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Shure SM58
by JennieJones
If you judge the quality of your microphone by how many times a drunk person can hit themselves over the head with it before it breaks, the SM58 will get 5/5. As the industry standard, for many this is the go to microphone, if you ever see a wired microphone on the TV or on the stage likelihood is it will be the ... SM58.
Designed in 1966 for vocal response it has a built-in spherical filter which limits sibilance and aspirated plosives ('ssssss' and 'p' noisies). The cardioid pickup pattern also isolates the main sound source while minimizing unwanted background noise. It's hard wearing design, shock-mount system and a steel mesh grille ensure that even with rough handling, the SM58 will perform consistently and it does, I've used mine with over a thousand different singers over 10 years whilst hosting karaoke and open mic. nights with no complaints.
Sensibly priced between £79-100 depending of if you would like the switched version or not, this is a product for the best part of a lifetime, especially since it comes with replaceable parts. The shaft of mine, after 10 years of drunken abuse and knocking about in a flight cases is looking a little worse for wear and I will be replacing it soon.
Sound wise it's still as good as when I first brought it, in standard conditions it offers a clear and true reproduction of the vocals, especially in the mid-range frequencies which is where most voices comfortably sit.
The downside comes with the voices which fall or dart into the lower or higher range frequencies, it can fail to accurately reproduce the beautiful bass notes or the brighter higher notes. It also can be unforgiving to singers who prefer to hold their microphone at a distance from the mouth, as the sound can very quickly become thin and tinny. I am being overly critical with the aforementioned points and many people will be more than content to use an SM58 which has such few limitations, however, with the wide variety of microphones which have reached the market since 1966, if you are looking for a personal microphone it is worth shopping around, some singers my self included will have better results and find other microphones are more suited to their voice.
In conclusion, this is great microphone and everyone who works in the music industry should have one in their tool bag, even if it just to have a quality spare.
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Blue Microphones Yeti Pro
by MrPixl8
I have always had problems with technology, it generally chooses to not work with me which is annoying as I love technology. This microphone continued the trend by making my experience almost hell-like!
So this microphone arrived at my door quite recently and I was very excited to begin using it on some of my Youtube videos, I ... expected to simply plug the mic in and begin recording. This is absolutely not the case, first of all my computer simply didn't pick up the microphone at all! Instantly I was quite annoyed but I had come to expect this kind of result from technology so I searched on Blue's website for some drivers which I eventually found. I downloaded them and for once the microphone worked, my computer picked up the microphone and upon opening Audacity it began picking up sound. Naturally I was pleased and I decided to record some footage for my Youtube while recording my voice, I bought this mic because I decided to upgrade for the sake of my YouTube channel and I expected a high range mic would be the best possible option. Unfortunately it turns out that you are essentially paying for the name, this mic really isn't that impressive. The sound quality is mostly good but it always seems extremely quiet, even when my mouth was close to the mic it seemed painfully quiet. The only way to get the mic to pick up sound efficiently is to actually shout into the microphone, maybe I simply expected too much but honestly this seems like a rip off to me. Although I hate how low the sound is, the sound quality is very good, it hardly picks up any background or general fuzzy noise but what is the point when the sound is so awfully low? Honestly I certainly don't consider myself an expert on sound control and recording but I simply expected this to be a lot better than it is especially for the crazy amount of money you have to pay for it, you're looking at around £180 for one of these and if this is the quality then I am not impressed at all.
I suppose I should still tell you about the build quality and the appearance of the microphone even though I have pretty much told you how bad it actually is as a microphone. Admittedly it looks pretty cool to me, it comes with a nice little stand and it is easy to position in front of you for podcasting etc. The build quality is decent, it doesn't feel flimsy or particularly cheap so it is decent in that regard.
Ultimately I would advise you to give this microphone a miss, spend the same amount of money on an alternative as it will most probably be much better. If you are a YouTuber like myself, this mic will be awful for you so please don't buy it! People want to actually hear you talk louder than a whisper!
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Shure SM58
by stevie69p
This is probably the best known vocal mic in use. Everyone recognises the iconic shape, and many have copied it. It's not my favourite vocal mic, but it does the job well enough, and when you've been using them as long as I have, you know what to expect from them and where the EQ tweaking needs to be done (they can be a tad harsh in the ... high-mids).
This is the one mic that you'll be expected to have in your mic box if you're doing any form of touring PA work. It's robustly built and it has been joked on many occasions that it doubles up as an excellent hammer!
The ones that I own are now approaching 6 years old and haven't exhibited any issues at all. I occasionally check the little grub screws for tightness holding in the XLR connector, and the grilles on some of them are beginning to rust in places, so will require new grilles shortly.
If you're looking for a good utility mic at a sensible price, it'd be daft not to have one or two of these in your kit. You can use them for vocals, stick them on a guitar amp, even throw one inside a kick drum and you'll get useable results.
And band members can throw them across the stage and they still work!
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