Live vocal mics for quiet singers

[JGR]

Hey all, I know this is typically a recording forum but since some of the best minds around when it comes to gear hang in these parts, and people here have been helpful to me before, I figured I'd bring my question here.

I play in a band which I wouldn't consider a super loud band, but we still tend to have a lot of issues at smaller gigs with the vocals not being able to push through the mix. We use the house vocal mics and at all but the best venues we play at the sound guy has a hard time putting our vocals up to where they can be heard without getting a ton of feedback.

I guess I'm just looking for some suggestions to look into on mics that might aid in our problem - ones that will not feedback at high gains and also perhaps have tighter ranges so that the drums and instruments will be less likely to make their way through.

Oh, and if it helps or makes any difference, we have both a male and female vocalist.

Price is not a huge issue but it would be nice to spend under $500 - but feel free to mention anything you swear by regardless of cost.

Thanks!

-Jesse

[ssaudio]

SM58s are as good as anything in my book.
Spend your money on getting your own engineer. As much as singing louder will make life easier for you in the long run, a decent and sympathetic engineer will make a world of difference.
Unless of course you are trying to amplify a whisper in a wee room with poor gear, that is

[Sounds Great]

Try an AKG C535eb. The pattern is fairly tight and it cuts through nicely. And sounds great. thumbsup

[Jimbo]

This should be moved to the "Remote" forum.

You'll get excellent, experienced advice to your question over there.

[fifthcircle]

There is a recent thread in the remote forum on handheld vocal mics. Started by myself in the past couple months- lots of great info there.

The quick answer for me has been the new Telefunken USA M80. It is a bit bright, but over all, it is a !@#!%! amazing mic. Good presence of sound and good rejection of feedback. The brightness is easily taken care of with a small EQ notch (a couple dB is all that is needed) at about 3K.

--Ben

[tINY]

Go find a bunch of mics with hyper-cardioid or super-cardioid patterns and see which ones you like...

You might practice your vocal technique a bit too.



-tINY

[strewnshank]

Your problem is more about the engineer than the mic. A good engineer armed with an SM58 and some 31 band graphic eq's for the monitors and mains should be able to get a good mix out of most house systems.

The problem with "small rooms" is that they are typically staffed by hack/newbie "engineers" who either don't give a **** or just don't know what is going on.

With that said, Audix makes a live vocal mic with a nice, tight polar pattern. OM something or other, I believe. Under 200 bucks too, I think.

[synthoid]

It's a bit expensive, but the Shure KSM9 has a selectable hypercardiod pattern, and in that setting it has a very tight pickup pattern and hence good rejection and immunity from feedback. It's also fairly sensitive, being a condenser.

(I agree though that this is likely an engineering problem. There have been some tremendously loud rock bands with soft vocalists who were able to get it all to work together, probably without very fancy mics.)

-synthoid

[ScumBum]

Originally Posted by strewnshank

Your problem is more about the engineer than the mic. A good engineer armed with an SM58 and some 31 band graphic eq's for the monitors and mains should be able to get a good mix out of most house systems.

The problem with "small rooms" is that they are typically staffed by hack/newbie "engineers" who either don't give a **** or just don't know what is going on.

I agree .

Don't push your voice to get louder you'll just blow your voice out and sound like crap live .

I think the best solution is to find your own sound guy to bring to the shows . All the top bands usually have their own sound guy to mix when they play . You'll stand out above the other crappy bands ,

[ssaudio]

Originally Posted by synthoid

hypercardiod pattern

Which doesn't necessarily give a mic an advantage in a live situation, especially in a small room.

[fifthcircle]

Don't forget that a hypercardiod has a small lobe in the back. It may be nice and tight in front and in many situations that will help the gain before feedback situation. However, that rear lobe can kill you if the singer doesn't know how to deal with it. If I had a quiet singer, I'd never use a condenser. You'll get a lot more bang out of a dynamic in an unfriendly sound reinforcement situation.

--Ben

[JGR]

Hey guys, I really appreciate all these responses.

And yea - most sound guys around here simply don't care and aren't really that good at what they do... we have certainly had good experiences before, but that isn't the norm.

Of course, I do believe we are quiet singers and I'm just looking to do everything I can to NOT have to bank on the sound guy being awesome.

I'm off to check out that other thread (I should have done a search first! Sorry!), thanks again for all the help!

[Alex Specht]

The best thing to do is to make each vocalist have their own mix

If the house doesnt have enough mixes, then put the lead in one mix and the backups in the other

You can also work on identifying the feedback frewuency and telling the engineer which bands to cut on the graphics (if they have any)

Beta 58s seem to be very good sounding mics and are a little brighter, than the regular sm58

Good luck, and remember to be nice to your sound guy!