All user reviews of 4/5 for the Shure SM48

The sM48 is a Vocal Microphone that is very affordable. This is the mic that most people can get almost anywhere and it became a household mic that everyone loves. It will give you great recording quality no matter what your personal set up is. Unless your recording in a room with no acoustics (furniture, etc..) then this mic will do the job great for you and without spending a fortune.


OVERALL OPINION

It has a great frequency response especially for the ranging lead vocals that most cheaper mic struggle to pick up a clean sound with. With the SM 48 you wont have cut off much of the low or high end frequencies with mixing. Maybe just a little bit just to clean it up in the overall mix before you master. But it will give you warm rich vocals. Even with backing vocals and harmonies, it will provide a great warm natural sound.

The SM48 comes with a shock mounted cartridge and a built in pop filter. So if you are standing at a good distance from it you wont need to purchase an external pop filter. Just get a good stand and you can start recording full great songs right from home. Not demo rough drafts, im talking the full songs!

Overall, great mic and its very rugged and can take a beaten like most shure mics can. There is just something about shure mics that we all love. it’s the quality and price that is unbeatable. The Shure SM 48 is a standard mic for all at home recording artist. Make this your first mic, it will build the foundation for your great recordings especially if you are good at mixing and mastering then you will need a mic that provides great quality from the jump! You definitely want to purchase this mic, its tailored for vocals and its almost like they made it for the people that are on a budget and record at home. Thumbs up to shure!

I've always known the Shure SM 48 was great, and have often used it for drums and guitar. But today I was in a session and the ONLY condenser I had brought started doing some goofy things. So I busted out a good old Shure 48, and recorded all the vocals, harmonies, and guitars with it. And it here is the kicker... it sounded Great. Not just good, but it blew me away. It DID take work though. For use on vocals you really have to crank up your upper mids (3k or so) to clean it up, roll off some lows, and maybe add a dash around 100Hz for some extra body. I used it through an LA-610... for money, it doesn't get any better than that. Don't buy into all the imitations out there. there are some good mics, but this is a workhorse.


OVERALL OPINION

A person could record a whole album with just SM48’s and it would sound pretty good. Anyway, if you're just starting out, buy this mic, its great for a beginner just getting into recording. It is far better than a condenser if you are working in an untreated space because it has a tight cardioid pattern that rejects most room noise and other problems. If you have a cheap preamp and are having trouble getting enough gain to this mic (or even if you're not), buy a Cloudlifter by Cloud Microphones, it uses phantom power to generate up to 25 db of super clean FET pre-preamplification...that gives any old dynamic or ribbon mics low noise and high gain and interfaces them perfectly with modern recording systems. If you're thinking (just as I was a week ago) that this mic is far too common and old to sound as good as some people say. Its pretty cheap as well, so its worth the buy and even if you don’t like it most stores will allow you to return it within 30 days.