SM-7 for live vocals?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Richard Monroe
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Richard Monroe

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I just got booked for a series of live performances as a solo gig (cool- real money!), and it's been a while, I've been concentrating on recording. Now it's time to promote the album a wee bit. I'm using a Fender PD-250 Passport, with a Taylor 710CE/Fishman stereo blender, a Telecaster with or without a distortion pedal. So I broke out a few mics to see what works. Of the cheap dynamics, Sennheiser e835 is fair. AKG D320B is an old favorite. Oktava ML-52 ribbon sounds very nice, but too delicate and too feedback prone for the application. SM-7B seems like the hands down winner. Not particularly hot, not too feedback prone, doesn't pop much, and has very minimal proximity that increases smoothly and controllably as the distance to the mic decreases. So I was wondering- does anybody have any experience with this mic as a live vocal mic? Volume levels should be fairly low, no dense band mix to cut through, so whaddya all think?-Richie
 
I think you'll have less ambient noise rejection/feedback issues with a Beyer Soundstar MKII, which has a VERY similar tone. It's hypercardiod BTW.
Harvey has said it's pretty much interchangable with the SM7,
but it doesn't have all the EQing flexibility that it has.
For some odd reason I believe him! :)

Chris

P.S. Congrats on the solo gigs, best of luck.
 
Thanks, Chess- well right now, the SM-7B has one big advantage over the Beyer- I already own it. In any event, the SM-7 doesn't have much reach, and neither ambient noise or feedback seems to be a problem, and I've cranked it in a small room. If I run into problems in a live setting, I'll probably switch to known entities- such as an old standard for me- AKG D690.-Richie
 
Chris is right about the Beyer ... it's a really good mic and I'm glad he spied me one out on ebay!
 
It should work fine for the purposes you've outlined...
 
Already own a mic, since when is that an excuse for not being a gearslut!

Richie I'd be just a little paranoid about leaving a SM7 onstage where it could be knocked over/ripped off etc. Sort of like how Fletcher might feel
about leaving a nice Harley in a parking lot full of inebriated bar patrons. :)

Not that he doesn't know 100X more than me about mics and Harleys...

BTW I have an AKG D790 that's a good sounding mic, sort of a M88 Jr.

Chris
 
I think an SM-7 would be able to handle any abuse you can dish out.

I'd just be a little nervous about someone walking off with it, if anything. :D

An Electrovoice 666 might make a pretty cool live mic . . . because it looks trendy and old school. So you can look like all cool and trendy and retro like those cool guys in the music videos.
 
As I predicted, the EV 666's value is starting to blast off.
Maybe a bit because of NBC's "American Dreams"? :)
It doesn't take a rocket scientist though to figure that a mic that sold in the
for $150+ new in the 60's would stand a good chance for eventual appreciation.

It's too bad that EV doesn't service support them anymore due to lack of parts.Plus you ideally should know how an RE20 sounds (if not a 666) before
buying one IMHO. I have two working, one sounds fine, the other one's internal EQ circuitry needs tweaking.

The EV 664 is also cool looking, but sounds more bluesy/ragged than a SM7.
Looks as if it fell off a 50's Chevy or some such's chrome bumper.
Has a funky 4 pin cable connection too.

Chris
 
Well, I think with about $6000 worth of mics in house, and a pair of Schoeps on the way, if I tell the executive producer/wife I need a stage mic, I'm going to be divorced! Even the goddess I married has limits. After messing with the setup for a while, I finally settled on the SM7B for vocals, with the midrange boost on. I couldn't get the sound I wanted going into the PA with a solid body, so I'm using an old AKG D320B with some bass cut on, believe it or not, a Crate MX15R, the only Crate amp I've ever used that doesn't totally suck. Mostly clean with a fair amount of reverb, and a few classic rock n' roll tunes on the dirty channel (think Chuck Berry).
I have to say, if this puppy doesn't feed back, and it's shown no sign of it, the SM7 is flat out the best stage mic I've ever sung through. And hell, with a Taylor 710CE and an American Telecaster on stage, having an SM7B stolen is a comparitively minor concern. Using an On Stage SB96+ boom, it would take a Ford F150 to knock it over. And if I did, I'd check the floor for damage-LOL.-Richie
 
Same here. Get out there and pimp that new cd!

I tried my SM7 once with my bluegrass band, but wasn't impressed with the results. We went back to an AT4040.
 
Actually, I was pretty unimpressed with the SM7 on vocals, until I switched on the mid range boost. It liked me then, a lot, and I liked it. The venues where I am working are a little too feedback prone for condensers, even hand held. A 4040 is right out.-Richie
 
Actually, I'm not that fancy either. I bought that D320B for $40 on ebay. The problem is- I sound like shite through an SM57/58 every time. It's not a bad mic, it just doesn't like me. For cheap vocal mics I use AKG's or Sennheisers. I bought the SM7 for a recording dynamic, not a stage mic, but it just seems to work for that application.-Richie
 
Probably the pre Richie, usually if you sound good through a SM7, same goes for a SM57, and vice versa. The other factor would be adjusting the EQ/placement, but I'd just use the SM7 too for simplicity in your case.

Chris
 
Well I have to disagree there. I made a living doing live performances for 12 years, and during that time I had almost every live vocal mic short of a Neumann stuck in front of me at one time or another, and every Shure dynamic stuck in front of me sucked without exception. I will freely admit that they often sounded just fine *on somebody else*. I have plugged these mics into everything from an old Shure Vocal Master to an Allen and Heath board to an Avalon AD2022, with the same results. Of course the better sound men produced better results with inspired EQ, but the proximity field of a 58 is a mine field for me.
Conversely, I sound pretty good through almost any AKG dynamic ever made, which often suck *on other people*. I'm convinced that my voice has a pretty unusual timbre that calls for a certain kind of frequency profile. The SM7, on the other hand, has very little proximity of any kind, and requires some exaggerated movements on my part to work the mic. This makes it forgiving as hell, though, and it is far less prone to popping than a 58. I've gotten satisfactory results with AKG D690 (an undervalued sleeper), D770, D320B (also great on clean cabs), but the SM-7 is definitely the new tool of choice, unless I run into feedback issues.-Richie
 
Just call me an "infernal optimist" who truly believes that any singer can get
credible sound off a SM57-if it's placed and/or EQ'd properly by someone like
Fletcher or Harvey, et al.

Chris
 
I never said the mics sound good. ;)

It's a live performance.. unless your playing a huge venue with a nice pa and all.. it doesn't matter to me. In your case, you are playing solo stuff. It matters alot more that way. Heh.
 
A band I produce uses a SM7 for studio and live work. Good mike. It can take a lot of abuse like most Shure's can. It's not the right mike for a lot of singers and it does have more midrange warmth than top end. If you are doing hard/screaming vocals the SM7 is pretty awesome. If you're doing a lot more singing--especially softer songs--it would probably suck for that.
 
Well, Cloneboy, I assure you I am singing and it does not suck at all. Actually, aside from my own stuff, I'll be doing David Crosby, Dan Fogelberg, David Wilcox, Tom Lehrer, The Who (no kidding), Bob Dylan, John Lennon,Jethro Tull,Jorma Kaukonen, James Taylor, Chuck Berry,The Eagles, and a few songs so old the authors are unknown.-Richie
 
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