I am a long time keyboardist and will now begin to also sing- I just bought a new yamaha PSR s900 keyboard that has a wonderful built-in microphone port that has a harmony feature- I need a new "reasonable" microphone that I can sing into from a normal sitting distance, rather than having to put it up to my face. Someone recommended the Samson Q7- I tried it & it works very close up only. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

JSHO, a mic that works from a greater distance is going to have to have a larger cardioid pattern to pick up those sounds, something like a shotgun mic, or a mic that isn't uni-directional. Getting one of those opens a couple zillion doors to feedback, background noise, fuzz, wind, and all kinds of things that you don't want getting into your mix.

If it is just you singing into the mic, you should be anywhere from 1 to 3 inches from it. A good uni-directional mic will do that. I've never tried Samson, but I've had good experience with Hartke (one of the brands they own, even though they don't make mics) for what it's worth. I still recommend a cheap used Shure mic for new singers. I really think that that is one of the best starting points by far.

Btw, if you're problem is having to lean OVER the piano into the mic, just get a boom stand for it. I'm a pianist/singer as well and it's nigh impossible to sing into a mic with a straight stand.

I agree with ShackMan on this...it sounds like the problem may not be the microphone but the stand you are using. You will benefit much more in buying a sturdy boom mic stand than buying a shotgun mic or something that will pick up a bunch of room sound. Stick with you Q7 or go for the classic 58 and get right up on it!

I'm wondering is a headset mic would work? Unfortunately I have no recommendationsbecasue I'm out of that loop now. In church we use SM58s for vocals. Peter Gabriel uses a headset mic almost exclusively live, but for some reason he sometimes switches to a boom mic when he plays keyboard. Check out his "Secret World Live" DVD if you haven't already. Incredible performances from the whole band.