I use a Beta 58 and a BetaGreen 2.0 for rehearsal vocals. I don't have any Beta57's, but I do have straight-up oldstyle SM57's from the late 70's/ early 80's. I don't use them for vocals so much, because I find the small-type screen/lack of screen to be slightly weird.

SM57, SM58, Beta57, Beta58, these are all fine, durable mics for live and/or rehersal space vocals. As is the BG2.0 if you come across one. I've never tried my M88 for vocals. It always either stays in the cabinet for practice, or gets set up on a guitar cab when recording.

endofanera wrote:I would be more inclined to recommend the Beta 57 than the Beta 58. It has (or seems to have) a slightly tighter pattern and tends to reject feedback better, especially from off-axis sources (sidefills, etc.). That might also be because the Beta 58 has a little more exaggerated of an upper-mid "presence peak" too. Anyway, that's been my experience. For this reason, we tend to use Beta 57s on vocals even more than SM-58s where I work, and definitely more than Beta 58s, which we dont generally break out unless someone asks for them.

I also use a beta 57, for all the reasons listed above.

If you are going to take a mike that could get confused with the house equipment to shows get one of those eching tools and put your name on it. Some of thease mikes are pretty common at clubs and you might have some problem taking it back home if it is not easly identifible to a house mike.

I think you don't want to get too esoteric for a stage vocal mike as some club sound men know how to use the regular set up and have general house levels and a too different vocal mike might be too much for them to handle.

At diffrent points for vocals I have used EV 635A (reporter mike), SM63L (band with many floresent light fixtures on stage this mike works well arround floresent lights). I have used some of the AKG (D19-E and SM58 look alikes) and they sounded fine, As well I know a lot of people who swear by the Seinhauser Hand Helds I use one in rehersals it seems to have a bit of bite. That said on stage I see no advantage over a SM58

You should just try some out on your voice. I have used SM57s and 58s just cause that is what you usally get at the club so getting used to what they do is probibly a positive thing as you will probibly run into them a lot. Know a singer who uses the Beta 58 and she seems to swear by it, her voice is realy high like a cartoon character though.

I think a 57 or a 58 is just fine. Especially because they are durable and easily repairable/replaceable as far as parts or the whole damn thing. You don't want to have your precious vintage ribbon mic bust on you in the middle of some shithole town in texas on like the third night.

Just while we are on this topic!! As a matter of interest, what mics do the pros use? Metallica, Chrisina Aguilera, etc. What is the ultimate stage vocal mic if you have an unlimited budget?

tmidgett wrote:58 is fine for live use. they are not good. but they are hard to break and sound the same basic kind of not-good on pretty much everybody.

[snip]

beyer m88 is great on the right voice, but the gain before feedback is not as high as the shure

I agree here about the 58 but, generally speaking, have preferred the beta 58 over the regular one, especially if the mic is staying in one place on the stand, meaning it's not being used by a lead singer who moves around with the mic in hand.

I've used (as front of house sound person) an m88 on two thin-voiced, mostly quiet singers on some recent tours. I've been really happy with the results and have been able to get significantly more gain before feedback than either of the above-mentioned Shure mics.

Tuite wrote:Just while we are on this topic!! As a matter of interest, what mics do the pros use? Metallica, Chrisina Aguilera, etc. What is the ultimate stage vocal mic if you have an unlimited budget?

I don't know about what mic your examples of pros use, specifically, but the one occasion I got to use the Neumann KMS 105, I was very impressed. I don't think there was anything I didn't like about it. It's about $500 US.

http://www.neumann.com/?lang=en&id=curr ... escription

Tuite wrote:Just while we are on this topic!! As a matter of interest, what mics do the pros use? Metallica, Chrisina Aguilera, etc. What is the ultimate stage vocal mic if you have an unlimited budget?

I was told by the soundman who set up my Crown CM-310A that Kurt Cobain had used this mic while alive and playing rock music.

That's what he said. It was in Baltimore. Who am I to doubt the Soundmen of Baltimore?

Phil Collins uses an M88.

KrisPoulin wrote:

I don't know about what mic your examples of pros use, specifically, but the one occasion I got to use the Neumann KMS 105, I was very impressed. I don't think there was anything I didn't like about it. It's about $500 US.

http://www.neumann.com/?lang=en&id=curr ... escription

I had problems with this mic. I sometimes do sound in a small venue and when a fairly quiet girl singer with a KMS 105 showed up the mic was too sensitive for the stage and too trebly for her voice.
The snare drum and the cymbals were almost as loud in the mic as her voice was and I had to eq the mic's signal a lot to make it work.
I'm sure a dynamic mic would have worked better.

i think having your own vocal mic is a great idea, also a bottle of the green rubbing alcohol and a tooth brush will clean and disinfect the grill of the mic and make it minty fresh as a low cost alternative. while having done live sound for a few years i've seen some sound people get all uptight when you are not using the house mics, they claim the house system will get all feedback happy. usually i wonder why these people have this job. i think for stage vocals a beta 58 is a good choice, for others a audix om7 is the way to go. try out a few and pick whatever suits you best, i think the person who posted to engrave it etc. is right on. give the sound person a heads up about hey this is mine i am going to use it. don't forget your mic at the first show.