Ableton Forum

Hello guys !

I've ordered a Push 3 yesterday, and I can't wait to play with this beast

The main focus is for electronic music production and live playing... however I do enjoy playing around with my acoustic guitar & singing as well.
Could you recommend a good microphone, without breaking the bank, which I could use as follows:

- plugged directly into the Push 3 / I would like to keep things simple and clean, and not have to buy a preamp or phantom power supply etc...
- Decent to record vocals & my acoustic guitar

It's honestly just to have some fun / am not looking to spend a lot (Ableton took all my money ).
A friend mentioned a mic like the Rode M3 which has the ability to be powered by a battery could do the trick, any thoughts on that ?

Thank you - and have a wonderful day !

you can’t go wrong with a good old SM57 or SM58. there’s a reason they’re industry standard workhorse mics. and they won’t break the bank. have fun!

I have my Push 3 coming today too—very excited, although I’m mostly getting it for the tight transport integration. the MPE stuff will be very fun to play around with though.

Hey dude - thanks for the reply
We're like two kids before Christmas haha... enjoy ! Mine will only arrive later this week... gotta be patient

Regarding the SM57 or SM58... it was my first thought, as I've actually had experience with those mics back in the day playing with my band.
However a quick google search brought up a lot of results of people mentioning the output was very low when recording through the Push 3

Hence my question to be honest, looking for an alternative some Push 3 owners can maybe recommend

waiting really is the hardest part!

good point—sometimes these dynamic mics don’t have levels quite as hot as we’d like. if you have access to a 57 or 58 (or any other mic, actually) you could try it out to see if it suits your needs before buying one yourself. I find that gear opinions are often very inconsistent online—what works perfectly for one person may be hugely problematic for someone else, so trying (if you can) might be the best option.

you could look into getting an inline preamp like a fethead, but then you’re right back to needing phantom power, so you may as well explore other options at that point. with all of that said, maybe a google search for “high output dynamic mic” or similar would net some good options.

SM57/58 are perfectly fine here. But most dynamic mic should do (beware of the very low output ones like the SM7 though)

Yeah, this question kicks around when folks report low output levels or things not matching impedance with their instrument input. You might want to consider something that takes an AA battery, or some form of self-power like an old Nakamichi...