All user reviews of 4/5 for the Shure Beta 56A

I read another review on the Shure Beta 56A and had to have it soI bought this from Guitar Center from one of their closeout sales years ago. It is a dynamic microphone intended on kick drums and bass instruments like tuba. Although I have yet to mic a tuba with it, with the proper placement this mic can make a kick drum sound pretty sweet.


OVERALL OPINION

To make a kick drum sound full, this mic requires a little boost around 100-150 hz. Since I only paid $50 for it on a whim, I wasn't expecting it to sound amazing, but like I said, with a little EQ you can get some pretty good results for the money. Just like EQ'ing the low-end, some midrange EQ can bring out a really nice "thwack" out of a kick drum with this mic as well. That being said, I wouldn't spend much more than $50 for it new. Since I bought it 8 years ago, it's held up very well and not given me any problems despite seeing a lot of studio work, which is certainly a tribute to the build quality of Shure products. I've never owned another kick drum mic, having only used Shure SM 57's on the kick in the past. This produces a similar result, but with less emphasis on the high end, which of course you wouldn't want from a kick drum mic either. I've never used it to mic a bass cab, so I can't speak on how positive those results would be. If it finally croaked on me, I don't think I'd buy another one - unless I was able to snatch it up for a deal again - but would instead go for a higher end mic, like one of the Shure kick drum mics. Of course, those mics are much more expensive, but for someone on a budget this is a great kick drum mic!

The Shure Beta 56A is a dynamic microphone that can be used both in the studio and for live sound reinforcement. I've actually only used the microphone in a live sound setting. I don't usually do live sound at all, but recently the studio that I work at put on a show and we used a few of these mics on the drum set. The mic is dubbed as any instrument mic, although I'd say it's definitely best for drums. It's got a frequency response of 50 Hz to 16 kHz and picks up sound in a super cardioid pattern. The mic is attached in a way that makes it easy to place it in different directions, much like many of the Shure Beta microphones, and namely the Beta 52A.

OVERALL OPINION

The Shure Beta 56A is overall a nice microphone that sounds great and is incredibly sturdy. I've only used the microphone on tom tom drums for live sound, but for this application it really did a nice job. I'd like to get the mic in a studio setting and see what it can do for sure. I'm not sure how it would fare on anything other than drums, as it definitely seems best suited for drums, although Shure advertises it as any overall instrument microphone and since I don't have experience using it on other instruments, it's hard for me to argue with them. However, Beta 56A is definitely perfect for close micing drums, as it can withstand a good amount of pressure and is built incredibly well like all Shure microphones. I'd definitely recommend taking a look into the Beta 56A if you're looking for some drum mics and beyond, as it's reasonably priced and it's one that will certainly last a while no matter what you're using it for...