The Taming of the Shure

[lucky13]

I just got a new issue of Recording Magazine. It has an article for another mod on the SM57 that supposedly brightens the top end, and allows the 57 to be used more like a condenser mic. The theory is that a lower load will allow you to "tame the shure". The author of the article tested it out in a recording class that he taught, which allowed him to get input from a variety of students with different tastes. According to the A-B tests they did, the class overwhelmingly thought this mod improved the sound of the 57. So there's the background, and here's the mod:

This mod does not require you to do anything to the mic. (phewwww) What you do is build what they call a "gizmo". It's easy to do, and all you need is a mic cable and a 698 ohms resistor. All you do is solder the resistor between pins 2 and 3 on the male XLR connector, and that in turn gives a total load of about 500 ohms that allows the dynamic moving coil to move more like a capacitor in a condenser mic, giving it a higher transient response, and in turn increased brightness on the top end.

I have not yet tried this mod. And I have a very limited knowledge of the way electronics work. Some of the concepts of this mod are above my understanding, so I copied what they talked about in the article for details sake. If I missed any details someone thinks are important just let me know and I'll peruse the article to see if I can find the answer. But all in all it is a simple mod, that in practice is very easy to do. You don't need to know the details to solder a resistor to an XLR connector.

The resistors can be found at www.mouser.com they are $1.10 for a package of ten, and the part number is 270-698.

Have fun, and let me know what you think.