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anonymous 18 October 2007

I have a rhode ntk and UA 610 preamp. Would I benefit with recording anything with my old sm58? I am mostly recording acoustic guitar and vocals.

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RemyRAD Thu, 10/18/2007 - 21:47

Absolutely! The 58 is one of the workhorses of the industry. It's an all around fabulous microphone for under $120. Great bang for the buck.

Vocals, drums, guitar amplifiers, Latin percussion, lead & backup singers. Violins, woodwinds, pianos, trumpets and other wind instruments, choirs. So, yeah, all of those instruments can benefit from the SM58. It's a really wonderful microphone and everybody should own at least a pair. So many live shows that were recorded, that became hits, were all recorded with that model/brand. Look at Michael Jackson. Yes, he is peculiar looking since, I think he's trying to be a woman in disguise but I digress. He records on a Shure SM 7, which is basically a deluxe SM58. The SM58, is utilized in the studio for the vocals for Bono, Steve Tyler and another person I can't seem to remember due to a senior moment. These are good sounding microphones with the proper amount of bandwidth limiting, presence rise, nice proximity effect, along with a tight directional pattern and plugged into a quality preamp like a Neve or API, will blow you away with its familiar warm sound. Yeah I highly recommend that you hang on to the most popular staple microphone of the industry. Buy some more, they're cheaper by the bag. You can never have too many.

Surer bets
Ms. Remy Ann David

pr0gr4m Thu, 10/18/2007 - 22:11

jonnystevens wrote: Would I benefit with recording anything with my old sm58?

Yes.

I was just going to be a jerk and respond with that one word answer. But I try to help people from time to time, and this is one of those times.

I'm guessing that the thinking behind your question is that you feel you have a better microphone in the NTK so why would you even bother to use the 58.

Philosophically speaking, better is better. But, better is not always right. Especially where sound is concerned.

-hypothetical situation
Let's say that with your one microphone and your one preamp and you record 4000 songs. With song one done, you're a happy camper. The song is awsome. You got a great vocal sound with the mic that you totally love. Songs 2, 3, 4 and 5 all come easy because you got your awsome vocal sound on song 1 and everything's been smooth as butter ever since.

Somewhere during the mixdown of song song number 8 you notice that the vocals for this song sound an awful lot like the vocals that were on songs 7 and 6. You go back and listen to those songs. Then you listen to some of the earlier songs and realize that the vocals on all of the songs sound the same...even on song number 1 which you loved. But you remember how good the vocal sound was when you first got it and so you stick with it simply thinking that "the vocal isn't bad, I'm just used to it".

After recording songs 10, 11 and 12, you are over the vocal sound and you can't listen to it any more. So you start to use a bit of EQ here and E-fect there just to try and get a bit of variation. After song 20, you've run out of ideas for spicing up the vocals. For song 21 you decide to sing through a megaphone. It comes out great but that's not something you can do too much so after that song, you hang up the megaphone. Maybe you'll pull it out for song number 2793, but just for the chorus.

Around song number 27 is where it hits you. Your standing there in the bathroom at the sink rinsing out your windscreen after a long night of drunken screamo and you remember writing a post on recording.org asking if you would benefit from using your SM58. One of the replies was from a retard who wrote a long ridiculous story that made absolutely no sense to you. At the end of it he said that it would be absurd for you to NOT use your SM58. But because what he said seemed so off the wall, you figured he was out of his mind and didn't know what he was talking about and chose to ignore his advice. So you gave the SM58 to cousin Joe to use down at the local VFW for Karaoke night.

Now, at this moment, in the bathroom, with teenage spittle all over your hands, you realize, that crazy dude was right. I need my SM58.

You rush down to the VFW only to find out that it has burned down to the ground. There was an accident involving confusion between "magic" birthday candles and M80s. The microphone is forever lost and you are doomed to always record with your much adored, and now much hated NTK.

Keep the SM58. Use the SM58.

anonymous Thu, 10/18/2007 - 22:58

pr0gr4m wrote: [quote=jonnystevens]Would I benefit with recording anything with my old sm58?

You rush down to the VFW only to find out that it has burned down to the ground. There was an accident involving confusion between "magic" birthday candles and M80s. The microphone is forever lost and you are doomed to always record with your much adored, and now much hated NTK.

Keep the SM58. Use the SM58.

I bet you could plug in the SM58, if you find it in the rubble, and it would still work...

RemyRAD Fri, 10/19/2007 - 09:43

And just remember, the "SM" does not stand for, nor represent SadoMasochism. On the contrary, I think it stands for "Super Microphone"! " Special Music?" " Sloppy Melodies?" " Straight Microphone"? Where is the gay faction? Oh! " Sissy Microphone?" No, wait! It's "MS." backwards. Now I feel better.

Silly Matronly engineer
MS. Remy Ann David

anonymous Fri, 10/19/2007 - 11:43

Nope no reason, so you should go to FedEx and send it to me, thank you.

