All user reviews of 4/5 for the Shure SM57

Dynamic microphone for miking amps, instruments, singing ...

OVERALL OPINION

I use this mic since 2006 for the following purposes:
- In vocal microphone (with pop filter) for my home recording studio
- In micro singing live (no pop filter) for the few concerts I have done with my group
- To catch his bass guitars and amps to when I want to register my group or a group of friends.

This is not an ideal vocal microphone, but it does its job at an affordable price. However, it is far from the shades can be achieved with a microphone static or other dynamic more appropriate.
I am not a specialist in microphones, but obviously, the SM57 is done more for the times that amp for vocals. That said, do not have a huge budget, I took it because it is known, it has been proven and is still very versatile. I have three in total, which allows me to catch live with 3 amps (2 guitars, 1 bass).

Let's say I'm very happy and for my use, it suits me. And for home studio use, the advantage is that the dynamics is not sensitive enough to recover the sound of sneezing or neighbor children playing in front of the building, when I worked as a normal room, acoustically untreated, non-isolated.

This is small diaphragm dynamic microphone used for live and studio applications which is useful for many different instruments, including guitars, horn instruments and snare drums.

This mic is small and rugged and I've had no problems with it during the time I've owned it.

Specs include:

- Uniform cardioid pickup pattern to ensure it only picks sound from the source and not background noise

- Frequency response of 40Hz to 15,000Hz

- Pneumatic shock mount system to reduce handling noise

- Three pin XLR connection

- Die cast steel case which is very strong, despite dropping my SM57 a few times I've barely even scratched it

OVERALL OPINION

I've only used this microphone in a studio setting (Home recording and university studio) so I can't comment on how well it works in a live environment. I routinely use this microphone for two things, that is for recording guitar cabinets and snare drums. I really enjoy the sound produced when using a pair of these microphones to mic the top and bottom of a snare.

I think this is a great microphone to add to a collection as it's useful for lots of different things and is relatively cheap and will last for years. I don't think this microphone is the best choice as your only microphone as I have a cheap dynamic microphone in the style of a SM58 which is much better at capturing the sound of my acoustic guitar and voice accurately.

This microphone is well renowned for being rugged and being able to withstand years of use and abuse. I've accidently dropped mine lots of times and it's worked perfectly since the day I got it. I've seen a few videos on the youtube website with experiments to see how strong these microphones are, I'd recommend having a look at these videos as they're very interesting.

This dynamic mic can be used for both studio and live settings, both with ease and great variety. They are arguably the most widely used mics out there right now. If you've used microphones before, chances are you've used one of these. While one might think that this makes it seem less special or somehow worse, you'd be surprised. While they are rarely,if ever, the best choice for recording any instrument, they're never the worst. For bands who play live, these are invaluable. I don't know of anyone who'd disagree. You can use them on horns, guitar amps, bass amps, keyboard amps, some percussion, and all vocals, and pretty much anything else that can be miked and played live. All of these uses will sound pretty good with these mics. As far as studio use, I've seen someone use them in the studio on an acoustic guitar and vocals as well, since they were in a punk rock band looking for a raw, unpolished sound. The results were pretty impressive in that respect.

OVERALL OPINION

Overall, as I said, the mic is never the best choice for recording, but if you're a college student like me on a shoestring budget, you can make do with these. Considering that I tend to record a lot of my own music in a pretty lo-fi manner, I think that having a few of these is a great thing, especially if most of what you do is rock music. The raw sound helps give rock recording the raw edge they need. Save buying Royers and Neumanns for when you have the money to spend on quality gear. Again, if you're in a band and you don't play shows using these mics, I don't know what you're doing. They're hands down the most versatile, and for the price, you can't beat them at all. I've tried everything in the price range and haven't had anything that comes close in terms of sound quality of durability. They're virtually indestructible. I've had mine for almost 7 years and they haven't gotten any worse or broken or anything. There's a reason people continue to buy them. I'd highly recommend buying them a hundred times over.