Shure Beta 58A Vocal Dynamic Microphone enough?
 

I have a Shure Beta 58A Vocal Dynamic Microphone and im wondering if its enough to use it to capture a decent amount of sound on some of the short film projects im working with.


Thanks.

You may be fine in a situation like an interview where it doesn't matter if the mic is in frame, and could even use it for budget VO.

However, if the mic gets beyond 12" you lose the bottom end, and it becomes difficult to keep it on-axis. Since it's a performance mic, the Beta58 comes into its own at very close proximity and is extremely directional.

Typically, you want a mic with a wider pick-up that can be out of frame. But if you experiment and find the Beta58 is suitable for your purposes, I'd be interested in hearing how you made out.

I filmed the reginald scene with this mic, goto www.myspace.com/rjgfilm to watch it.

The mic itself was off screen obviously, which I suppose was around 1m or so.
I thought that because it is dynamic it ment that it works better at distances.

The problem I have is that I get a lot of background noise, does anyone have any suggestions for decent budget mics that are good enough?

I have the same mic. However, I use it as a vocal mic for live performance. That being said, it does have some engineering to remove proximity effect over its predecessor the SM58.

But I tend to work it very close for singing.

Dynamic mics tend to have less sensitivity which is why they typically can handle higher SPL environments than condenser mics.

-gb-

Hey Richard, just took a look at your myspace page, and have to say that the mic did a better job than I expected (funny scene, and well-edited). But, as you say, the background competes with the dialogue, probably because the dialogue becomes part of the background for the Beta58 at 1 meter.

For a scene like that, you could go with a budget hyper like the AKG SE 300B/CK 93 combo (price is quite good here in the UK, £200 from reputable sellers). Or a short shotgun like the AT897 or Rode NTG1. Then you have to get suspension and wind protection. It adds up fast.

Looking at the Rode NTG1 and Rode NTG2, is there much of a difference in quality because they look around the same price.

Performance should be the same since they are the same mic; the difference is that the NTG1 runs off phantom power and the NTG2 can run from either phantom power or a AA battery. The battery compartment on the NTG2 makes the mic longer than the NTG1.

hmm, suppose im really looking for the second one to go with my XL1.

Unless there is something similar for around £100?