Shure SM57

I've been writing and recording my own music for almost 7 years, recording local acts within the past two years. I use Cubase as my DAW with a Presonus Firepod & M-Audio near field monitors.

There is a reason that this microphone is often called the "industry workhorse" - it can be used for so many applications that it is by far one of the most dynamic mics in it's price range. A bit of tweaking on the eq, and you can use this baby for almost any instrument. I personally use it for vocals more than anything; for rock music, it provides a nice raw sound. For amps, it's got a great dirty sound, so if you're looking for a bit of a smoother tone, angle it away from the center of the speaker cones. There are no standards when it comes to recording, and price does not always determine the quality of a microphone. Many professionals, commercial artists, & studios are very fond of using the sm57 for multiple applications.

For the price range, this mic is amazing, and it is very sturdy. Toms, Snares, Hihats, Guitars, Vocals, Brass, Strings, solo instruments - with some tweaking to your eq, you can almost never go wrong with this microphone.

25 years of recording
Played local TV and radio
Mackie Onxy into PC w/ Cubase

Dynamic Card mic
I use this mic on anything and everything, I even will occasionally sing into it.
I got this mic because I wanted to replace my old SHS OM450.
The SHS actually has a nicer hi end for vocals and a better overall sound but the shure is built like a tank.
everybody should had a couple of these laying around.
Perfect for snare and guitar cabs.

I've been playing bass since 1992. I've played various sized gigs in that time, and have used alot of equipment. I haven't done a lot of recording, but have been recorded in professional studios, and basement studios as well.

I bought the SM57 in 1993 the same day I bought my SM58. I wasn't really using the SM57 much, so I sold it about a year later to my drummer. Since then every guitarist I've worked with has used these for cab mics. Every show I've played had these for micing the guitar cabs. They sound great for that aplication in rock settings, which is really all I work in anyways.

For vocals though, i was stuck using these a couple times, and wasn't happy. They're terrible vocal mics. Not that my voice is wonderful to begin with, but SM57's really kill my vocals.

Been playing guitar for 15 years, violin and piano for longer. For the last 3 years I've been doing live sound and some live recordings. I've got a pretty good pair of ears on me.

You're very unlikely to find a mic which is good at everything, for the simple reason that mic "flavours" are created by their frequency response. The SM57 is *very* non-flat - it hypes the high-mid quite severely. However, this makes it perfect for snare, and pretty good for electric guitar cabs where the extra touch of high-mid helps add some punch. It's a good choice for these whether you're live or in the studio

As a robust dynamic mic, it's great live because you won't kill it! However as a dynamic mic it inherently doesn't have a great high-frequency response - after the hyped high-mids, it drops off fairly quickly. For micing acoustic instruments live, the extra dose of high-mid can help them cut through the mix by emphasising attack, but in the studio pretty much any condensor will work better.

Vocals on it are pretty much a non-starter. Sure, some people have used it, but the results will always need someone to hit it with a ton of EQ afterwards to counteract the mic's unsuitability. Better to start off with a mic that works for vocals.

Basically, if you're working live then you probably need some - two or three of these will be your go-to mics for instruments and percussion. In the studio, one or two will probably see you right.

The funny thing is that I have some ??10 Maplin mics I bought when I was starting out which sound surprisingly similar to an SM57! The difference is that they're not quite as clear, and they have a lot more handling noise. Oh, and about ??55! ;-)

I've been recording for about 3 years, my pre is a DMP3 and my card is an Audiophile 192, speakers are Alesis M1 520. I've been making music about 8 years. My favorite mic is a Studio Projects B1 - it's not wonderful but it gets the job done.

If you want to know what your amp sounds like through an alarm clock speaker, get this mic. I play a Traynor YCV40, and I wanted to be able to capture its distortion channel accurately. This mic is not good at that, not even in conjunction with the other mics I own.

Advice I got mostly consisted of: you're not playing loud enough. I had to crank my preamp to get an audible sound of it (surprising, for a live, dynamic mic) and I was uncapable of getting an honest sound out of it. If you want "bite" or some other nonsense, get it. It sounds fairly much like a "bite" filter or an old, lo-fi punk band. If you want a full, accurate, warm sound, avoid it.

I use this mic with a Yamaha MG10/2 analog mixer and record to a computer. I'm fairly new to recording but have been pretty impressed with this mic. I am using this to record electric guitar (with humbuckers) through a tube amp. I'm using headphones with a fairly flat frequency response for tweaking settings while recording and a home stereo with a fairly flat frequency response for playback while editing on the computer.

If you are looking at this review, you are probably aware that this classic mic is a dynamic mic with a fairly forward-facing polar pattern. Because of that, I haven't had much trouble with it picking up unwanted sound. In fact, dropping a guitar cable end just a foot or two behind the mic after I was done recording, the "thud" was very quiet on the recording.

I bought this on the recommendation of others online. For the amount I was looking to pay, it was the hands down choice and many seem to think it is the hands down choice at almost any price. I was originally looking for a decent condenser mic but I'm not sure there are many in the same price range.

I'm no expert but so far so good. You can never hope for "realistic" recordings but this has been pretty close so far.

Musician my whole life, recording/mixing quite a bit in the last two years.

