Shure SM58 – A Legend, A Must Have
For over 40 years, the Shure SM58 has been a legend in the music industry. This low cost, highly durable microphone is found in practically every professional studio, as well as many home studios. If you’re at a live performance, it is almost impossible to not find a few of them on stage. So why is the SM58 so popular? Let’s look into it.
The SM58 has pretty much been the standard microphone for all musicians, vocalists, and producers. No other microphone is as dependable and durable on stage. I remember reading a while back about Shure’s famous “Drop test” – and how they dropped the SM58 from 10 feet over 10 times and it still performed the way it was built to. This is quite important when you’re at a show, because the last thing you need to worry about during a performance is the durability of your mic.
The Shure SM58 has a slightly tuned mid range in order to accentuate vocals. This comes in handy when you quickly need to plug your mic in and start performing and you don’t have time to throw together an EQ on your vocals. This also helps bring cut your vocals through a mix.
The SM58 comes with a spherical filter that prevents too many wind and breath sounds cutting through the mic, removing any other unwanted ambient noises from your performance.
Quite possibly one of it’s most important features is the internal shock mount that minimizes all types of handling noise. Imagine not having to worry about floor vibrations when your mic is on a stand, or having to deal with excessive pops when pulling your mic out of it’s clip. The SM58 prevents all of this.
The Shure SM58 has a uniform cardioid pickup pattern that will reduce most background noises. Another reason as to why this is usually the go to mic for live performances.
Features
- Frequency response tailored for vocals, with brightened midrange and bass rolloff
- Uniform cardioid pickup pattern isolates the main sound source and minimizes background noise
- Pneumatic shock-mount system cuts down handling noise
- Effective, built-in spherical wind and pop filter
- Supplied with break-resistant stand adapter which rotates 180 degrees
- Legendary Shure quality, ruggedness and reliability
- Cardioid (unidirectional) dynamic
- Frequency response: 50 to 15,000 Hz
- Replacement cartridge: R59
Personally, this is not my first choice for recoding vocals on a final project. But it is an exceptional microphone for live performances. I’ve had quite a bit of success recording vocals, but there are other (more expensive) mics that perform much better.
That being said, the SM58 is without a question one of the most important mics for you to have in your studio.
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