Samson Technologies - R31S

The Samson definitely sucks, and I wouldn’t recommend an SM57 or 58 for recording vocals either. 57s and 58s are an improvement over the Samson and are suitable for live performance, but they aren’t very detailed sounding and in fact they tend to sound covered or muffled. If you are trying to stay in the realm of inexpensive dynamic microphones, go with the Mojave MA-D. This mic is still dynamic, but has a much more open, natural, and detailed sound. I use it often for recording instruments and I use it live for vocals and I really love it. I would record vocals with it too but I usually use more expensive tube mics when recording… you can get an MA-D from Sweetwater or Zzounds for around $160. Also, a good mic makes a HUGE difference.

The Samson doesn’t entirely suck, but like the SM58 it performs better as a live stage mic. For studio, the SM58 also is better. The Samson maybe more mid range response, the SM58 has a better overall smoothed frequency response. The Samson may be trickier to mix, especially with compression, also it has lower output than the SM58, so may not perform as well with preamps. The other thing is the Samson isn’t as mechanically sound, you might get some noise with it, and it may not handle plosives etc as well.