twdavis said:
I've never used one, and I know they're a studio staple, but I've heard alot of people say they're too bright and harsh.
Who are these people and how much have they used the SM57?
twdavis said:
Would it still be too harsh if you ran it through a tube mic pre or is this "harsh" business overblown?
It's even worse than that. I'm not sure that "bright and harsh" describes a 57 very well. There are a lot of mics that are brighter than a 57. "Bright and harsh" describes many of the Chinese condenser mics on the market, some of which cost more than a 57. The 57 lacks the lowest octave of sound (mostly earthquake stuff down there) and the highest octave or so (the "air" frequencies) but these ranges are on the outer edges of our capability to hear. It doesn't really have exceptional bass response, but it does capture a bit of bass. It does capture high frequencies, but a lot of mics are way more hyped in the high end. It's a midrange presence peak microphone, so it's kind of voiced around the frequencies that humans hear the easiest. It's also not very detailed compared to other mics, but that isn't good or bad. Sometimes really detailed mics sound thin and wimpy on the wrong source, where something like a 57 with slower response can sound fatter and bigger.
Basically the 57 is rarely a first choice on anything. For this reason, a lot of people don't like it. It also never truly sucks on anything. This makes it one of the most versatile utility mics around, and it's pretty cheap. For this reason a lot of people love it. It's often a first choice on snare drums. It's also popular on guitar amps and works well on a lot of vocal duties. Excellent mic for live stage and sound reinforcement on anything you can throw at it because it's durable and sounds decent.
Depending on what other mics you have if any, the 57 can be hard to outgrow. It's a great first microphone. If and when you add more mics, some of them might walk all over the 57 on one source but not work so well on a bunch of other things that the 57 could still do better. And yes, the 57 might sound harsh on some sources in comparison to some of the very best mics in the world. It's probably more likely to sound dull though.
Still a great mic for guitar cabs, cheap and widely accepted in the industry for a few decades now.
There's also a lot of misconception about tube mic preamps or anything with a tube in it for that matter. Tubes are very well known for their effect on guitar amps so people automatically think this is the case with everything.
It's not.
There are some cheap preamps on the market that basically run off an op amp. Art, Behringer and Studio Projects come to mind. All of these companies have made preamps with a starved plate tube in the circuit. The preamp itself doesn't even need a tube to work, and the tube itself isn't even running on enough power to make it glow. They use LEDs for that because they cut slots in the case so you can see a small portion of the tube. Red or orange LEDs are behind the tube so it looks like it actually is glowing. Studio Projects is a bit different because you can't see the tube in their design and they chose blue LEDs for the glow. Maybe they have a sense of humour or something.
This type of preamp (sometimes called a "tOOb" preamp) only has a tube in it so that it can now be marketed as a tube preamp. All the tube does is add distortion. The better designs allow you to blend how much tube you want or bypass it altogether. It can sound okay as a weird effect if used sparingly.
Many of the actual, real tube preamps that really use tubes to actually pass the audio signal are really quiet, fast devices with stupid amounts of clean headroom. They are amongst the most uncoloured, accurate, transparent and distortion free. They don't do a whole lot to change the sonics of what you feed into it.
On the other hand, mic preamps with transformers in them colour the sound quite a bit and tend to do what people would otherwise think comes from tubes. There are a lot of other design considerations. Tube pres may or may not have transformers, so that opens up another can of worms. The best idea is to forget what's inside the box and focus on what it sounds like.
) and it's been used for guitar, snare, vocals, and acoustic, all with good results.