You should already know form listening live if your singer "blows." A recording of another singer isn't going to tell you that,

An SM58 through a firepod is never going to make a recording "blow." Yes, $5,000 of equipment will make the recording better. But if you are hoping to make things better with the next special that is advertised... good luck.

Easy test to make. Take your 58 and firepod and make a podcast. Record yourself reading your favorite passage from a book. Do a few takes to get it right. Spend a whole afternoon getting the best sound you can. Compare to a commercial radio broadcast.

If your spoken word recording sucks - best guess is that you need to fix the room. Not the only answer. Just the most likely.

I've got some singers recorded through an SM58 and a firepod.

The recordings were done in my living room, which was a decent sounding and large room. Give me a couple of days. I'll need to dig out the recordings and strip away my attempts at mixing (no proper monitors really sucks). I'm currently not at home. Oh wait, I don't have a home anymore, so I guess I am at home. Just need a couple of days to find some time to pull them out and strip them down.

Actually, here's a quick link to a couple of songs. For the [="http://web.me.com/vonrock/VonRocK/Blog/Entries/2008/7/10_Mary_Welin.html"] Mary Project[/]="http://web.me.com/v…"] Mary Project[/], I think I tripled the vocal track, and heavily panned with who knows what added to try and spread out her voice. She can be a little 'meek' with her projection at times.

For the [[url=http://="http://web.me.com/v…"] Fallen Angels [/]="http://web.me.com/v…"] Fallen Angels [/], I used Remy Rad's suggestion of a battle formation? I set up three mics, with the performers all facing each other in the center of the room. Recorded live, as a rehearsal tool for the group. The lead I believe was a beta 58, and then an SM58 and a 57. Please excuse the mixing, and what ever the hell I did to this particular mix. I remember getting some strange reflections from the lead, as she has a very strong voice, and I didn't have a great room. I don't thing the MP3 compression helped much either, but I was just quickly looking for a song to post. I had about 10 different mixes at one point, but this was the only one at hand.

Like I said, I can pull these and some otherst and set the vocals out dry and alone for you to listen to. I'll give you a PM sometime on the weekend. Please keep in mind that I'm a long, long way away from knowing what I'm doing. It's always just a best educated guess and trial and error for me (and lots of reading).

I do think that the firepod and a 58 in combination are more than capable of decent vocal recordings.

Again, no decent monitors and a bad mixing/recording room is really like poking your eyes out and trying to drive. You can still do it, just don't expect to win any races. Ok, maybe it's just more like driving a crappy old car that farts and has a smashed in windshield and no stereo.

thanks von rock. Like i already know the kid i was recording isnt amazing. but i was curious if i was doing something or maybe not doing something to make him sound worse then he really is. but yeah i would love to hear some samples if its not to much a burden

Lousy singers actually don't sound as lousy on SM58's. But they do on cheap Chinese condenser microphones.

It sounds like the kid really needs some heavy compression for what you describe. That's why you think your interface & microphone combination isn't good. It's absolutely fine!

Here's a tip. Get a large foam pop filter to stick on top of the SM58. This will put your singer's lips a little further away from the capsule if he is a microphone eater. That will help a lot. Don't mess with the nylon stocking pop filter for this scenario.

Shure should hire me.
Ms. Remy Ann David

if it would help i guess i could just post the run through we did, if that would help? because its hard to tell if its the room or mic placement or how im tracking it when the singer isnt top notch.. =) forgot about that. i have a metal pop filter as well thats about 4-5 inches off the mic

I'd really love to hear what you're talking about. If you're working your singer 5 inches away from an SM58, that might be a little too far? That microphone really sounds best when worked a little closer. You want that proximity effect to work for you not work against you. If you're too far, you have no proximity effect (or greatly reduced). The proximity effect provides warmth and intimacy in the sound. Sometimes, it can be too much and that's why I recommended the foam pop filter. It just puts you a silly millimeter further away. Not 5 inches. Either way, I've never cut a bad vocal on a SM58. They're great. I don't mind the Beta 58 but they don't sound like the SM58. When you have something you know works, you stick with it.

Not too close. Not too far.
Ms. Remy Ann David