Shure beta 87a vs. beta 87c

[essexbasscat]

HI there

Continuing the venture into things associated with PA's, I'm lined up to buy a Shure Beta 87c microphone. When I set up the deal, I assumed the 87c was just an updated 87a. However, further research reveals that's not the case at all, they are indeed two variations on the beta 87 theme.

Does anyone know much about these mics ? is there much of a difference in practice between the two ? is one more suited to band work than the other ?

THanks all

[VTypeV4]

I understand one is cardioid pickup pattern whereas the other is hyper/super (or whatever!) cardioid..

I used an 87A once and didn't much like it for stage/groups work. Personally I'd pick a 57A everytime for voice..

[essexbasscat]

[quote name='VTypeV4' timestamp='1357669299' post='1926419']
I understand one is cardioid pickup pattern whereas the other is hyper/super (or whatever!) cardioid..

I used an 87A once and didn't much like it for stage/groups work. Personally I'd pick a 57A everytime for voice..
[/quote]

Could you expand a bit around your impressions of the beta 87 please ? do you remember which aspects didn't appeal ?

[VTypeV4]

It was a while ago but I'll try!

As memory serves the group was quite large with percussion, synthesizers etc and the singer was a reasonably quiet female vocalist. I recall the microphone was quite harsh sounding in the 2-4kHz region which manifests itself as that overly bright and hard character especially on a girly vocal. It also picked up alot what was going on around it too, poor off axis rejection which made monitors difficult to keep stable once again in that upper midrange zone. I'm quite sure I could have gotten a better sound for the lady in question with a stock SM58 let alone a Beta 57a..

On the other hand, it's possible that the combination of her voice, that mic and my system setup just didn't suit each other and it was simply a compatability issue? Maybe a different voice or a different setup may have worked just fine but on this occasion it simply wasn't great. It's like our bass guitars, if it doesn't suit then it doesn't work half as well. If I'm given a 4 string P-Bass then I struggle with it wheras sit me with my Warwick LX5 and happy as a pig in..

I work as a live engineer and in 12 years I've only ever seen that one beta 87 so maybe that says something? My personal fave is still the Beta 57a over microphones that cost many times more from the likes of Audix, Audio Technica etc. I'm not saying buy a 57a because it'll fix all the problems in the world but IME, they work great in lots of applications and in many case out perform a stock SM58.

Just my opinion based on that one gig many years back.

Cheers and hope that helps.

Matt