7 Best Microphone for Vocals Live Performance 2024
Are you looking for the best microphone for vocals live performance? Well, after honing your skills through regular practice, you’ll need a great mic to take your unique talent on the live performance stage. 
So, with the right equipment (great live vocal microphone) you’ll easily concentrate on your skill, passion, and talent to deliver quality sound for the live audience – with your maximum singing potential.
But for vocal’s recording, consider other mic models. Live performances will be affected by many factors, including different objects moving around, the absence of soundproofing, & external noises.
Reviews: Top 7 Best Microphone for Vocals Live Performance 2024
1. Shure SM58-LC Cardioid Dynamic Vocal Microphone – #1 Pick
Shure SM58-LC is a legendary dynamic microphone suitable for professional live performance, studio recording, and sound reinforcement – its a versatile and high-quality equipment.
The mic has an excellent vocal response that you’ll find great both for singing, Karaoke, choirs, or speech.
Shure SM58-LC has a frequency response that’s customized for vocals with bass roll-off and brightened mid-range, and thus, it’ll be easy to control the sound’s proximity effect. It’s a great dynamic microphone used by a variety of famous singers or high performance.
The aspherical filter is integrated unto the vocals microphone making it highly efficient to reduce wind “pop” and breath noise – similar to what you get with pop filter for blue yeti. Further, the uni-directional pickup feature will reduce background noise while also concentrating on the central sound.
Its rugged build, the steel grille, plus the great shock-mount system makes it durable and effective for use both indoors or outdoors vocals live performance, show hosting, and acting. Read Also: best mics for recording acoustic guitar.
Shure SM58-LC has a basic and vintage construction that has lasted for over 50 years – note that it was first created in 1966. As noted, the live performance mic comes with the spherical filter that’ll easily nullify plosives, air, and wind while you’re on stage.
The mic will produce a low Output Impedance of 150 ohms – considered as the AC-voltage resistance, and thus, you can use very long wires or cords without a losing sound quality. Luckily, the mic uses XLR (3-pin male) audio connector – which is highly efficient.
- Has uni-directional polar or ‘cardioid’ pattern that’s pick sound arising on the front and evade back and side sounds
- They’re tough dynamic mics for natural live audio performance producing raw and thick sound.
- The durable and highly effective mic and won’t require high TLC like other condenser microphones – it’s however sturdy and robust.
- It’ll also come with a 180-degrees rotating stand that very studies to withstand mishandling during live vocals performance.
- Provides clear and high-quality vocals and sounds
- Versatile vocal mic that’s easy to use
- Preventing feedback requiring keeping the mic very near the mouth
2. Sennheiser e935 Cardioid Dynamic Handheld Mic – #2 Pick
Sennheiser E935 is also a highly versatile mic that you can use either in a studio setup or for live on-stage performance. On build and design, this dynamic mic has great build quality – it’s durable and ragged suitable for live-vocal microphones.
At only length of 15.1 cm and weight of 330 grams, this E935 is a bit longer and heavier than other models but has a rugged and solid metal design. Therefore, you’ll find it great for live performance in varied weather conditions – effective and easy to use.
Sennheiser E935 are tank-like microphones and are highly durable. It has a heavy but equally, sleek metal build – sturdy enough to withstand rough usage. It has a cardioid pickup pattern, and thus, it’ll easily pick sound from both sides – 130 degrees – while eliminating sounds emerging from behind the mic.
On highs, this dynamic microphone has very high-end considering that its also the cardioid mic type. So, its trebles won’t be ear-shattering or overly exaggerated – super clear and pleasant. On lows, Sennheiser E935 gives you great bass range, and you’ll not get the low-range to begin overly boomy.
On mids, this dynamic mic provides a crisp sound for its mid-range. The sound will have a great ambiance and will cut via the mix. Further, it has the hum-bucking coil that’s cut the hum brought by the electrical interference.
Further, the mic will cancel most of the noise thanks to its capsule (shock-resistant) mounting plus the hum-bucking coil. Therefore, it’s possible to easily move around while performing with the mic with no danger of feedback.
- Produces cardioid pickup, and thus the output will have great ambiance.
