SM58 Live/recording use

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Blor007

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Hi,

When using an SM58 for singing the distance between your mouth can be different.
When seeing people sing (fe Eric Clapton ) live I noticed they are singing 10 cm away from the mic (wich is ALOT imo) and then can shake their head as much as they want, the sound won't change in volume unless they go from 10 to 20 cm to sing a much louder note.

My question is how this can be done, is it compression?
When I sing trough a SM58 and I change the distance the sound seriously decreases in volume, and with 2 much compression I get alot feedback.

Leaving feedback aside what are commen DO's and DONT's for singing trough the SM58 and the DO's and DONT's for using compression (or someting else)?


Thx for your time :)
 
Good mic technique goes a long way. I know a few guys that can keep everything sounding nice and even thru a 57 (no pop filter). My mic technique sucks.
 
Paul Simon OTOH sings real close to the head of the mic

I find 58s suit different voices better than others........I used to use 58s & chenged a few years back to Sennheiser MD431mkIIs

the difference between good mic tech & bad is obvious when it comes to mixing & you find that there is less pops & SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS to remove with a good mic techniqued singer
 
But I noticed the distance carefully , and there is no way in hell the dB level can be right.

If I sing from 2 cm distance to 10 cm distance , the sound disapears @ 10 cm.I'm sure they have an excellent technique but also an excellent mic compression setting to facilitate the process :)
They are swinging left and right with their heads and the sound doesnt alter :confused:
 
add some more gain and a limiter could help. enough gain that everything hits the limiters threshhold
 
You just turn the gain up. Singing that far away from the mic works best when your stage volume is really under control. You also have to realize that you don't have as many feedback problems in an arena as you do in a small room. The larger the room, the less reflective surfaces, the less feedback.
 
Blor007 said:
They are swinging left and right with their heads and the sound doesnt alter :confused:
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Some accomplished vocalists can do this because theirs voices have good resonance.
 
Are you sure they're wasn't a wireless mic involved somwhere? I saw Jewel play a song on "Extreme Makeover Home Edition" last night and she was doing the same thing and I can only guess that she had a hidden wireless mic on or a boom mic overhead out of camera shot or the audio was compressed during editing. It was really impossible for it to be technique as she was kind of bobbing her head and varying distance from the mic. Had to be a high end compressor in there somewhere. had to be.
 
Slightly off topic, i was forced to watch a Barry Manilow live special (long story, but my GFs mom loves the guy) and I was blown away at how compressed his live sound was. It was a wireless mic, that i was guessing might have been a condensor, but there was litereally no variation in the dynamics on his voice. He could sing from something like 15cm away. I could see how that kind of sound would appeal to the masses, it was like his voice was all powerful every moment of every song (which i am sure it is) but I could hear the compression working and I found it really annoying (which BM songs are as a rule, Mandy aside, of course).

Daav
 
10cm is not that far away. When you are really close to the mic, smaller changes make a bigger difference. When you back away enough, you get a lot more freedom. I would actually reccomend that people sing at about 6 inches away from the mic or more as long as the stage sound and vocalists performance permits it. Much better sound that way:)
 
xstatic said:
10cm is not that far away. When you are really close to the mic, smaller changes make a bigger difference. When you back away enough, you get a lot more freedom. I would actually reccomend that people sing at about 6 inches away from the mic or more as long as the stage sound and vocalists performance permits it. Much better sound that way:)
Click to expand...

Yep. I find I can measure the quality of the vocalist by the mic distance. If a singer can really project, 12 inches works great, and that also means they are relatively immune from changes in tone or volume if they move a bit.

Singers who get real close to a 58 are probably going for a strong proximity effect sound, either for the cookie monster sound, or because they are trying to cover up a really thin, weak voice.

Obviously there are hundreds of exceptions, but I, for one, fall into the latter group :o
 
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