i bought a shure sm57 microphone

[mbengs1]

with disappointing results. i used it with my boss br-800 digital recorder and the sound was not so clear. i've yet to try it with my DAW but this 'workhorse' microphone is not as good as i expected. are there any 'tricks' to using this mic. why didnt it sound so good in my case?

[mistersully]

What did you use it on, and how did you use it?

 

Did you buy from an authorised seller?

[mbengs1]

I used it on my digital recorder micing the speaker straight on and the sound i got was warm and not clear. i bought it on ebay brand new.

[Phil O'Keefe]

Again, was it from an authorized dealer?

 

The Shure SM57 has, unfortunately, been the target of considerable counterfeiting. I'm not saying you got a fake, but it's always something to be aware of and cautious about - especially if you buy it used and / or from an unauthorized dealer.

 

Then there are those who feel the older models (back when they were made in the USA instead of Mexico) are superior.

 

Leaving both of those aside for the moment, what are you used to using for a mic? What are you comparing it to? If you've been using condenser mikes in the same application and with similar placement, the SM57 will sound noticeably different. Also, a quality preamp is beneficial, and can make a lot of difference.

 

I'll try to give you some suggestions, but first, please tell me more about the sound source. I'm assuming it's a guitar amp, right? Model? Speaker type / size? How far was the mic positioned from the floor? What type / model guitar and pickups? Is the signal clean, or overdriven, or fully distorted?

 

[mbengs1]

I don't know if it was from an authorized dealer but i think it was new when i bought it. i never used a mic for recording, i usually plug straight into the recording device. i tried recording my guitar amp. its a bugera 120 watt amp with 2x12 cabinet.i mic straight into the cone. the signal was distorted and high gain.

[davie]

Maybe you should post up a clip so we can get a better idea.

Also make sure you have proper gain staging throughout your signal chain. Its a simple thing, but sometimes easily overlooked.

[mistersully]

i don't want to be alarmist.. but lots of 'new' sm57s on eBay are fake... i think you can contact shure and they'll verify if your mic is legit if you send them some pics of the insides

 

anyway, mic'ing the cone directly is often not your best bet... do a search on youtube for instructional videos on mic'ing guitar cabs

 

as said, your preamp and gain staging is important

 

at the end of the day, if you have a legit 57 and you're not getting a decent sound recording a guitar cab, it's not the mic's fault

[Phil O'Keefe]

Here's a couple of articles that cover miking an amp...

 

http://www.harmonycentral.com/articl...r-amp-cabinets

 

http://www.emusician.com/how-to/1334...d-part-2/45343

 

Unfortunately, the one I wrote specifically on guitar amp miking here on HC isn't showing up; the old links aren't working - I asked the IT guys to see if they could figure out why and locate it so I can give you a link, but in the meantime, those two articles should get you started.

 

If you can raise the amp off the floor a foot or two (via a amp stand, milk crate, or chairs) that might also help. Also try moving it to a different spot in the room - especially if you have it in or near a corner of the room, since bass will tend to build up there. The center of the speaker cone should be where it sounds the brightest, so with that placement, I'm not sure why it's sounding dark and warm for you. The SM57 has a pretty healthy presence peak at around 7 kHz, which should make it sound fairly bright, especially if you have it pointed at the dead center of the speaker...

[onelife]

May I suggest trying a different mic cable?

 

Does the PEAK light near the top of your BR-800 ever come on?

 

There is also a REC LEVEL control that needs to be set low enough to avoid distortion when recording.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[t_e_l_e]

the sm57 is great, but you have a bit to learn how and why to use it.

with my recording trails and error i learn so much so far:

 

- with close mic'd amps the mic will compress the signal, even more if the amp is loud or really really loud

- the sm57 compresses a lot by it self, which is great so it can be use in loud situations (snare drums etc).

- if you try to record "high" gain use lesser gain as normal, the compression of the mic will add more gain on the signal anyhow and too much can be too much

- only the recorded signal counts, not what you hear in your recording space, so always record something, listen to it, and adjust the settings, rince and repeat

 

lately i'm thinkg for myself if the sm57 is the right mic for my recordings, cause often it seems to compressed for me, with not much "air" what ever the means, a condenser room mic has a much nicer sound of my guitar amp.. maybe i should try a e609 sometimes... or more than one mic at the time and mix the signal...

