Is a SHURE SM58 okay?

[cosmicdolphin]

Okay, I'm leaving now so you can talk bad about me.

I won't do that - thanks for the reply and insights. I recently recorded more and there definitely seem to be less issues the larger the (bed/living) room is. The frequency cut-off with onboard soundcards I did not know. Still waiting on my ASIO interface - China production lacking behind. But I run the sound for my new AKG 812 headphones first through a Yamaha keyboard synth and that sounds pretty good to me.

Tom

Tom what did you order? Everything I ever ordered came like next day or the day after ?

[cosmicdolphin]

Tom what did you order? Everything I ever ordered came like next day or the day after ?

Audient iD4: https://www.thomann.de/de/audient_id4.htm

The dealer - Thomann - is very reputable and my AKG headphones came the next day. For the interface they had said 2-3 weeks delivery before I ordered, so seems okay to me. They say June 1st now, so is in time.

Tom

Sweet, well I can confirm it works well with Cakewalk, I've used Thomann quite a few times over the years - they always seem pretty good. Think I bought my ID4 elsewhere though

[charlie2]

Sometimes we get lost in the details and fail to see the big picture.

I'm sure many great hits were recorded w the sm58 and many duds were recorded w the high end Mikes..

[cosmicdolphin]

Sometimes we get lost in the details and fail to see the big picture.

Sometimes we need the right brush to paint the picture

[MBantle]

IMO you can do pretty much everything with the SM 58 or a SM 57 (same cartridge design). Bono, Mick Jagger etc. used the 58 when recording vocals in the studio. There are quite a few Youtube videos where they record an entire band with just a 57 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI8YFJFyNLM). Mic placement and a decent preamp are really important as almost all dynamic mics need a lot of 'clean gain' to sound good. The great thing about dynamic mics is that they are much more easy going when it comes to room treatment (as in not ideal room treatment). And, of course, it all depends on the mix. If you really miss a lot of high end in the 57 or 58 (after EQ) use other sounds in your arrangement that have more high end (or can be boosted to that end) to trick your listeners ears. I'm not saying that the 58 is the first choice for studio recordings but if that is all you got (+ a decent preamp) you should be able to get very decent results.
Cheers,
Matt

[cosmicdolphin]

Matt

No pre-amp here yet... Will look into it!

Tom

The Pre-amp in your new Audient is a very good

[subinthompson]

Hi Tom,

A few of my thoughts on the SM58 from my experience.
It is one good mic that you can have in your kit even when your setup expands. As Matt suggested, you can do pretty much everything with a 58/ 57 and it is easy in an untreated room.

The Audient iD4 is gonna have a great impact because:
1. You can crank up the pre-amp without increasing the inherent noise and still get a clean signal from the mic. The white background noise is from the electronics in your built-in sound card. It will magically disappear because of the higher quality electronics in the Audient.
2. Your room reflections and ambient noise wont be much of a problem because the SM58's pickup is very limited unlike condenser mics. So if the mic is pretty close to your mouth, with considerable loudness in your voice, you should be good.

Be sure to get good quality microphone cables and speaker cables with quality connectors. Because that is the last thing you want to find out before judging your interface and monitors/ headphones.

Subin

[TheElement]

I just bought an SM58 but havent used it yet. I did a bunch of research. The SM7B would be a perfect mic for what you are looking for. The SM58 I noticed on videos had pop issues so I also got the foam pop filter for it. Hope that helps.

[subinthompson]

Thanks for explaining this to me, because I really had no idea that a pre-amp is that important as a noise-reducing factor. Really looking forward to my little ID4-thingy now.

Tom

yes indeed. the pre amp is the first and most important thing in the chain (after the mic). When you get your signal right from the source, everything else will be smooth down the line.

I'm more than happy to help you. See, now I'm excited about your ID4

Subin

[TheElement]

just tested out the sm58 with my terrible singing. The mic sounds great. can definitely make it work for vocals. ended up writing a little motif with it. Great for getting ideas down fast and recording vocals. I have a foam pop filter on it. no pops at all.