JonnyBoy wrote:It looks like lots of pro's have switched or are using the Telefunken M-80 this year, including Further. Would love to hear from Zambiland about his point of view on it as compared to other dynamics.
http://www.M80mic.com
Sorry to take so long. Gigs plus law school equals very little spare time!
I love these things! My two perspectives are as a performer on stage (although singing is not my strong suit) and as a location recording engineer. My favorite aspect to these mics is that they don't require a lot of effort to make them sound good and the bleed is well controlled and what bleed does make it through, sounds good. It's a regular cardioid, so you can put a monitor right behind it. For a cardioid mic, it's got great rejection.
One of the biggest chores of a sound person is dealing with mic bleed. We all know about Healy's supermarket door opener trick and the truth is that if you could get rid of the vocal mics, the instruments would sound amazing. In small clubs, 90% of the cymbals you hear and a lot of the instruments will be bleed. If the mic requires a lot of eq and/or compression to sound good, that means you are also affecting the bleed. So, if the bleed can be minimized and made to sound good off the bat, then your mix will be much cleaner. For live recordings with these mics, the bleed can actually improve the sound of the recording, giving a more live sense of the stage. Can't say the same thing about a 58!
As far as the basic tone goes, it's a pretty versatile, clear dynamic mic. It's not overly crisp in the way some mics are, so the highs aren't hyped and sizzly. It's not as amazing sounding as a Neumann 105 on a select few vocalists, but it doesn't cost near as much, it works in sketchier environments with respect to feedback, it's more robust and it works well on a wider variety of vocalists.
So, it may not be the best mic possible for some vocalists, but it will never be less than damn good. You can't say the same for a lot of other mics, which brings up another issue: if you have a bunch of singers who all sound different, it's tempting to put different mics on them. Some might sound good with a Sennheiser, some with a Shure and some with a Beyer. However, they will all sound great with the Telefunken and then the leakage matches and the monitor and FOH eqs match, so you don't have to fight to get everyone to sound like they are all in the same band.
When you add this all up with the reasonable price, it seems like a no brainer to me.
HTH!
Edwin