THE "PRESIDENTIAL" MIC - SHURE SM57 REVIEW! 

Fun Fact: Maryland Sound is the company that does PA for pretty much every event on the DC Mall...and especially all of the inaugurations. An engineer for Maryland Sounds told me that not always...but sometimes (and especially for the inaugurations), those are not good old, all-American SM57s you're hearing at White House events, but SM57 bodies with Schoeps condenser capsules inside, under the windscreens (I'm guessing CMC6/MK41s). Much better rejection, much smoother off-axis rejection and coloration, and therefore more gain-before-feedback in the PA and monitors for the stage party. Shhhhhhhh..... (I mixed an event for Obama, before he was president, and we provided the 2 SM57 presidential kit (with those windscreens...it was indoors) for the event. Let me just say this....Barack liked his foldback monitors LOUD. Even at a lectern, indoors, he liked to hear a lot of himself in the wedges.)

It's the mic I picked for my home studio. Can use it for instruments, singing, podcasting, and just chilling with friends on Discord. And it does pretty well with background rejection, which at a home with 4 dogs, is very important.

For me, the sm57 doesn't sound much like a vocal mic or a podcast mic out of the box. It is a bit too bright, due to being created as an instrument mic. But it takes EQ-ing very well, and a bit of a bass boost at the low end and a treble reduction at the high end can make it sound wonderful. I think this is one of the reasons it is so valuable and popular. It responds very well to EQ, and you can get it to sound pretty much the way you want.

Picture this... a couple of weeks ago, it was a Thursday evening, and it's opening night of a festival that I have been doing FOH for 20 years. I come to the horrifying conclusion that the bank of channels on the mixer that the phantom power is more phantom than power, and none of the mics I have for vocals that require phantom power are going to work... I grab my handful of SM57s from my personal mic kit, toss them in the stands and I proceeded to have some of the best vocals I have had in a long time, crisis averted. I personally love SM57 on vocals. Everyone should own many 57s.

Absolutely love this mic. I use it for basically everything. It's perfect for travel as well since I don't need to worry about acoustic treatment and such if I'm in a hotelroom or whatever and feel the urge to record something. Best 100 bucks I ever spent I think.

FWIW, I was told by a secret service agent that the reason they use 57's is that they're easy to take apart to check for explosives.

Shure simply got the SM range spot on the money. Hardy, functional and value for money.

My first Microphone, really great value and it sounds great.. even if just for vocals

I have a Radioshack 33-3001 (Ham radio nerds swear by it and call it the "grayline") and the A2WS filter fits perfect - I got the gray foam to match the gray body and it's amazing. The A2WS doesn't fit other random XLR mics i've tried, but I got lucky on the 33-3001 fitting perfect.

Thank You! After watching Your reviews and comprsions, I've decided to start my podcast with sm57, but I still wonder if there is some difference between using windscreen or pop shield. I personally preffer windscreen, just because it looks cooler :D

The A81ws makes the sm57 pop free while giving it a sm7b tone. I have many sm 57 for remote podcasting

Nice video. To "compare" SM57 vs SM7B please check Julian Krause's video "Turn your Shure SM57 into an SM7B with EQ!!!"...

great vid.

The fact that the clown nose (love that) is held in place by a screw makes the SM57 THE podium mic. Neither wind, vibration, or Cardi B throwing it at you will make that sucker fly off. (There's no better workout than chasing a runaway mic condom at an outdoor event.) But as good as it sounds with the custom muff, try recording a vocal with a naked 57 behind a Stedman pop filter. If you're not going to use the EQ switches on the SM7B, save a ton of money and buy the SM57.

Can you explain how they install the bigger A81WS on the SM57 for the outdoor White House speaches?

A true Classic

the best microphone ever. I got it to do everything.

"Clown nose" is my new favorite microphone accessory term.

do you have EQ on your SM57? just wondering, cause for some reason my 57 sounds very nasally.. idk if it's just my voice or not, but from what I can tell it is an original. (bought it off of amazon)

There should be always XM8500 in comparisons. :P

SM 57 sounded great. No need to spend more.

Really debating whether to get the sm57 or the se v7

Nice review of an iconic microphone. I've worked the White House multbox array (and literally had to bypass it when it crapped out). One president, the most recent former president, didn't like the dual SM57 setup which has been the norm for decades. He wanted one large microphone with a gooseneck (kind of like an old Soviet leader) and the SM57's were sent on vacation. The next president restored them to their now historical place.

I agree for the most part, except that nobody should buy this mic or any Shure mic used. Never! (especially not the SM7B) The market is flooded with very good copies that can be bought for little money in China and then sold with a profit used, so its very likely that you in fact dont get an original. In fact i would see that as another positive for the SM57, due to its affordability, so you dont have to buy it used in the first place.

You BROKE an SM57? The have an "average time between failure" of over 70 years! 🙂