best multi-purpose mic choice?

[Len911]

"The M80s are awesome," comments Green Day engineer Chris Dugan, who works with the band on the road and in the studio. "We put the M80 on a snare drum and that is where I fell in love with it. It was exactly what we wanted on Tre's snare. When it came time to tour, I suggested it to Kevin Lemoine, our FOH (Front of House) mixer, and when we tried it on vocals is when I saw the light. We've been mixing some live shows from Japan before we got the M80s and compared with later shows with the TELEFUNKENs, it is like night and day."It almost sounds like it has been EQ'd, with a ton of clarity, a lot of top end without being sizzly, and a nice warm body to it

"Without any EQ added," Dugan continued, "the M80 has a crisp top end, there's more rejection of unwanted stage sounds, and it has a nice tight pattern, which is very important for us. . Before the M80s, we had a lot of guitar and cymbal bleed in Billie's mic, but not any more."

........I need one that adds/brings high-end clarity and crispy tones that are absent from my natural tone...

no substitute for EQ Peter. That's what its there for. To make it sound as good as possible.

I'm getting hungry,lol, sizzly, crispy, warm body (fat?), almost sounds like bacon.

[Kolstad]

I've been through a dozen of condensers in that range, and a dozen of dynamic mics. I was looking for a mic that could make my vocals sound like in my head, and work for acoustic guitar too. Guess which mic I liked the best.... (drumroll) a Shure SM58.

I like the way it masks the frequencies in my voice that I would have EQ's out in the daw, anyway. I like the bassresponse and the way it rolls of high end. I also like it on acoustic guitar because it doesn't pick up much of the room, and is easier to sit in a mix. I also like the way the 58 responds to processing when mixing. It works great with compressors, EQ's, delays and reverbs ect. I also like it on my amp (better than a 57). I don't know your situation, but if I was going into a 100k studio, I would still ask for a 58, maybe a beta 58, and just pair it with great preamps.

Some of the other mics I've tried, may have sounded better one one particular song, and on one source, but didn't work the next time, or with guitars, or sounded terrible when I processed it in the daw. If it was for someone else, and it had to be more versatile, I also own an Se 2200a, which is great for BIG sounding stuff. And if I had a project studio, where I had to record others, I would maybe get a Neumann or two in the TLM series, because they also sounds like my head voice. But for my own preference it's the 58. That's all I can say. I'm a simple man. After all of those money spent, who'd thought a 100 bucks could do it.

[Len911]

I was looking for a mic that could make my vocals sound like in my head, and work for acoustic guitar too. Guess which mic I liked the best.... (drumroll) a Shure SM58.

A Shure SM58 was my first and worst mic I ever owned. Then I upgraded to a Neumann TLM 193, what an eye-opener. Shows the wide varying opinions about mics.

I took a gamble and bought a "vintage" Beyerdynamic M610 dynamic mic off of ebay,lol, and I actually quite like it alot on vocal.

[eeoo]

Audio Technica makes great mics at very reasonable prices.

[Russell Landwehr]

Like Andy said, condenser mics generally suck for live performances.... except for the Crown CM-311a (THAT one is totally the best).... and if you don't want to wear a headset mic when performing, I dig the EV N/D267a (it's a dynamic)
That one is easy to mix and sounds great live.

I've found that for general purpose studio recording, small diaphragm condensers are pretty nice. I've used the CAD Equitek E-100 for years. (One thing when shopping condensers is that you look for a flat response and the ability to handle high SPLs which that CAD does... to a point)

The reason I'm mentioning the EV N/D267a and the CAD E-100 (or the current equivalent for both) is that you can definately come in under your $500 mark with two mics.

But the gist is... use two mics. One for live, and one for recording.

Russell

[funsongs]

Like Andy said, condenser mics generally suck for live performances.... except for the Crown CM-311a (THAT one is totally the best).... and if you don't want to wear a headset mic when performing, I dig the EV N/D267a (it's a dynamic)
That one is easy to mix and sounds great live.

I've found that for general purpose studio recording, small diaphragm condensers are pretty nice. I've used the CAD Equitek E-100 for years. (One thing when shopping condensers is that you look for a flat response and the ability to handle high SPLs which that CAD does... to a point)

The reason I'm mentioning the EV N/D267a and the CAD E-100 (or the current equivalent for both) is that you can definately come in under your $500 mark with two mics.

But the gist is... use two mics. One for live, and one for recording.

Russell

Thanks Russell... and all the others who chimed in.

[lesmac]

I've found that for general purpose studio recording, small diaphragm condensers are pretty nice. I've used the CAD Equitek E-100 for years. (One thing when shopping condensers is that you look for a flat response and the ability to handle high SPLs which that CAD does... to a point)

Recommended by none other than the great Hugh Robjohns
https://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan11/ ... de100s.htm

[JHoffman]

Sounds like you're looking for a Shure SM7b
You can't go wrong with that mic. Super inexpensive and there isn't a studio on Music Row that doesn't use it on pretty much every session.
You will want to get a Cloud Lifter as well at some point if you get the SM7b

[mojobone]

I'd suggest the Gauge ECM87; if you're using the Bose L1 system and you don't have a bunch of loud monitor wedges to contend with, there's no reason you can't just set up a single mic the way bluegrass bands have done it for decades. It's got enough 'lift' to bring out the grain in your vocal without causing the guitar to get too 'plucky'. Any large-diaphragm transformerless mic from Audio-Technica would do as well or better, for a little more money.