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mexicola · 21st June 2009

I've been employed by a mid-size (650 cap) live venue for the greater part of a decade. We have a 52 channel FOH board, 32 channel monitor board, 4-way x-over PA. We have standard 58's that we use for vocals. It's a great sounding room and I can usually run FOH mixes with a near flat graph and only some minor channel eq, and monitor mixes with only a few 3-4dB cuts. And that's running everything smoking loud for rock and metal bands - 100 to 110 dB at FOH. Quieter indie bands can be run almost flat.

I have to laugh when touring bands come through with Beta 57's and 58's for vocals and end up hacking the graphs to bits and fighting feedback all night long. We had a very well known indie rock band last night, and their monitor engineer had the graphs hacked up so much that they looked like pics of the Swiss Alps.

I mean, I get it that at low levels the Betas sound better because they boost hi mid frequencies that give a condensor-like presence to the sound. But once you crank it up to the levels that you need with a live band on stage, you just end up cutting out all that high mid boost and end up worse off than if you just used a regular 58.

Anyone else have similar experiences with these mics on vocals?

21st June 2009	#1
mexicola Lives for gear Joined: May 2009 Location: Raleigh, NC Posts: 914 Thread Starter	Beta 57, 58 - bad vox mics or worst vox mics I've been employed by a mid-size (650 cap) live venue for the greater part of a decade. We have a 52 channel FOH board, 32 channel monitor board, 4-way x-over PA. We have standard 58's that we use for vocals. It's a great sounding room and I can usually run FOH mixes with a near flat graph and only some minor channel eq, and monitor mixes with only a few 3-4dB cuts. And that's running everything smoking loud for rock and metal bands - 100 to 110 dB at FOH. Quieter indie bands can be run almost flat. I have to laugh when touring bands come through with Beta 57's and 58's for vocals and end up hacking the graphs to bits and fighting feedback all night long. We had a very well known indie rock band last night, and their monitor engineer had the graphs hacked up so much that they looked like pics of the Swiss Alps. I mean, I get it that at low levels the Betas sound better because they boost hi mid frequencies that give a condensor-like presence to the sound. But once you crank it up to the levels that you need with a live band on stage, you just end up cutting out all that high mid boost and end up worse off than if you just used a regular 58. Anyone else have similar experiences with these mics on vocals? __________________ There's nothing rock and roll about 1's and 0's. Recording engineers are not yes-men. www.regularjohnrecording.com