Find Out If The SM 57 is Truly The "One Mic to Rule Them All”

So, I see this discussion a lot on the internet. Is the SM57 truly the “One Mic to rule them all”?  Here I have a couple of SM57 and I can honestly say I’ve used these mics more than any other mic in my collection. I think no matter where I have worked there are always at least a few kicking around. Why? Well, first of all, they are $100. Which compared to other microphones is a great price. They are cardioid so that means they reject in the back and pick up in the front. This is important especially if you are working in a live floor setting. You can set these up to minimize bleed. You can also get a variety of sounds depending if you decide to mic on-axis or off-axis. 

Let's geek out a bit here. If you don’t know what I mean by on and off-axis, the on-axis is when the mic is directly perpendicular to the sound source. High frequencies tend to travel in a straighter direction than lower frequencies. So, as I turn the mic, or go off-axis, it rejects the highs but still collects the lows.  You see this a lot when miking a guitar speaker.

Still with me? Because there’s more geeking to come haha.

Its sensitivity is about -56 dBV/PA . If you aren’t sure what that means lets ok let's geek out a bit more.

Let's quickly talk about what a microphone is

The microphone is known as a transducer. It converts sound acoustical energy to voltage. Depending on the mechanics, more during conversion energy is lost and therefore to get the signal back to the working level, the preamp adds energy back to the signal. The less sensitive the mic, the more gain is required. This isn’t always a bad thing, if something is louder you will want to use a much less sensitive microphone.
Unlike the SM58, which is the same capsule as the unidyne iii, the grille is flat so you can mic really close to the source.

This microphone has been rumoured to be the official mic of Californication. Apparently, the chilli peppers used it on everything drum and vocals. Now, that is what the internet said so it must be true. Let me know in the comments. Another really cool fact is that this is the official mic whenever the president does a speaking engagement. This started back in 1965 and has carried on ever since. See, the 57 doesn’t require phantom power because it’s a dynamic mic so it is less likely to cut out.

Its frequency response is 40 Hz to 15khz, and it seems to really favour those higher mids between 3 to 5k. The golden frequencies which probably explain why this mic sounds incredible on snares, toms, vocals, and guitar.

Now is this microphone perfect? No of course not, It doesn’t suffer if you need to collect lower frequencies from a kick or a bass. I know engineers have used them with great results but that has never been my case. I found it hard to capture a really good 40 to the 80-ish range and when it comes to mixing those frequencies I struggled. It really comes down if you don’t get those you can’t really mix what isn’t there. So, I found pairing this mic with say a D112 or a Beta 52 did a great job.

Now, I’ve heard that if you remove the transformer you get a much wider range, especially in the lows but again I’ve never tried this. 

So, to sum up, this video I’d say for the most part you can do most of what you would need. As a producer, I want to make sure I have everything I need, especially instruments around that 60 - 100hz range because it can be overlooked when tracking.  So I think pairing a SM57 with a bigger diaphragm mic is the way to go. Let me know what you do in the comments and if you have the same issues.  Other than that if you are starting out, get a few of these and you are on the right track. Is this the mic to rule them all? No, but it does command our respect for being awesome and being on so many hits. Shure definitely made something special.

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