Mic Check, microphone disinfectant
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010 | by matthew mcglynn
Call me phobic, but yes, I wonder what’s growing on the grille of the SM58 at the brewpub downtown.
I’ve seen a virtual parade of singers eat share that mic over the past few months. Some were good. Some, not so much. But some of them looked like the people in the video below:
I first saw that commercial at the Winter NAMM show. The product advertised therein, “Mic Check,” was simultaneously the most immediately compelling and least expensive thing I saw at the show.
All the grocery stores around here have a dispenser with alcohol wipes near the shopping carts, so shoppers can wipe down the handles (and, presumably, their hands) before going into the store and squeezing all the avocados or whatever. The thing is, the dispensers are nearly always empty. The stores can’t keep those things full — the demand is too high.
Which tells me that (a) I’m not the only shopper worried about who else squeezed the avocados, and, in a roundabout way, (b) if I could sing, I’d bring my own microphone to the brewpub.
At $0.60 apiece, these Mic Check alcohol wipes are a lot cheaper than buying one’s own microphone. And it seems like a small price to pay to not share gastrointestinal flora with every other musician in town. Especially that woman with the big herpes sore on her face.
What’s the difference between Mic Check and the alcohol wipes they sell at the pharmacy? Both are (most likely) 70% Isopropyl alcohol. But the Mic Check pads are bigger, thicker, and contain a mint fragrance to mask the aroma of the beer (and herpes) soaked into the mic’s internal foam pop filter.
By the way, mint oil is an effective natural pesticide, but unless the mic has ants on it, it’s really only helping with the smell.
I picked up a sample of Mic Check at the NAMM show. I’ll put it in the mail to the first commenter (US addresses only, please)… Just promise to send back a brief review.
Yes, you can hold the review until your labwork comes back.
Update 2010-07-07: The makers of Mic Check have kindly sent me a box of product samples. If you want a couple to try out, see the giveaway details here.
Related posts:
Posted in Live Sound, Microphones, Video | 7 Comments »
Joel "Obi The Incredible" Marroquin
May 11th, 2010 at 11:43 pm
These look awesome! Am I first!?
Tom N
May 12th, 2010 at 3:34 am
These look awesome. I’ve never even thought of this before (I’m usually the one of keys/guitar or behind the record button) but I KNOW every singer I work with will be put at ease when I whip one of these out! I wonder if I’ll get better performances in the studio.
-Tom N
Aaron Lyon
May 12th, 2010 at 7:01 am
I bring my own SM58. Every time. You just have to remember to grab it after your set! It helps to make it look unique and put your name on it somewhere.
Mark
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:35 am
You can purchase MIC CHECK at a discount on our site: http://www.CheckThatMic.com
Aaron, bringing your own MIC is a great idea…but you need to clean your own MIC too!
Mike U
August 5th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
You can also just buy a 58 windscreen and bring it with you. They fit beta 58’s and 57’s too, so you would be covered for most venues. All you have to do is screw it on, and if you forget it you’re only out $16 or less.
Cleaning the outside of the mic may disinfect it somewhat, but if it is really gross, which so much of them are, it will still smell awful, and whatever level of decay the foam inside the screen is at can change the sound of the mic as well.
Russel Green
February 23rd, 2017 at 2:14 pm
Wipes do NOT get into the crevices of the screen weave on 58-type ball ends. You must spray or remove the screen and dip in a solution that kills. Soapy water or Listerene does not kill all of a virus that some singer kindly left embedded in your mic.
Michael Shinn
May 18th, 2020 at 4:04 pm
Looked for this item all over the web. It is no longer manufactured.