I like the 58 better than the 57 for vocals because of the ball keeping it away from the person's mouth. Some people seem to think the closer they get to the mic the louder and better it's going to sound. Plus it's easier to keep the 58 clean.

I don't know if anybody noticed it but they don't all sound the same. I must have had about 20 57's and 58's and A/B'd them. They all sounded different, you knew they were what they were but they sounded different. Plus they all sounded better than other companies versions of them.

How many times have I hear in the past how a company tauts their mic as being better than a 57/58. They never are, they never have the mids and bottom of the 57/58. Never as warm either, some might have a cleaner highend with a little more presence but that's about it and it's usually a little harsh.

Just about every time I see a picture of a well know guitar player being recorded in the studio it's with one or a pair of 57's in front of the amp or amps. Some times one in back too, same for mic'ing Leslie's and just about everything else.

JoeH Mon, 10/22/2007 - 07:01

the dude needs some SERIOUS scriptwriters. :twisted:

As for SM58's: Yessir, they're the work-horse of the industry. Don't EVER let yours get away. Get a few more while you're at it, you never know....

I just did a three day acoustic music festival where I got mic/line splits from the FOH and monitor folks, with my own isolated sends. Although we discused mics ahead of time (I brought a lot of my own stuff, hoping to add some flash to the mic lineup), the house sound people insisted on their own mics, assuring me it was all Top-notch, "Great" stuff.

Well, they weren't wrong (nor were they 100% right), but the main mics were simply a line of SM58s for all of the vocalists, and several SM57's for the guitars, dobros, etc. All in all, it sounded great because the performers were great, the acoustics were great, and the lines/feeds to me were clean as a whistle. Some of the better players had clip-on instrument mics as well, so it all worked out, sorta.

ALthough I can immediately hear the "Signature" sound of the 58's when used up close (that breathy, low-end rumble-pop that sometimes creeps in), I can't argue it's a great-all-round mic for just about anything, including vocals. I have a little EQ preset that I dial in after-the-fact to get rid of some of the pops & rumble and brighten the top end a little, so it mostly works out in the end.

rockstardave Mon, 10/22/2007 - 07:17

theres never a good reason to sell any of your mics (unless it's an MXL mic).

they all have unique characteristics and can come in useful for something down the road (except MXL mics, like i said)

i suppose if you're "getting out" of recording then you could sell anything you want. i feel like i can never have enough microphones!

Davedog Tue, 10/23/2007 - 14:57

I LOVE a bargain. Especially when its microphones. As for those cheap pencil mics....NOT a bargain at 'free to good home'..............

Take your $100 condenser mics....OK just to be fair, take all the $100 mics available. How many of em really really SUCK?

Did anyone choose the SM57/58 ?

Didnt think so.

SM56/57/58 GOING STRONG UNDER $100 FOR OVER 25 YEARS..............

Now I'm not saying there arent good sounding mics out there for around the $100 mark. There are several. BUT, none of them are a staple of the music business like the SM series. Yes, there are mics that sound 'better' than the 58 for vocals. You can pick one up today for something in the neighborhood of $150-300. You can also drop it accidently and go get another one for the same price. AND as we all know, 'better' is a relative term.

RemyRAD Wed, 10/24/2007 - 00:53

I really loved this guy Tad Donnelly! I think we both have a similar style when it comes to smoking pot, drinking alcohol, recording rock-and-roll? So, his work is probably first-rate..... When it comes to drinking pot, recording alcohol and smoking rock-and-roll?? I really loved the camerawork also, as it seems the camera operator was also, recording pot, smoky alcohol and drinking rock-and-roll??

Potting a smoking drink
Ms. Remy Ann David

JoeH Wed, 10/24/2007 - 04:58

I suspect MOST of those cheap pencil condenser mics are made in the same factory by the same people for a variety of brands of microphones. I wouldn't use them for anything serious.

But MXL has a lot of better stuff than that, and some of it is American-assembled from Asian parts. (The V6 specifically). I've done some fantastic things with the M3 and the V6 microphones. For in-studio vocals, the M3 is one of my favorite mics, beats everything I've put it up against so far. The price is ridiculously cheap for its sound, worth a listen at least, and easy enough to replace if it's lost, damaged or stolen.

I've heard similar comments by ADK and SP fans. Plenty of affordable, great sounding mics out there, if you know what to look for.

You can never go wrong with a bunch of 58's, but it's nice to have some other crayons in your coloring box as well.

moonbaby Thu, 11/22/2007 - 08:55

therecordingart wrote: Tad is awesome! haha Did you see what he had to say about Nuendo? It appearantly has that BOOM BOOM BOOM!

I think that he meant NINTENDO, but was too stoned to realize it...
Nice studio, eh? He packed the walls with fiberglass,"the real good pink kind". Hey, Tad, everything pink is the good kind!

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