SM7b and UX2 Enquiry...

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wyreandwood

wyreandwood

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Hi,
I need your thoughts and experience from anyone out there who may be using a Pod Studio UX2 and SM7b.

Have the UX2 and am about to get the SM7b.
I've heard these need to be ridden pretty hard and I'm just interested to know how anyone who has use/d these in regard to noise etc.

Do you find these an acceptable combination?

I will be using the mic primarily for male rock vox.
Thanx...
 
Well I don't own a UX2 or an SM57b, but I do have a UX1 and an SM57.

From what I've used these so far (UX1 about a year, the SM57 more recently) is they are very reliable and from my experience, fairly low noise (vox/bass, drums and guitar)

Haha not sure if this helps, but my gear has served me pretty damn well so far. Haven't run into any noise issues on even on my slightly lower end gear, so I'd say they're good choices from where Im standing...
 
I don't have a UX anything, but I've got several SM57 and SM7b - the SM7b is lower output than the SM57, btw.

What I'm about to say is a little contrary to the predominant wisdom, but I submit this - you don't need a preamp with a lot of gain for the SM7b - rather, you need 1) a clean preamp - one that doesn't add much noise to the signal, even if its overall gain isn't that much; and 2) a method for live monitoring that will allow a player to hear the signal in headphones while tracking, if that's a concern.

The reason I say this is that, with the UX2, you're certainly recording to a computer - if you have a track that you recorded with the SM7b that is too quiet, you simply boost the gain inside the computer to get it up to the level you want. If your preamp was *quiet*, you won't have a problem doing this, and, I maintain, the result will be pretty much the same as if you had used a quiet preamp with a lot of gain in the first place. If your preamp is *noisy*, it won't really matter how much gain it has, because the lower signal of the SM7b will not figure favorably into the signal-to-noise ratio, and it won't matter whether you turn it up at the preamp stage or the computer stage - the noise will be there.

The only other practical problem that us home-reckers face is that we want to wear headphones while we track, and hear both a click track and/or drums / other instruments, along with the sound of what we're playing/singing - this is an issue with any set up, and it's a bad idea to track too hot merely so that you can hear yourself playing in any event - with the SM7b, it's more pronounced - you need to make sure you have a way to amplify the signal in the computer or afterward while tracking to address the issue.

If the UX2 satisfies both these conditions - it's quiet and it provides a way for you to get a good headphone monitoring level (or you have another way to do that), then you should be good.
 
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I have a UX2 and when I'm tracking something like vocals that I'm singing, I get the mix through the headphones to a desired level. Within the UX2 software, I usually put a noise gate on so that any headphone bleed is eliminated. I use semi-closed headphones that are comfy and usually slip one off so I can hear my own voice better for pitching. As far as noise, I have not noticed any significant through the preamp and consider it clean on the whole.
 
What I'm about to say is a little contrary to the predominant wisdom, but I submit this - you don't need a preamp with a lot of gain for the SM7b - rather, you need 1) a clean preamp - one that doesn't add much noise to the signal, even if its overall gain isn't that much; and 2) a method for live monitoring that will allow a player to hear the signal in headphones while tracking, if that's a concern.

Wise words antichef.

Thankyou for that. ;)
 
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