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[Steve Loewenthal]

I'm hosting a talent show at work. Mostly solo performers: Singers with backing tracks (aka karaoke), guitar player/singer, a comedian, and not sure what else. All adults.
Most acts will be 1 or 2 songs.
I own 4 mic varieties: SM58, SM57, Telefunken M80, PV1.

Should I even try to guess what mic might suit a particular performer?

I will be talking to each one over the next few days so I might be able to glean something, but I'm not really sure what.
I suspect some are seasoned performers and might know what they want, but the rest probably don't have any experience.

The venues will be the corporate cafeteria area. High ceilings, glass walls, hard floors. I'll use 1 speaker and probably be able to see all the reflections. (I'll think I can see sound by the time the show is over. )

[Milt Hathaway]

SM58. Not only will it be closest to good for the most people, you won't get hurt yourself diving after it when some clumsy amateur drops it.

[Mal Brown]

Yep.  Not a fan but.. you can drive nails wth a 58... 

maybe you can get a couple of Roger Daltry and Robert Plant posters from the 70's with mic's a'twirl for instruction ;-)

[Mark Cadwallader]

SM58 for vocals. SM57 for the accoustic guitar; not because it sounds better, but it is easier to see that it is not the 58, and folks (hopefully) will not try grab it and sing into it. (No real worries if they do, but less EQ changes to do "on the fly".)

[Roland Clarke]

58 no question, but make no mistake, I've seen 58's take real hits and work just fine and other times slight drops and be totalled, take care of them like any microphone.

[Stephen Kirby]

The other thing with a 58 or other standard cardioid is that as people wave it around in front of their face, you get less variation.  You might get more GBF with a supercardioid on weak performers but they'll jump in and out like made if they don't know how to work a mic.

[Chris Hindle]

58's for vocal, and 57's for instrument.
No question.
Benefit is everyone using the same hardware. consistency of presentation.
Not the greatest, but if you can't get a decent presentation, you have bigger problems to deal with.
Chris.

[Mike Caldwell]

In addition to a 58 and a 57 I would also have a DI box out and a guitar cord plugged into it.

Your biggest task will be keeping track of the back up tracks for the performers who use tracks. As you talk with them ahead of time see if you can get their back up tracks ahead of time in one format or another, that will give you time to get the tracks organized in the order that they will be be used on whatever your using for a playback system.

That will save you from being hit with a dozen frantic performers 15 minutes before the show starts handing you all kinds of different media with their tracks on it. Still be ready for last minute changes though.

[Steve Loewenthal]

Thanks for all the replies.
I pretty much anticipated the responses but thought it worth a post just in case.

I neglected in the original post that I was really only asking about vocals as I am also supplying all the backline and nothing there gets a mic. If someone shows up with an acoustic that has no pickup (and they don't want to use my guitar) they get a 57.

A little off topic, but my backlline will be: a Hartke bass amp that has a nice direct out, Radial direct for acoustic split to the board and a Crate 30DA, Line 6 POD XT for electric guitar. (I have a nice speaker/power amp that I use for the line 6 but might leave that at home.)
The bass is only because I will also be performing with a couple other musicians as a "band". I don't think there are any other band type performers.

[TomBoisseau]

This might be way too "on the cheap side", or simply may not apply, but if I'm doing an event where I am concerned a vocal mic may be dropped, abused, or stolen, I put up a Behringer XM8500.  It's really inexpensive (about $20) but is surprisingly well built and sounds similar to an SM58.

Tom

[Stephen Kirby]

Not a fan of taking a DI out of a bass amp.  Bass speaker cabinets sound different than flat PA systems.  I let the player get the sound he likes out of his own rig, go listen to it, and they try to approximate it at FOH while also keeping the mix good.

Recently did something with a slap upright bass in a rockabilly band.  No DI on the amp but he wanted the amp mic'd.  Put an RE-20 on it but didn't really use it.  Boomy and indistinct.  Also ran a DI in front of his amp.  Was able to get the impact of the boom from the DI while still hearing pitch.

[Steve Loewenthal]

Not a fan of taking a DI out of a bass amp.

I always set the DI out pre eq.
I probably won't use it in the PA this show but it will be there if I want it. (Although I may talk myself out of running it to the PA altogether as this will be a somewhat quiet affair.)

[Richard Penrose]

I have a wide variety of mics including three Telefunken M80's. The M80's are my favourite sounding/performing mics that I own but I would not use them for a local talent show as I wouldn't want to risk an inexperienced performer dropping them (though the seem to be very robust). I would personally use one of my lesser work horse mics (Sennheiser e838 in my case) as they still sound very acceptable, are extremely solid and only cost me between £30-£40 each when they were being discontinued!!

[Keith Broughton]

SM58 for vocals. SM57 for the accoustic guitar; not because it sounds better, but it is easier to see that it is not the 58, and folks (hopefully) will not try grab it and sing into it. (No real worries if they do, but less EQ changes to do "on the fly".)

This!

[Kevin Maxwell]

I'm hosting a talent show at work. Mostly solo performers: Singers with backing tracks (aka karaoke), guitar player/singer, a comedian, and not sure what else. All adults.
Most acts will be 1 or 2 songs.
I own 4 mic varieties: SM58, SM57, Telefunken M80, PV1.

Should I even try to guess what mic might suit a particular performer?

I will be talking to each one over the next few days so I might be able to glean something, but I'm not really sure what.
I suspect some are seasoned performers and might know what they want, but the rest probably don't have any experience.

The venues will be the corporate cafeteria area. High ceilings, glass walls, hard floors. I'll use 1 speaker and probably be able to see all the reflections. (I'll think I can see sound by the time the show is over. )

I think the one thing you have to ask in a situation like that is how clearly do you want to hear the singers. We went back to using Shure SM58 for vocal mics because we found when we used much better mics we heard the singers too clearly and that was actually a bad thing in most cases.

Keep in mind that all generalizations are false.

[Steve Loewenthal]

The 1st show went great. (There is a 2nd show scheduled for 7/27 with some overlap on the performers.)
I used the M80 as the "house" mic for the announcers and comedians, and sm58 for the singers. (The M80 is "my" performance mic so I also used it during my time as a performer.) Overall the show went great. I need to coach some of the non-musicians that they can't just walk out in front of the speakers, hold the mic at their belly button, and expect to be heard at the back of the audience.

[ProSoundWeb Community]