Me and my band are in urgent need of a new mike for vocals and possibly also acoustic guitar.

I dont know the first thing about mikes, so i hope you guys can give me some advice on what to look for and what to avoid in a mike.

What are some good & cheap brand names out there? I know Sure and Sennheisser are porbably out of my $$, but we'll see.

You can pick up a Shure SM57 for $79. Good all-around mic.

That Shure SM57 Turock is talking about is like a standard, at least here in the US. You haven't been gigging here if you haven't sung through one of these. If you see several of these with different letters after the "57" that just refers to whether you want the cable or a switch on it.

Check Nady too. The make some decent, affordable, mic's.

Yeah, the Sure mikes are pretty much standard, although we use SM58s. They're good mikes for the money.

I use a Shure SM58 and it works great - I only do backing vocals. Our singer uses an Electro Voice mic - not sure which model (she reckoned it suited her voice better!!!!!).

Anyway, the SM58 cost about £80 over here - what's that about $115??? Although, I bet you can get it cheaper in the US!

Im gonna try to find the cheapest sure there is. I saw one for about $70 like Turock said, but im gonna try to find something even cheaper. Hey, im trying to save for my video camera!

The SM 57 and sm 58 are industry standards , the sm-58 is more tailored for vocals where the sm 57 is a workhorse that you can use to mic everything from drums to bass and guitar cabinets to vocals. The Beta 58 has a tighter polar pattern than the sm 58 so it's less prone to feed back.
Anyhoo now for my reccomendation for a high quality mic , checkout the AKG C-1000 s. It's the swiss army mic , it's sensitive and accurate enough to be used in the studio , you can mic guitars and bass cabinets , several types of woodwind instruments and it comes with two adaptors , one is a hyper cardoid polar pattern converter which directs the pickup pattern more in front of the mic to help cut feed back which is great if you're singing in front of monitors . It also has a presence boost adaptor which gives you a 3 db boost at about 1000hz , this would be good for standard speech , but , you might like it for singing.

Get an AUDIX OM-2

get it now!!!

NOW!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I would at the minimum spring for SM57's. As someone mentioned, 58's are geared more towards vocals if that's all you need a mic for. For the money though, you'd be hard pressed to find as versatile a mic as the SM57 @ only $80 a pop. They are great for micing guitars and stand in as a vocal mic anytime.

Mics are like everything else sound related, go too low on price, and you'll be out that dough plus what you have to spend later to upgrade when you're unhappy. :(

Get a 57 or 58.

Most of the time you can get an SM58 with a 20 ft cable at GC or Mars for $99. What an amazing bargain for the industry standard live vocal mic.

My band uses 58's for the lead singer(s) and 57's for the backups.

Originally posted by lo-end
Get an AUDIX OM-2

get it now!!!

NOW!!!!!!!!!!! :D

You should still get it!!!!!!

Beta 58.
Best vocal mike under $150.
__________________________________
jim obrien
http://www.illustriousday.com

You can buy the CM50 direct from Carvin for $49.99. It lists for $130. Looks solid.

http://www.carvin.com/cgi-bin/get.exe?PAGE=detail&CFG=2&SearchStr=(I.ItemNumber='CM50')+AND+(CID2='M/S/C')

Shure 58.

OK, everybody shut up. Fireglo, let your mind clear. Now. Get the industry standard Shure SM-58. If you pay $99 for it, you're paying too much. GC can sell them for less than $90, any ol' time. Yes, you can find a serviceable mic for $50 or so, but it will suck either immediately or soon thereafter. If you buy the 58, it will last you a LONG time, and will always be good enough to use in any band at any venue. It's like a tool in your tool kit. My band uses only SM-58's, even our lead singer, who uses my wireless. It's really a small investment for the most widely used professional mic. Don't make a mistake and buy something you'll have to keep replacing. OK, good-bye.

I'm with Munji.. Buy a damn SM-58.
They're pretty much standard for vocals. They're indestructible and predictable. Don't bother with the Beta. In my (considerable) experience, the betas are way too sibilant and give you less gain before feedback than regular SM-58s. Plus they just plain sound disgusting. The pattern of a SM58 is a bit wider than the beta but it doesn't have a peak behind the mic like a betas do. SM-58s are better constructed too.

Originally posted by metro_trash
The SM 57 and sm 58 are industry standards , the sm-58 is more tailored for vocals where the sm 57 is a workhorse that you can use to mic everything from drums to bass and guitar cabinets to vocals. The Beta 58 has a tighter polar pattern than the sm 58 so it's less prone to feed back.

My band is using Beta 58's for all 4 vocal mikes.
Output is excellent, sound quality is excellent,
no feedback problems. I just wish they had an
off/on switch so I didn't have to have the drums
pounding through my mike on tunes I don't sing....

Scott

The SM58 may be the industry standard, but that is not to say it is the perfect vocal mic. It handles vocals in a way that most people are used to, but for the same money, I suggest looking at the Sennheiser e835 and the Audix OM-2. The OM-2 is particularly noted for its accuracy, especially considering its around $100 price. Check out this review:
http://www.audixusa.com/OM2-EM1999.html

57 or 58. They sound good and will stand up to much abuse. I've got a couple of each that have been thrown around for about 20 yrs and still work just fine. (I did have to straighten out the balls on the 58s a couple times.)

The Audix mics sound nice but they have some serious reliability problems. I took 4 OM7's out on a tour a couple of years ago and they all cakked at least once. A lot of other pro audio guys have reported the same thing. The 835's are pretty nice for the money, though.

I just got an OM-2 for 40 bucks, but I'm not taking it out on the road with me, so I trust what you sound contractors say about reliability. Shure is known for being able to go through heck and back.

Shure stuff's pretty reliable.........
Except when DRUMMERS knock the tops off 57s :D:p That's why they changed the heads for the beta 57 and Btea 57A. BTW the Beta 57A is amazing as a vocal mic. Nice natural sound and more gain before feedback than the 58 OR Beta 58. Great for getting lots of monitor level.

Yeah, I just sold a Beta 57A (needed the cash), and I needed a cheap replacement so the $40 OM-2 was just the ticket.
fc

Well, seems like the sure 58 is what i want, according to what most of you said.

Is it also good for acoustic guitar? what about percussions?

I think that for recording instruments and drums, the Shure SM57 is the way to go. The SM57 is also a good vocal mic.