Audio-Technica ATM41HE

Professionnal musician, Bachelor, masters in music, phd in music student. Recorded tons of demos and albums. Worked as audio technician for Concordia University, Ottawa University and University of Quebec in Montreal.

Good mic when first bought, becomes really bad with time.

I have been making music on a semi-professional basis for about ten years. My recording experience has been mainly recordings of live work to DAT, but the majority of my experience has been live sound reinforcement (primarily rock, playing Skynyrd/Georgia Satellites covers, stuff like that, but with a lot of work with solo acoustic performers thrown in).

The ATM41HE is a hyper-cardioid dynamic mic. It's primarily a live vocal mic, although I have used it on a load of other stuff.

When shopping for mics, I had been using the standard Shure SM-58 for years (like a lot of other people), and had used the Beta 58 on a number of occasions. I was all set to go hunting for much the same - a preference for the Beta 58, as it's higher output is a marked improvement over the basic SM-58. However, moving to a new town I found myself working alongside one of the area's more established vocalists, who had decided he wanted to get more into desk and recording work, and he suggested the Audio Technica mics.

Auditioning the ATM41HE, I was taken aback completely by the astonishing level of clarity, and the massively higher output level. Price-wise, this mic is normally available for a few quid less than the SM-58, but leaves the SM-58 way back in the dust, and on stage performs a good deal better than the Beta 58. As a live sound engineer, one of my party tricks at gigs with new bands is to let the vocalist soundcheck with his/her beloved SM-58 - or, very often, Beta 58 - and then ask them to go over the vocal again with my ATM41HE. I've NEVER known a vocalist revert to the SM or Beta 58 after using the ATM! Give the vocalists the chance to A-B it themselves, and they're sold on it straight away. Even venues with long-standing house engineers (and lifelong devotees of the Shure mics) end up going for the Audio Technica when we lay the options before them, and give them chance to check it out.

My biggest problem with the ATM41HE is that many of the artists with whom I work are familiar woth the Shure mics, and INSIST on wiping the microphone against their tonsils whilst bellowing full-pelt into it; the mic will cope with the sound levels, but the singer will sound horrific because he's screaming! Basically, it's a much better mic than many live gigging bands are used to working with, but at a price which can only be described as a fantastic bargain. Anybody looking for an extensively giggable, rugged, great-performing mic - BUY it, certainly in preference to any of the Shure "industry standards". At the very least, give it the benefit of an audition - it will very likely open your ears and eyes! In all honesty, I wish I'd been using them five years earlier; a lot more of my recorded material would be of a much higher standard.