I've searched for images of several brands, but can't find what mic is used on all three of these singers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWEQDyrbphE
A Shure SM53 maybe ?
Yep looks like that.
Sure ! (sorry, couldn't resist). There were various design for the grill.
A Shure SM53 maybe ?
That was fast! Many thanks. A little more reading tells me that they may have been using the SM54, which looks exactly the same, but has a built-in pop filter and lower proximity effect, and thus was often used for live perfomances. The SM53 was apparently popular, too, and both mics, as part of the SM line were not-too-distant relatives of the current SM58.
A very uneven freq response on the SM53 and SM54. For anyone interested, here's the description and spec sheet with charts from the Shure site: https://pubs.shure.com/guide/SM53-SM54/en-US.pdf
They have a hotlinked list, leading to the spec sheet, for all of their out-of-production mics at: http://www.shure.com/americas/support/u...crophones.
I'm working with a great harmony singer who ran across that video, by the way, and liked the general sound and the transparency on soft notes. She liked it better than the sound of an SM58. (Before we saw how dramatically the freq response varies, at least, we heard the sound as "transparent.") Now, if I could learn to sing like one of those three ladies...
Yep, with a freq response like this (dropping everything below 70 Hz even without the roll-off filter !!), avoid using them on male voices...
And there is a big boost around 4-5 KHz, giving a lot of "presence". A kind of "built-in EQ" !
Before we saw how dramatically the freq response varies, at least, we heard the sound as "transparent."
Actually, how you "hear" the characteristic sound of a microphone is the defining factor. A graph explains the sound, but a microphone has only one function, to provide the sound you hear. If you hear good sound, the strange graph doesn't matter.
It could be instructive to compare some frequency response graphs somewhere where it's laid out for easy access, like:
https://www.gearank.com/guides/live-vocal-mic
Vocal mics with anything approaching a flat frequency response are uncommon, and some are peakier than an SM54. Compare it for example with a basic SM58, or Beta 58A. Also the SM54 graph shows it to be comparatively smooth on bass rolloff, looks to have knee at about 110Hz and -4dB at 70Hz, little difference to an SM58, and holding up much more than a Beta 58A. Although a Beta has a lot of proximity effect.