway, the band is pitching in to get him a new stage mic, but I don't know where to start.
Click to expand...
A good clue would be what kind of mic makes him sound so good in the studio? It might not even be the mic at all but something else that is in the studio signal chain but not in your live one.
 
maybe try a sennheiser e635, or the hyper hardioid version, e645. or an audix OM 3. an OM 2 is Ok, but i like the 3 more. have you tried a beta 58? it sounds quite different from a SM 58. or even a beta 57 might work.
i use these mics on a very regular basis, and they all do very nicely. a 421 was suggested, but i have found that the pattern is too wide to work as a vocal mic, other than in quiet settings, where the stage volume is very low and high monitor levels are not required. basicly they feed back alot, other than that they sound great.
another option would be to use a "channel strip" type preamp, with a pre, EQ and compression. i've seen many recording acts bring them in, or some other type of vocal processor. kind of a pain to set up all the time, but it could work wonders for you.
 
I second the Sennheiser 845 and the beta 58. Both have been nicer options to the 58. The beta fits our bass player's voice very well. The Sennheiser fits mine. The bottom line is test, test, test, test, test.
 
My favorites (other than a SM 58) would be the Shure Beta 87, the Beyer M88, the AKG 535, and the Neumann vocal mics are supposed to be really nice, though I have not used them. I also have a friend who just attended a demo of the new Audio Technica wireless mics, and he said they where the best wireless mics he had ever heard. This guy is the sound department manager for a very good production house, so I take his word very seriously. If you are interested in wireless, that would probably be the way to go.


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
Chibi Nappa - does the mic HAVE to be wired, wireless, dynamic or a condenser? What type of voice does the singer have - do they have a fairly flat or dull voice? If so, then the SM58 will most likely not be the best mic - depending on what sound you require. Do you have phantom power? A huge step up would be the Neumann KMS105 condenser - I've had much success with this mic on males / females and in a variety of different environments (live and actually in the studio). The only problem is - it does cost over a grand down here in Australia - I like the Shure Betas for some live apps too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top