 

and last but not least, everything is really complicated and you can achieve the same goals with thousand different ways, there often is no right or wrong

[mbengs1]

May I suggest trying a different mic cable?

 

Does the PEAK light near the top of your BR-800 ever come on?

 

There is also a REC LEVEL control that needs to be set low enough to avoid distortion when recording.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How can it be the mic cable? I bought a really high quality cable for it, about $20. The peak light doesnt come on.

[onelife]

 

How can it be the mic cable? I bought a really high quality cable for it, about $20. The peak light doesnt come on.

 

The mic cable is part of the signal chain. Sometimes they cause problems - a broken wire, a bad solder connection, a short circuit as a result of the cable being pinched or crushed etc...

 

If I was having difficulty, I would be happier to discover I was doing something wrong than to discover I had a hardware problem.

 

If it did turn out to be hardware, I would rather have to replace a cable than a microphone.

[WRGKMC]

We seem to be assuming the worst here with no clip to judge the results. It may be the expectations of the OP that's the problem here.

 

Gear alone is only part of what goes into getting good mixes. Given the low cost of good quality budget gear available its probably the least important part. Many who get into recording immediately find that gear isn't the cause of poor quality recordings. Even if the mic is counterfeit, it may still produce acceptable tones. Getting good quality tracks can involve allot more then just buying a mic and sticking it in front of a speaker and mixing that track so it sounds great in a mix isn't as easy as many expect.

 

An SM57 should get you a good guitar tone between 150hz to about 5khz. If you're comparing the recording to something you recorded direct, you're comparing apples to oranges.

 

The key here is how the guitar fits into the context of a complete mix. The SM57 "Targets" the guitar frequencies very well. It is not a full frequency, flat frequency mic like some condensers are. Its going to produce some peaks where they are supposed to be so there is less mixing needed to get the guitar to sound good within a mix.

 

When I say "within a mix" its means, other instruments are properly filling the rest of the frequency spectrum. Bass and kick handles the lows, cymbals handle the highs. Snare, vocals, and other instruments fill in the rest of the spectrum. The guitar does not take up a wide frequency band. Its mostly midrange with a little edge around 5K and a roll off beginning around 150~200hz.

 

If you're expecting an SM57 to give you those highs and lows you get recording direct, You really aren't understanding the role of a guitar in a mix or how a mic can target the important sounds it produces and roll off the frequencies that aren't needed in a mix. A mic has a definite EQing effect on the sounds an amp produces and learning to use what it produces is a big part of the puzzle. One thing a mic isn't going to do for you is give you a perfect tone for all circumstances. You do have to mix the track properly and that often includes using additional EQing to get a good balance.

 

Working within a small stand alone recorder with limited tools for mixing can be most difficult. Navigating the menus to get to those tools and properly applying them to achieve a good mix takes allot of time, skill, and experience. Using a DAW is allot easier because its vastly superior in many ways. You not only have much better graphics but thing like help menus and actually using them is allot easier getting good results. You may want to think about setting up a daw for mixing. You can upload the files from the portable unit to a computer and then you can use tools like audio analyzer to investigate the tracking results.

 

 

The first thing a Player usually realizes is his normal live tones don't sound anything like his recorded tones. You have to train yourself to hear what a mic heas up close to the speaker and know how that will fit in a mix. Your ears are going to hear a different sound if you have an amp on a floor with sounds bouncing all around the room. You dial up a tone and your ears are going to be hearing mostly reflections. The mic in front of the speaker and what it hears is what matters tracking.

 

The sounds you hear from 10' away isn't going to have the same frequency response or drive the mic hears. You have to monitor the miced sound (preferably from another room) using headphones to hear what the mic hears, then dial up the correct drives and tone. You could also raise the amp up to ear levels so your ears are hearing the same direct tones the amp is producing. You'll likely find that bugera 120 watt amp is overly loud for dialing up good tones as most high wattage amps are. Getting a power soak to cut the wattage down to 5 or 10W (or just get a small recording amp that sounds good at low cranked volumes) may be something to think about. That amp probably needs to be cranked 1/2 way up before it produces the good analog tones.

 

Running it lower will likely wind up sounding thin and punch-less. Using an ISO can is something you can build. A padded cab you can put over the amp and mic, then crank the thing up and use you studio monitors to judge the tones you're getting. It may sound a little boxy, but with some additional EQ to remove that, you can usually get very effective tones.