Shure - BETA® 58A Vocal Microphone

Lots of cheaper mics that IMO sound better than the ol' 58. Samson Q series, Berhringer. The Sennheiser e35 is a better mic for the money. The Shure PG48A and 58beta are also great.

The Slate ML1 will probably remain my vocal mic of choice. I did a record where half of the vocals were recorded with a Bock 251 and the other half were with the Slate's 251 emulation. The Slate sounded warmer and clearer, the Bock sounded more open and brittle. Could be that the Bock was just old and needed a refresher, but damned if I'm not going to start doing a shootout between it and whatever epic priced mic I come across from now on. Fathead ribbons are great. Warm 47jr (especially for bass). And (back to vocals) don't discount 58s for certain styles. I just did a punk record with a Beta 58 for vocals (singy vocals, not screamy ones) and not only did it fit well but I barely had to do anything to it in the mix.

I think you're alone dude: ) They seriously crank! I think the e835 beat SM58 for clarity hands down, and the e935/45 are easily superior to the beta 58a. The midrange complaint you refer to is less problematic in Sennys than Shures, IMHO. ☺️

try super cardiod mics like the se v7 or even shure beta 58a. have your drummer tape his cymbals. turn guitars and bass down on stage. use in ear monitor. project your voice more but not like you are doing to hurt yourself etc

beta58 has weird handling noise

Sm58a is technically a handheld 

This doesn’t work for everyone. Yes, if you want to let a singer hold a $500+ mic you can get the same quality. If you have a chill venue, I’m sure it’s fine. But for those of that run a wild ship, it doesn’t work. Besides physical damage, I’d worry about them walking out the door. You will sound great on my corded Betas, you will have 25’ of leeway. I’m not cheap, at all. But it’s like lipstick on a pig sometimes 😉

Have you tried the KSM8? It’s kinda sorta smooth around the mids, very little proximity effect, doesn’t emphasize 800–1.2 kHz area. If budget’s tight, good old Beta 58 or 87 are worth to give a shot. Before cutting 350–400 and 750–800, I’d first sweep around 900–1.2 kHz and put a gentle dip there. Then add a small cut near 350–450 Hz, plus a dynamic EQ band around 800–1 kHz to duck on big vowels. HPF around 100 Hz, and if it sounds dull, add a touch of air. What I also find useful is playing with the mic angle and aim, try 20–30° off-axis and aim just below the lip line. That often takes the edge off. You can test and try to figure out a sweet spot for your singer. If you sprinkle in some VST magic like Waves F6/C6 and pair it with the right capsule and mic technique, that works best. Why I like F6/C6 in this case is; F6/C6 let you set per band thresholds, ranges, and time constants, even sidechain a specific band, so you can make the 900–1.2 kHz dip only when it pops out without dulling the whole. Metering shows exactly which band is working and how much, which makes dialing faster. Many decent modern consoles built in dynamic EQ is also great and close enough. If your desk already has per band dynamics with good metering, you can use that too. Plugins mainly win on ergonomics and precision.

Something I like to do is put the lead singer on a Beta 58 then the backing singers on SM58's. The duller sound of the SM58 makes them naturally sit a bit behind the brighter Beta58

Long time pro-musician and recording engineer here... While I have a choice of several mics, I currently run either a Rode NT1 into an RME Fireface UFX or a BETA58A into a Behringer X32 Rack (I stream Just Chatting and also live drumming streams, so run two different setups) Having said that, and as good as my specific gear is, the reality is that great sound is less to do with the mics and a lot more to do with the room you're in, the treatment and your overall setup. Firstly, I would look into a dedicated interface from a reputable audio company. Elgato makes decent stuff, but pro audio really isn't their space, and for the money I believe better options exist. Any of the mics you listed will technically do the job, but your money is likely wasted on the SM7B - which is a lot more expensive than the others, and won't sound great at all if you're running it through an interface that cannot provide a decent amount of gain. If you aren't planning on having overly loud/percussive sounds during your stream, you'd probably benefit from the extra clarity and detail that a *condenser* microphone providse - although you'll need an interface that can provide *phantom power* in order to make it work. Condenser mics can sound great and don't need to be expensive, but will suffer if your room acoustics aren't great - so that may need to be your first step. So... many potential factors to consider if you really want to go down the rabbit hole, but if it were me in your position I'd probably just go get myself something like a Rode NT1 and a Focusrite Scarlet 2i2. That should give a decent upgrade in sound without spending too much money.

I use a Beta 58 and Cubase. But when I was just getting (re)started, I used GarageBand then Logic Pro.