So I’m trying to figure this out, but depending on my specific search terms, I get very different results. And I trust you people more than “the internet”. Plus it might be some nice food for discussion/sharing knowledge. Here it goes:
I’m looking for the best mic to use during small live events with people speaking/presenting. Think along the lines of artist talks, maybe an interview by a researcher interviewing an artist, panel conversations, or keynote lectures. Small audiences in moderate museum spaces, approx 25-50 people per event. For big events we’ll rent a theater. Maybe sometimes a speech to 100 people where someone opens a new exhibition in the central lobby of a museum.
I just started working at this museum. They didn’t really do many events, but I’ll be programming more from now on. The museum recently already bought a JBL speaker for this, I think it’s the JBL EON 712 or 715: This one.
They currently have two mics:
A sure SM58 I think
And another active one, forgot which one.
During a first small event last Friday, they sounded very different. The SM58 picked less room noise up, but was pretty muffled on the voice of the person speaking. The other one, active with a battery, was better quality on the voice. But I don’t have much comparison.
Going from the list of wishes below, any tips for specific mics to look at?
Cheap (if needed we could stretch a bit more then the SM58 but more than a couple hundred won’t be accepted on the museum budget I think)
Durable
Specifically meant for voices, to be audible (I can only EQ the master sound on the JBL like cutting some bass, so I don’t have EQ on the two individual channels of the JBL, and prefer to keep things simple without another mixer in between)
Obviously it shouldn’t be picking up room noise, coughing people, etc. So not too wide/sensitive.
Ideally they’d fit in normal microphone stands.
XLR. I wanna avoid complex stuff like wireless.
On off button.
I thínk the JBL doesn’t have Phantom Power.
Curious about opinions regarding batteries in mics. Of course it’s bad if the battery is dead during a lecture, so I’d like to avoid. Or are active mics really better sounding automatically?
We’re looking to buy this speaker again, so we have one on both locations of the museum. But in case phantom power would offer a lot of gains (pun intended;), I could consider suggesting getting another speaker that does have phantom power. Or doesn’t it matter for this?
I’m sorry for asking in so much detail. But I expect we’ll be stuck with the mics we choose for the upcoming years. So I thought I’d try here for some tips!
I had a Rode M2 for a while. I mostly used it to record voice over for videos, but also some singing. Gave it to a friend, he’s happy with it for both acoustic guitars and singing.
It does require phantom power though … Maybe there are separate preamps that would provide the power, but this may go out of budget then …
Can’t say I disagree for wires - I’ve been in a couple of wireless-mic-gone-wrong situations, especially when the crowds grow. When setting up, everything’s fine cause the place is empty, then hundreds or a thousand people and you get terrible “mutes” in the middle of the speaker’s sentences … If you do go that way though, I recommend a set that has “best channel scanning” and use it before the event.
Thanks for sharing. Yeah I really won’t go this way. I won’t always be able to be present for events, so either me, or my production/programs colleague, or one of the floor managers should be able to set things up. That simple is the goal.
If you re not going to have a mixer then i d say stay with the Sm58. It s passive, super reliable and an industry standard vocal mic. It won t pick up much background noise and is very resistant to feedback. Drawback is that the speaker has to speak properly into it and keep it close to their mouth for best results. Not nearly all people are used to that.
Of course for professional sound quality you d need proper processing with eq and compression. Going straight into the speaker doesn t give you that. Do what you can with the controls on the JBL. Low cut at least to prevent some handling and breathing noise.
Yeah it at least has EQs on the main mix, the JBL, so I was already low cutting a bit, and I’ll experiment with other expected bands for voice clarity.
Phantom is mostly for condenser mics and those are usually not what you d use for live speech.
The mixer would make it easier to tweak levels and a bit of eq.
Famously the US president speeches are mic’ed with SM57’s, which is a slight variation of the 58… Still recommend the 58.
That said I don t have a whole lot of experience with mic’ing live speech( which btw is an entirely different affair than studio recording).
I did use some mid range Shure wireless vocal
mics that were pretty good too. Would have to look up what those were. But then you have to do the battery management thing.
No need to look up the wireles ones, I really don’t plan to use wireless for now.
Good to know that phantom-condensor is not perse something that I need to have. Maybe bringing my spare A&H Zed10 there could already help a lot for eq-ing the mics individually
It may be at the top end of your budget, I bought mine about 15 years ago, but I’d imagine their cheaper mics share many of its qualities, the Heil PR-35 is built like a brick sh*thouse and for being a dynamic mic puts out a healthy signal.