The Song Fight Bulletin Board

hey,

I was thinking about picking up an sm58 so that I could join the rest of the world in owning one. I'm getting the hard sell on the Sennheiser e835, which I'm told is "becoming an industry standard for quality and price."

I'm looking for a decent, resilient vocal mic. I'll mostly be recording with it, but it needs to be able to be thrown around. I have a condenser mic now, and while the quality is great it feels a bit too sensitive for my current vocal needs.

Anybody have any applicable experience/clairvoyance?

-craig

Well, one thing to keep in mind is simply that you "know" what your getting in a 58. It's been around forever, used by zillions of recording and performing artists for all kinds of applications, and it sounds good, is reliable and rugged.

Heh..I have an ancient sm62..and I love it. Almost the same curve as a 57 and it's awesome for voice and instrument recording..picked it up on e-bay for $50.

i was lookin at that 835 this weekend, too. it looks like a lot of companies are making decent $100 dynamics these days - audix has the I5 in that range as well.

if you don't get the 58, let us know how the senny sounds.

Hey I know it's not either of these but there has been a price drop on the AKG C1000S which puts it in a similar price range as these mics. Of course it is a condensor.

http://www.akg.com/products/powerslave, ... ge,EN.html

I am thinking about picking one up this week.

I think Josh Woodward used these in this recordings, though not sure. Maybe he could drop in and let us know.

If anybody has these mics and could compare them to the aforementioned mics that would be great as well.

starfinger wrote: I have a condenser mic now

Ah just saw that.

the C1000 is a "swiss army knife" kinda condenser with a medium-size diaphragm. it compares most directly to the rode nt3. it makes a decent drum overhead and acoustic instrument mic, or stereo pair for room recordings. i think it generally rates a little lower than the rode.

josh usually used a pair of AKG 440's, which are a very, very different mic.

Freddielove wrote:Hey I know it's not either of these but there has been a price drop on the AKG C1000S which puts it in a similar price range as these mics. Of course it is a condensor.

http://www.akg.com/products/powerslave, ... ge,EN.html

I am thinking about picking one up this week.

I think Josh Woodward used these in this recordings, though not sure. Maybe he could drop in and let us know.

If anybody has these mics and could compare them to the aforementioned mics that would be great as well.

I use the C1000 and it is a great little condensor. Still use it for acc guitar recording and used it for vocals until I got the C3000B. Has served me well.

Where did you see them reduced in price?

starfinger wrote:hey,

I was thinking about picking up an sm58 so that I could join the rest of the world in owning one. I'm getting the hard sell on the Sennheiser e835, which I'm told is "becoming an industry standard for quality and price."

I'm looking for a decent, resilient vocal mic. I'll mostly be recording with it, but it needs to be able to be thrown around. I have a condenser mic now, and while the quality is great it feels a bit too sensitive for my current vocal needs.

Anybody have any applicable experience/clairvoyance?

-craig

I just bought a SM58 for using out of the house and was going to buy two when the lady at Sam Ash said why not try the EV 767 at a comparable price and to her ears sweeter and louder. As I had a 25% off coupon I got mailed from them (Sam Ash) I went ahead and got the SM58 for $78 inc tax and the EV767 for $87 inc tax. What a bargain. Those Sam Ash vouchers can make stuff a steal when they come through.

Last one I used to get an additional discount on an already discounted Ovation ADII Custom Legend in black. These guys are almost never deeply disounted unless they are scratched up or FRG's. That's the kinda stuff that the 25% coupon is great for. I get them perhaps couple of times a year.

The Sam Ash store in King of Prussia also had a Yamaha i88X I/O firewire interface for a ridiculous $369 which is a big drop in price that I have now seen other places. Would let me increase the number of physical inputs when added to my 01X to 16. The 25% coupon on that baby was seriously tempting.

blue wrote: josh usually used a pair of AKG 440's, which are a very, very different mic.

Beat me to it.

I was coming abck to edit this after looking it up.

We've got one of those senn's at the club, and I rarely use it. It's good and stuff, I'm just not blown away by it. Blue mentioned the Audix i5. Great, but that's an instrument mic. So I suggest:

Audix OM2.

The 58 is known for being indestructible. Unless you happen to drop it on the grill. Then it gets all dented, and if it's bad enough, you damage the diaphragm.

A coworker and I dropped the om2 from 20ft onto concrete about 20 times, and not only did it still work and sound better than the 58, but the grill was virtually intact.

