I’m trying to find out what the ideal mic would be for use in the DJ booth. I play a lot of gigs at big out door festivals and just this last weekend I tried having a vocalist working with me. We had a lot of issues with feedback and finding a spot for her to stand that minimized the problems.
I suspect I can just pick a better mic but this isn’t something I know much about. Can anyone recommend the best route to go for using in the booth while playing on massive sound systems?
Shure SM58 is the industry standard. It’s just under a couple of hundred dollars. If you buy cheap from ebay you will get a fake, always use a music shop.
You can get a wired SM58 under $100 all day long. Otherwise, don’t waste your time with anything cheaper than ~$300 wireless. The new Shure BLX mics are really quite good for the price. Although I haven’t tried one, the Line 6 XD‑V35 is supposed to be great as well.
Although, if you are playing said large outdoor festivals, why is the production company not providing the mics?
A lot of people by a cheap ass mic cus they don’t wanna spend much on the part of their gear they will use the least or will only use cus the club requires it.
Then they soon realise that using a cheap mic makes their voice sound terrible, so even if you don’t really wanna use the mic, when you do you don’t wanna sound shite.
Then they go and buy a mid-priced mic that idiots on forums recommend (not this one judging by the replies) and they think they will get quality sound from a mid-priced mic and some do. BUT one day you open your bag and the mic is in bits. It sounded ok but it was NOT made to last. I have lost count of the times that people say “SM58’s are overpriced you don’t need one” you can guarantee that the people that say that are the kind that settle for 2nd best all the time.
SO eventually you pony up and finally get a Shure SM58 and you wonder why didnt save yourself a bunch of money and hassle in the first place and buy an SM58.
You cannot kill an SM58 and they sound crystal clear and they are worth the money.
Retail in UK is about £95. You can get them new on eBay (genuine) for around £85 and the switched version a bit cheaper.
Someone will tell you you can get them cheaper, you can’t , they are fake.
The closest alternative is the Beyerdynamic TG-X58 which is good but at £20 cheaper, what’s the point.
You could also pick up a second hand Shure SM57 which would do the job nicely; they’re an older design and therefore haven’t held their value as well on the second hand market.
If you have time beforehand, you can get a wide band eq for the mic and cut out the frequencies that are causing the feedback. You could also try adding one of those foam wind covers.
I got a Behringer Ultra voice xm8500 for $25 and I love it. The sound quality is great. It doesn’t make you wonder “does my voice really sound like that?” but more like a louder version of your voice. I do notice some feedback in small rooms, but its not terrible. I usually just turn it down when I’m not using it. It’s been knocked off tables onto concrete floors on several occasions and still looks and performs like new. If you look up the reviews some say they like it better than the Shures.
A friend of mine came over and recorded a few songs with the Behringer mic in my basement. If you follow the link to my soundcloud page there are two songs labeled (Cole Sauerhage Cover) and you can get an idea of how it sounds.
Feedback suppression is also something that with working with your sound guy, you can do a lot of work on that end as well if they are running things correctly.
Personally I invested into the $12 monoprice.com microphone, and for $12? it works perfectly for what I want to do with it, which is just talking to the crowd once and awhile and announcing DJ’s coming up or exiting on the microphone during events, not for anything more than that. At some point the Shure SM58 is on my to-get list, but right now priorities being what they are, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it, and I couldn’t say no to a chance on a microphone for $12 when I was ordering some cables.