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So I know there's no such thing as a best microphone, but I need to upgrade my setup and this is one weakpoint - my mic.

This mic will mainly be used for gigging but I'd like it to also be good for recording. It's gonna be my vocal mic live, and also I want to use it to record vox on my home demos.

The style of music I play has a lot of acoustic guitar and heavy melodies, and depends on vocal articulation. I'm a male tenor, and the music I sing has a lot of dynamics in it, so hopefully it can perform well at gentle volumes but also when I'm screaming into it, given proper mic technique. I want it to sound lush, so I could just sing and play acoustic guitar with it and have it shine.

so to recap
-will be used mostly live, but also as at least a backup to record
-vocal application
-articulate and good with dynamics
-got to be passive and dynamic preampferred

any ideas? I was thinking of a Sennheiser e935...

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Boswell Mon, 06/28/2010 - 04:29

What do you mean by "passive" - not needing phantom power?

Assuming you'll be singing and playing at the same time on stage, do you mic the guitar, or just use a pickup and DI? In the studio, will you be tracking the guitar and vocals separately?

The e935 is a $170 microphone - are you limited to this price bracket?

RemyRAD Mon, 06/28/2010 - 11:16

The one microphone that I will use in place of a Neumann U 87 is the Shure SM58 and with an added foam pop filter, it will do it all. No phantom power necessary. Use the foam not the nylon stocking embroidery loop. If you want the extra zippy high end, choose the Beta 58. While I love Sennheiser microphones I'm not in love with their dynamic microphones. They're okay but the finish seems to wear off rather quickly making them look like crap in a short period of time. Besides they are Uber affordable. Nothing to break the bank. Totally rugged. Accepts quite a bit of abuse and keeps on shining.

58 lover
Mx. Remy Ann David

willashland Tue, 06/29/2010 - 00:27

Boswell, post: 350805 wrote: What do you mean by "passive" - not needing phantom power?

Assuming you'll be singing and playing at the same time on stage, do you mic the guitar, or just use a pickup and DI? In the studio, will you be tracking the guitar and vocals separately?

The e935 is a $170 microphone - are you limited to this price bracket?

Yes, I want to stay around this price range. Nothing over $200. And yes, I mean not needing phantom power.

Live, I will be singing into this mic and playing my electric guitar through my Mesa Dual Rec 4x12. In the future, I may set up a separate condenser mic to pick up an acoustic guitar or other group of stringed instruments while using this mic for vocals.

In the studio, I track everything separately. It would be nice if this were usable for vocal tracks of decent quality.

Thanks for your response, hope that helps

niclaus Tue, 06/29/2010 - 08:35

As Remy suggested, a SM58 (or beta 58) could allow you to do different things without having to empty your bank account.
Voices and Electric guitars are 2 things it could do well...

I just found a package for 170€ containing 1 mic stand, 1 beta 58 and 1 XLR-XLR... That should be in your price range.