- Sennheiser e935 is quite a versatile mic that’ll work excellently for bassy male, and high female voices for your live vocal performance.
- Further, this mic will give you the balance and clarity of your condenser mic, and thus it’ll be excellent for moderately-loud stages.
- Great mid-range and highs
- Reduced sensitivity
https://youtu.be/kf8KZIht7HA
3. Pyle – Profesional PDMIC78 Handheld Moving-Coil Microphone – #3 Pick
Pyle – Professional PDMIC78 is also a dynamic, handheld and cardio-id uni-directional vocal mic that’s great for stage performance plus studio musician recording environment that also has an in-built acoustic pop filter to give optimal clarity and quality tones.
Pyle – Professional PDMIC78 is made from zinc alloy metal that’s very durable and will work great for your stage recording and studio work. The uni-directional dynamic capability o its durable moving coil will give you excellent voice recording.
The vocal performing mic has a 15 feet XLR cable to deliver study sound that includes high gain but without feedback – remember the excellent moving-coil dynamic capability. Being a uni-directional mic, it’ll pick sound at the front while avoiding noise from microphones or instruments.
I recommend this Pyle PDMIC78 mic for your occasional karaoke night or live performance. However, the mic’s internal components aren’t of high quality and thus might get damaged on the stage if dropped or when handled roughly.
Compared to different budget vocal mics, the Pyle PDMIC78 will give your superior sound quality – lower sensitivity but also a narrow frequency range. Further, the uni-directional polar capability ensures that it’ll reject the background noise interference.
The Pyle – Professional PDMIC78 produces almost similar results for either upper-high, mid-range, or lower frequencies. But you may note a minimal raise between the 2k & 4k it generates brighter sounds than models in its category.
- Has the cardioid-polar pattern
- So, in summary, this mic generates clear and clean sound with limited amounts of weirdness or artifacts.
- Has an in-built LCD display
- Budget-friendly live vocal performing mic
- Has a
- None
4. Sennheiser e945 Vocals Super-Cardioid Dynamic Hand-held Mic
Sennheiser e945 is an equally excellent vocal mic that’ll give you natural and clear sound to readily cut through noise mix. It’ll be natural and effective either to grungy or clear voice while working best even for loud stages – a great dynamic microphone,
Sennheiser e945 is a durable, reliable, and rugged vocal mic that has the super-cardioid pickup pattern, but it’s slightly costly. It’ll readily isolate the mechanical noise and hence ensure that you won’t get noise production.
The mics pattern (super-cardioid polar) enables it to capture the sound of the live vocals excellently while also rejecting most of the environmental noise. Also, the 350ohms nominal impedance, great frequency response (40 to 18,000 Hz), and hum-reducing coil improve its performance.
However, Sennheiser e945 has lower proximity effect, and hence it’ll give you a sound that’ll make less natural – it’s suitable for high-range and mid-range voices since it doesn’t boost (adequately) its bass frequencies.
The supercardioid e945 mic provides excellent rejection since the proximity effect is compensated and addressed, but the output will vary with your voice’s timbre. It’ll work great for tenor and female voices while also rendering them to sound fuller.
Further, the Baritone singers get some great body, powerful, and clean sound – which will also be un-distorted and equally natural. But bass singers may sound exaggerated – particularly when they have deep-voice proximity.
Further, the super-cardioid pickup pattern is a great feature, which implies that the mic will easily pick sounds from the tool’s front while rejecting the sounds coming from various other directions – which is a great plus for your live vocal performance.
- Provides excellent boost for the ranges of mid- & higher intermediate frequency great for backing or lead vocalists.
- Picks any frequency between 40 Hz up to and 18 kHz.
- Has a shock-mounted capsule that provides excellent performance even with rough handling – but this also makes the mic heavier
- Highly durable mic like all other Sennheiser mics
- Sturdy and robust vocal mic build
- None
Conclusion
So, any mic will be okay for practice at home or in the studio environment, but the wrong mic like the lavalier mic for DSLR will spoil your live performance. What’s the best microphone for vocals live performance?
The dynamic mic will be effective for mixing loud sounds, loud snare drums, and big vocals with great reliability and won’t require external power or batteries. Further, the microphone model is budget-friendly and will be easy and cheap to maintain.
