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Reddit Reviews
BadQuaile835 is great, but A/B with the e935 and it's like taking a blanket off the PA.
eldritch__cleaver+1 Came here to say Senn e935. Baseline lead vocal for me for ages now. EV makes some good stuff that's better than the 58 as well.
fleur_waratah_girlFor mics I use a Sennheiser e835 (vocals) or Shure sm57 (vox and instrumental) I have a e935 but I don't think it records as well as the 835 but it kicks ass for live use... I go a into a focusrite Scarlett. I had a AT4040 but I dropped i also have a Lewitt 440 but that thing is a temperamental bitch and needs to be in a well isolated and treated room. Avoid USB mics. You may as well continue using your iphone
HugePinesI bought the Sm7b and cloudlifter hype and was underwhelmed at first, but I think it sounds pretty good on guitar and bass cabs. If I could do it over, I would get an re20, but instead I added a sennheiser e935 as a vocal dynamic mic and it fills in the gaps nicely.
javakookMy favorite is Shure Beta 57A. Others I recommend are Sennheiser e945 and e935.
koshiamamotoUnless you're really certain that you need a super- or hypercardioid for monitor placement or other gain-before-feedback reasons, then I'd recommend sticking with a cardioid because that pattern is a lot more forgiving whenever it comes time to sway from side to side or peek at the fretboard. While the Beta 58a, M88, M80, and MD431 will all have a touch more \*sparkle sparkle\* than an SM58 when you're right on top of them, move your mouth an inch to either side and all of a sudden they've got a blanket over them. The AKG, being a condenser, seems like more trouble than it would be worth unless you're planning on switching to in-ear monitoring. While not fancy, the Sennheiser e935 might be worth a try if you just want a bit more clarity than the SM58.
kowal89Good dynamic mic will help too. I have Sennheiser e935 and it's as good as condenser with all the benefits of dynamic
moldybrieYou'll have to eq the SM58 to get it to sound anywhere close to modern mics. SM58 is overrated in my opinion, live sound guys like them because they're readily available and can take a beating and if you're a sound engineer worth a crap you know how to eq them to not sound like mud... but so are a dozen other mics in the same price range that sound miles better out of the box. On the condenser side, AT2020 is a pretty decent vocal mic for $100, very usable sound, if a little crispy and lacking detail. Another you might take a look at is MXL V67G which sounds a bit warmer and clearer than the AT2020 IF you don't get one with QC issues. Same element is used in many Ear Trumpet Labs mics, which are $700+ mics (though ETL has a deal with the factory to only send good condenser capsules; MXL don't care). Some others to consider well under $200: Rode NT1, Avantone CK-6, sE Electronics X1S. If you want a dynamic mic, I'd recommend sE Electronics V7 or something by Sennheiser (Senn e935 is the mic that I'd recommend for a main vocal dynamic mic). If you want a Shure, get the Beta 58, which has more modern circuitry and more clarity. If you want an interesting and fantastic affordable mic, check out "3U Audio" on ebay. It's a Chinese dude who used to design mics for a big Chinese OEM factory and worked with some very well-known brands, who decided to start his own business making high-end mics at affordable prices. The $164 CM1 Black SE is a very good transformerless FET condenser with a near-perfect flat eq that is better than many mics 5x the price... very similar to certain Neumann mics in usage. Or if you want something with a bit more top-end sparkle, there's a Teal C1 version that is pretty much a transformerless FET version of a vintage AKG mic used on a thousand recordings.
