The Shure SM57 is undoubtedly one of the most popular instrument microphones in history, and it’s been a go-to snare drum mic option for decades.
It just has everything going for it, including good sound quality and a highly attractive price tag.
In this review, we’re going to take a bit of a deeper look so that we can explain what makes it so good. While it’s good for many instruments, we’ll mainly look at it from the perspective of a drum kit microphone.
The Shure SM57 is a dynamic mic with a cardioid polar pattern. It has a frequency response between 40Hz and 15kHz, and it has an output impedance of 150 ohms.
It’s quite a small microphone, but it’s also heavy and solidly built.
When you buy one of these mics, it always comes with a mic clip. However, it doesn’t come with a rim mount, so you’ll need to buy one of those separately for placing it on your snare drum.
The final thing to mention is that it comes with a soft bag to store it in when you’re not using it.
The Shure SM57 has amazing audio quality. It does such a good job of bringing out the brightness and presence of a snare drum, which is why most drummers use it for that purpose.
However, it sounds fantastic when being used on toms as well. It’s really easy to work with, stopping you from having to do too much work with mixing.
We love how rimshots and accents sound clear and precise, and this mic pretty much does its job well in absolutely every setting.
The heavy body of the microphone makes it quite durable. We’ve been using SM57s for years, and none of them have ever broken or stopped working.
The only reason that this mic doesn’t get used as a tom mic more often is that it has quite a long casing. That sometimes makes it a bit uncomfortable to position around the kit on different toms.
It’s the ideal option for snare drums, though. It fits in like a glove in every setup.
You’ll mostly find people using the SM57 as a close mic for drums. That’s where you’ll get the best performance, as it brings out plenty of clarity from your shells.
It’s not off the cards to use it as an overhead mic, though. Even though it’s a dynamic microphone, there have been some great drum recordings that only used SM57s for everything.
Reliability is one of its strengths, and everyone knows that they’re going to get a good snare drum sound when using a Shure SM57.
Another big strength is this microphone’s price tag. It has a really low one, costing hundreds less than other microphones that honestly offer similar quality.
For around $100, you’re getting a microphone that often gets used in the most professional recording studios out there.
So, the price-to-value ratio is insane, and it’s one of the main reasons why this is a top-selling microphone.
The SM57 is an absolute staple to have in a recording studio. You won’t find many professional studios that don’t have a few of these around.
The mic can be used as a top and bottom snare mic, giving you some accurate snare sounds. It also does a great job of offering control, allowing you to mix to get your desired sound.
The durability is what makes it an excellent gigging mic. While the sounds are great, you also won’t have to worry about damaging the mic or having it cut out on you.
You don’t get as much audio clarity as you would in a studio, but you still get some high-end sound from your drums when using this mic at a gig.
If you don’t want to spend much money and still get good audio quality, you can’t go wrong with the Shure SM57. We mostly recommend using this as a snare drum mic, but you could get a few more to place around your entire kit if you wanted to.
Drum Teacher
Brett Clur has a Drum Performance Diploma from Trinity College London has been playing drums for over 20 years. He is passionate about advanced concepts and uses his years of experience to teach his students about them. While he is a full-time drum teacher, he is also working on growing a YouTube channel where shares his insights. You can see him playing there, or on Instagram where he posts daily videos.
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