We have run into a problem with our church set up. We are using SM58s and SM57 Beta mics, but the piano player/vocalist has ended up near to a wall-mounted pa speaker, and we are starting to get feedback from time to time. We can’t do anything about positioning, so can anyone suggest a mic whose cardiod is less far-reaching? We would prefer to stay close to SM58 budgets, please.
The Betas are already hypercardioid and I don’t think you are going to find significantly better off axis rejection. Have you tried eqing his mic to eliminate the offending frequencies? There are also outboard feedback eliminators, I’ve never used one but if you’re board allows an insertion point on just his channel that might work. Sorry I can’t be more help.Maybe someone else knows of a solution.
Tom
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Hey there. I bought a 3-pack oc CAD D32 mics on Amazon for around $100 a few years back .They are my go-to mics for live vocals because of their freqwuency response and tight cardioid pattern which reejcts feedback very nicely. Our lead vocalist has his own Beta 58 and the CAD is very similar.
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I have had good results with the Audix OM5 - budget-wise it sits between the SM58 and the Beta 58.
Its feedback rejection is pretty much top-notch; you need to adapt your mic technique a bit, since the hyper-cardioid pattern doesn’t forgive getting too far away from the mic. Note that hypercardioids have a sensitivity “club” right along the mic axis, so don’t point the back of the mic directly at a monitor speaker.
Also, you’ll need to adapt your mic EQ - the OM5 sounds very different to an SM58. But I really like the sound - at the moment, this is my go-to mic.
Cheers,
Torsten