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Heil PR 35---best all around mic ever?

#22
D.A.R.K. said:
the heil stuff is really great, lots of folks are going to their camp at the moment. as stated, it definitely comes down to the individual voice and how each mic reacts to that voice.
funny how proximity used to be considered a bad thing, with over emphasis on lows being to outcome...
now, due to the nature of the beast (the marshall stack, for example)
mics are being designed for this purpose.
i'm really into the beyerdynamic stuff right now, despite having a nice selection of sennheiser mics available for free through tour support....
i find the m88 is the shizz with all 3 female vocalists i mix for,
and the heil, sennheiser and sure mics just didn't cut it for them.
i've used different condensers including the 105 as well (i find it picks up a hell of a lot of stage sound, like most condensers), but if you visit a couple hundred different places a year with different systems you might find that vocal condensers can be problematic.. one bad connection or slight short in a cable can ruin your day pretty quick. you loose an overhead on the kit, not many will notice... you loose the main vocal, everyone wants to kill you, including the artist.
i usually leave the condensers to stationary uses...
anyway, glad you found one you like jimmy!
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Ya, the stage is no place to be thrashing around condenser mics. BTW, may I ask who you're mixing for? Sounds pretty happening if you have a deal with Sennheiser.

BTW, I never did get a PR 35. I'm sticking with the 58. It's just better suited to what I do as a vocalist, which is to croak out rock and roll a little on the sloppy side. I'm not real good about getting back to the mic on time or singing directly into the element, so I decided against it. Our guitarist also opted not to get it. He's sticking with his Beta 57. He wants one but he's too cheap to buy one.
 
#23
JimmyM said:
Ya, the stage is no place to be thrashing around condenser mics. BTW, may I ask who you're mixing for? Sounds pretty happening if you have a deal with Sennheiser.
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a few of my clients have sennheiser deals, a couple that you might have heard of are blonde redhead and ok go. sennheiser is actually really good about supporting artists, i imagine bowzer could get hooked up pretty easily, just get in touch with sennheiser usa/ artist relations. they supply touring artists with mic packages.... you don't actually own the mics, but can swap them out for fresh ones when needed.
i don't make any personal endorsements, although i'm on a big beyer kick at the moment... wouldn't mind endorsing them. but i end up mixing and matching brands to taste and need.
my deal is that used to be a full time bassist, but now make my scratch mixing foh/ doing tour support, playing/recording in between.
it's the steadier paycheck at the moment.
 
#24
Ya, I imagine Bowzer could, but we fly so much that we just use what's supplied so he's not going to bother with it. Honestly, though, he prefers Shures.

Beyer is a name that recently just came back into my consciousness. I've had a couple gigs where they mic'ed my cab with an M88. That's a badass mic on bass cabs. Never tried it on vocals but it probably has a killer voicing for girl singers.

BTW, is OK Go that band who did the video on treadmills all in one take? That's a hell of a band if it is.
 
#25
the m88 is a killer on bass cabs, kick drum, guitar cabs and female vox. really great all around dynamic.
yes, ok go did the tread mill video.
tim is a great bass player- rocks the old hagstrom hollow body basses and a big muff through either an svt or a pair of the b200r ampegs, not unlike your setups.
 
#27
I find that the better the mic, the more folks it sounds good on. The M88 is certainly a good one. (It's like the old "this speaker is great for rock, but not classical, and this one is great for classical but lousy for rock". Truth is they both suck - it's just that their problems are easier to forgive on certain types of music. One that works rightly will be good for anything.)
 
#28
since i just bought a new 'backup' PA for my band, i decided that i would try to get the best mics that i could. i already have two new SM58's (and three old ones), two new SM57's (and six old ones), a new beta56A, a new beta87A, an old EV PL80 (that i bought in '74), three EV D35's (old but still great mics), an Old AKG D1000E that i bought new in '73 (i hate that one), a couple of Sennheiser 421's, a 441, and a new beta52A (for the kick). IMO, they are all very good mics, but i wanted to try what alot of people consider the best, and fortunately, i just got an incredible deal today on two brand new Neumann KMS105's in the factory boxes. i got them from a local pro sound engineer for only $600 (for the pair!). so far, the KMS105's are my personal favorite (testing them at home) but i'll have to wait til the 12th to see how they perform on the actual gig.
 
#29
johnk_10 said:
i just got an incredible deal today on two brand new Neumann KMS105's in the factory boxes. i got them from a local pro sound engineer for only $600 (for the pair!). so far, the KMS105's are my personal favorite (testing them at home) but i'll have to wait til the 12th to see how they perform on the actual gig.
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They're my fave too for vocals. So good feedback rejection , being hyper cardioid. They do wonder on female singers with not output.
 
#34
Don't worry about what it cost. Worry about what it will cost to fix :-) I don't know about Heil's costs. Shure are cheap, but so are the mics. Audix are pretty good - my SDC ($480 MAP) was only $100 to fix. Sennheiser can be pricey - a few years ago we tossed some 421s 'cause the price was so high - we just bought new ones.
 
#35
A 58 works for some of the greatest singers the world has ever seen. It'll work for me. If it's possible to damage a mic, I will. I have knocked them out of the stand with my upright, dropped them accidentally, become entangled in the cable and pulled the whole thing down, and many variations of same. That's why I decided against the Heil, and that's why nobody should ever give me a $700 mic. Or even a $300 mic.
 
#36
i understand you completely. i've been using SM58's for 30+ years and have never had one go down due to misuse or an accident, and at the last McCartney concert, the whole band was singing thru them. so, if its good enough for a beatle, i think its good enough for the rest of us. i did notice that Tom Petty almost always sings thru an SM57, which i actually prefer the sound of over the 58, but they are more fragile with the plastic top piece, so i always went with the 58.

BTW, way back in the mid 70's when i was working at Whittier Plaza Music, the Shure rep came in to demo a SM58. he opened up a brand new boxed one, plugged it into a PA and sang thru it, and it sounded great. then he turned the PA down and took a large nail out of his pocket, and pounded it into a 2x4 with it, turned up the PA again and it sounded exactly the same. needless to say, that made quite an impression on us on the sales floor. :)
 
#38
semi-zombie thread but I'll update my prefs.

I had the opportunity to put a 57 w/windscreen, 58, Beta 58, Senn 839 and a 421 on stands and sing trough them side by side.

I'm now singing through a 421. Used they can be had for $200 to $250 in very good condition. The 57, equipped with a Shure windscreen was my next fav. Everything else was no longer in the running ...
 
#39
I love my Heil PR35 as you can tell by my recent blog post stating that as a fact: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Also, did you know that Heil makes a PR35 capsule only that you can screw right to the top of a lot of wireless mic transmitters....such as the new Line 6 wireless mics? Can't wait to try this option out
 
#40
Seattle_BassMan said:
I love my Heil PR35 as you can tell by my recent blog post stating that as a fact: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Also, did you know that Heil makes a PR35 capsule only that you can screw right to the top of a lot of wireless mic transmitters....such as the new Line 6 wireless mics? Can't wait to try this option out
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I loaned my Heil PR35 to my singer and he simply won't go back to his SM57. We use his mic for the guitar cab now. hhaha
 

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