Vocal Mic

[billkath]

My new stage vocal mic arrived yesterday morning.
It's a Beyerdynamic TGX 61.


A little bit about it--It's a dynamic (moving coil) mic,Hyperdynamic polar pattern, very high volume before feedback, Macrolon diaphragm, neodymium magnet, changable rubber shock ring.
Specs are here
http://europe.beyerdynamic.com/shop/...60_DB_E_01.pdf

I'm not going to do a full review on it yet, as I've only used it on one gig, but first impressions? Man-this is a killer mic. The clarity and bass response is fantastic. I've been using an AKG D880 for the last 8 years. Now-the D880 is, in my opinion, a "better" mic than the venerable Shure SM58 (which would be an industry standard live vocal mic). Better bass response, better output, less of a "clarity" bump in the frequency spectrum, just as tough, much more feedback resistent than the 58. They come in just about the same price as a 58, or did before they were discontinued.

The TGX? Well-this is an enormous step up in quality. Costs double what a 58 or D880 would cost, street price. I paid €200, which included a Beyer mic stand and a Cordial cannon to cannon cable.Costs double what a 58 or 88 is- Is it "double" the mic? I'd say that's not the way to put it. In every single way, this mic outperforms any dynamic vocal mic I've ever owned, and I have lots of mics! By comparison, there's a sheen to this mic over a PA. It screams quality when you sing through it. Your vocals sound BIG! Not in an effects way-an artificial way--in a perfectly natural way. The proximity effect when you get real tight to this mic is perfect for me, when compared to the proximity effect of an 888 or 58. When you are doing intimate ballads, here's the sound you want. It's not just the normal bass boost you get when you use the proximity effect-there's just a "bigness" to it-perfectly clear, still, but just "bigger" at the bass end. When you A/B the TGX to an SM58 or a d888 the difference is simply astonishing. The other mics sound weedy beside it, lacking definition and clarity. The bass response, in comparison to those others, is tighter-so much more defined. It's bassy instead of fluffy down there. The mid ranges are full, and the top end is so well defined that I cut my reverb setting on my desk in half. It really is a night and day difference.

If you're in the market for a great vocal mic, give the TGX 60/61 a whirl. A/B it against similarly priced Shure, Sennheiser and AKG mics.