This mic is ok, I use them for snare and toms, seems to do ok. I tried it with my voice - I dont know what you guys are hearing, but the complete lack of high-end just makes it sound to me like I have a cold. All (6) my condensers have better high end and therefore sound more open. My favorite mic for male vocals under $100 is the Octava mk-319. I have 3 SM-57s that I use as drum mics, but I'm just not convinced. I think I would be happier with condensers on the drums.

I've been in music for 32 years. played prof for a while and now i play as a hobbie. still do a lot of gigs. been involved in 10 or so full recording projects. play bluegrass/gospel music.

the sm 57 is no less than a 10. i love this mike. i use them for vocals and guitar. i also have 58's but i prefer the 57.(yes, even for vocals). very durable and has a very nice warm sound for vocals. i've seen many top performers use this mike for vocals and i know why. couldn't recomend a better mike for overall applacation.

BG: I've been playing drums since I was 9 yrs old (going on 37). My first recordings are of my drumkit using headphones as mics on a old tube taperecorder with reals. My specialism is probably recording drums. If have recorded hours and hours of music (tape-cassette quality) in the 90' with a friend to get through highschool. Then came the 4-track and later the 8-track cassette recorders I used extensively. After that I joined a band and have been in and out of studio's on several occasions and observing their techniques. The first thing I knew I had to upgrade were the mics.

GEAR: My standard gear is a rig build around a MOTU 828 mkII. To have more then just two mic pre-amps I hooked a behringer ADA8000 up on the Adat-opticals (i/o), a ART DPS-II on the S/PDIF inputs and a Studio Projects 828 to use the 8-analog-ins for 8 microphones. To be able to work with more musicians at once I got Samson S-Phone headphone amp.

DAW: I use MOTU DP 4.6 on a 1 gigHz powerbook (with a replaced hard-drive for more tracks) as my DAW. Monitoring : Alesis One (active) and Beyer Dynamics DT770 headphones.

type: dymanic straight forward cardioid

Sound: great. I tried it on a guitar cabinet next to a StudioProjects B1 & C1. It totally competes with the B1.On snaredrums it depends on what sound you are after. I had a Jazz drummer chose this mic over a Opus87 and a EV468. My mic of choice is still the EV but the SM57 still makes sense for drums. It is a lot duller compared to EV and the crisp capacitor output of the Opus87. I did not try it on vocals. I don't want to use SM58 for vocals in a studio setting so why would I try a SM57 ?
Because of it's affordability a lot of people recommend the sm57 as a starter mic but I would still recommend a SP B1 since it can be used on virtually everything.

EV468 & SM57 compared
Thing is that I initially wanted to stay away from the old sm57 because I saw it being used in studio's for all my drums and the sound produced by these set-ups were dramatic . . No matter how we tried we kept getting this 80's blown up cardboard-box sound. Those were NOT my meticulously tuned drums. it sounded totally different from just sitting behind it and play it. When it was time to pick my own set of mics I thought: NO SM57's !!!
It did bring me to the Opus 87 small capusle condenser tom mics (with a nifty clamp). The openness of those mics blew me away. It was possible after-all ! For my snare I bought a EV-ND468 and experimented with placement. The design of the EV is perfect for drum use: its capsule is contained between two 'metal fingers' which gives it very flexible capabilities for placement. EV uses Neodymium magnets (higher output + cripness). Still my snare did-not sound round and the way I perceived myself.
Then came a live recording and someone pulled out a sm57 and I had my round and full snare sound . . What . .what had just happend ?
We were forced to use only one overhead precisely placed over the snare and I noticed that the sm57 was placed a longer distance from the drumhead. After the initial shock and discussions with the 'old-school' sound-engineers who off-course were convinced it was the sm57 I tried a CENTRAL overhead scheme for my SP C1's which I normally put on the edges of the drum kit. I went for a xy-position right above my snare. This also has phase advantages and the left/right discrimination seems more natural. Apart from the overheads my ND468 was pushed away from the snare upper-drumhead towards my hi-hat. What a difference this makes. In the meanwhile I had ordered a sm57 and I was curious how it would do next to my EV.
They sound different that's true but it depends on what sound you want for your snaredrum / drums to say something about it's usability. The EV is much crispier but in some situations you don't want that (crosstalk@liverecordings f.i.).

Bottomline: the mic can make a difference but mic placement, that's the real key to brilliant drum-recording

I've been making music of sorts since I was 4 years old, but I wouldn't exactly call that music... played piano since then to the current day, had a 5 year stint on violin, but now I'm a guitarist/bassist of 3/2 years experience respectively. I record amateur bands for amateur (though fair) amounts of money, and I'm running through a Behringer Eurorack mixer into an M-Audio Delta 44 into my PC. I mainly use my studio closed headphones for mixing and all that, but I also use my entertainment PC's 2.1, my dad's stereo speakers, and my hi-fi to triple check how the recording will sound on different mediums.

it's a dynamic mic, and I'm using it with a boom mic stand. I was looking for something that could do just about everything reasonably, and the 57 seemed great for that. it really is! It gives me a full and punchy bass tone, a raw and edgy guitar tone, a smooth yet powerful vocal sound and it handles horns not bad considering. It's withstood the abuse from high volume driven Marshalls very well, and goes right down to pick up the lower bass frequencies (though if we're talking downtuned bass, or 5 string bass, the fundamentals begin to diminish a bit)
My only minor niggle with this mic is the lack of windshield, but all good engineers should have a separate windscreen type thing, and all amateur engineers should keep a rag or old sock handy to improvise with ;)