It beats the sm58 in clarity, gain, ambient noise, and value, as far as I've seen. Same price.

If you spend just a little bit more, you can bump up to the om5, which is a fantastic vocal mic.

Now I'll give you a negotiating tool: There's no way to grind a salesman down on a 58, because they sell just above cost. But there's a good amount of room on the om2. Dealer cost is around $55. You could easily get them down to $75 on the mic, or get them to throw in some free shit - cables, etc.

Go get 'em.

i'm actually geting the sm58 for $60 + shipping. i sold my bass amp to an assistant manager at guitar center, and he's paying me partially in severely discounted stuff.

by the way, the condenser mic I have is the rode nt-1. It is quite good for the money, but i don't know jack shite about response curves and stuff like that.

thanks,
-craig

The Sober Irishman wrote: A coworker and I dropped the om2 from 20ft onto concrete about 20 times, and not only did it still work and sound better than the 58, but the grill was virtually intact.

Why on earth did you decide to drop a mic multiple times? Purely to see if it survived?

(Also Josh Woodward has recently found MXL 603s which sound pretty good from what I hear.)

audix mics are slowly creeping up my radar as being damned nice. the d6 is still my fave "rock" bass drum mic ever.

Bjam wrote:

The Sober Irishman wrote: A coworker and I dropped the om2 from 20ft onto concrete about 20 times, and not only did it still work and sound better than the 58, but the grill was virtually intact.

Why on earth did you decide to drop a mic multiple times? Purely to see if it survived?

Well, some guys from the audix company were in our store, and they were shouting praise for their product and spitting on all the shure gear, as these folks are paid to do.

But their main job is to convince salespeople their product is better. Salesmen for salesmen.

So, a guy opened up an om2 box, and dropped it from chest height onto the grill. He was like "an sm58 would be ruined, right?"

Anyways, after they left, me and my buddy tony were like "let's go in the warehouse and drop it from the big stepladder." So we did. We climbed as high as we could, and dropped it about 20 times onto the concrete warehouse floor. It was pretty funny, because you really expect it to just shatter when it hits, but instead, it bounces. Like, 6 ft high, if it hits right. Pretty funny.

We still have the mic at that store, and it does rattle a bit, but it still sounds better than a 58. I plan on selling my 58 to a customer and buying an i5, only because I don't have a proper instrument mic.

The coolest thing about the om2, especially for live, is how well everything is isolated inside the mic. With a 58, you can hear everything around, behind, and on the mic. The om2 is very directional. After you're a good 30 degrees off axis, most everything drops out. This reduces feedback immensely. This is particularly useful for singers who insist on holding the mic like a 'gangsta.' All that hand movement and coverage usually muffles the sound and creates feedback. Only problem is if you've got a singer/speaker who holds the mic vertically to their mouth (a.k.a. incorrectly), where you'd lose some signal.

As much as I hate to say it, Audix rocks over shure. At least the sm line. The beta line, I dont know.

smashing the grille of a 58 doesn't ruin it at all - replacement grilles are readily available for $5.

If you smash it hard enough, you'll get to the diaphragm.

And shut up, you're the one who cracked a 57 casing, dong.

which didn't ruin the mic, either. nothing electrical tape won't fix (with fashion)

stueym wrote:Where did you see them reduced in price?

Just about anywhere you can get one for $200 or $300 for a pair, less if you buy used or want to haggle. IIRC not long ago just one was going for over $300 new.

Man, all your mic talk and price quoting is convincing me that I should pretty much never buy anything from the Moog Audio store here in town. They are selling the SM58 for 175 CAD. That is hella lame, especially because I'd much rather go buy something in person than order it online.

If you're looking for a good cheap large diaphragm condenser mic, Audio Technica's 3035 is awesome at $199.

Comes with a shock mount and everything.

by the way, i ended up with the sennheiser e835 after all.

i don't have a lot to compare it to, but vocals sound way better on it than on my Rode Nt-1 -- that may have been due to them being less sensitive and not picking up all the crap in my voice and room reflections.

anyway, i used the mic on the forthcoming themesong fight.

-craig

boing!

Congrats on the new mics. How about posting some files of each for us to compare? Just record the same vocal with each mic or something. I was going to suggest a handful of alternatives, but as you already have two mics, you may not be looking for more. Having said that, I think you would do well with a Sennheiser MD421 or Shure SM7 for your vocals.

Ken