Anyone have a shure sm7?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Teacher
  • Start date Start date
Teacher

Teacher

New member
what pre amp are u using with it?

i tried it with my mackie preamps and wasn't impressed at all i preferred the sound of my marshal mxl 1006 to it..it sounded grainy but i'm attributing that to the pre's. i had to dial it to about 4 to 5 O clock to get a decent rec level.. so i'm guessing the increased gain increased the noise the pre's make

is this a proper assessment?

or is the SM7 some way broken?

or is the MXL a better vox mic
 
How much do you want for it?

I'll take it off your hands for the right price:cool:
 
300 would be the starting point...IF i'm going to sell it...i'm just trying to assess the situation before i do any rash decision...and so far my gut and my ears tell me its the pre amp matching...
 
I have 2 SM7's. They both sound identicle. I use an Audix 35102 mic pre. These pre's are from old British consoles, and my modules were re-capped and racked by Brent Averill. They are Class A, discrete, with the same EQ points as the Neve 33114's.
lg-207013.jpg


If you're getting a "grainy" sound from the mic, my first thought would be to blame your pre's. But the Mackie pre's are pretty decent, so, I'm not sure that's the problem.

Have you tried changing the mic cable? It could be as simple as that.
 
You guessed right, in that it isn't the most ideal match.

The Mackie is pretty decent, but only in certain gain ranges. It does not perform optimally when you have to crank the gain up that high. Starts to make things sound grainy and thin. And the SM-7 is a very low-output (almost ribbon-like) mic, requiring lots of gain. Even for a dynamic.

The best match for the sm7 is a lower impedence pre. Believe it or not, the ART Tube MP is one of the lower impedence mic pres on the market, and doesn't sound half bad with the SM7. The VTB1 isn't a bad choice either.

Another good match is the M-Audio DMP3. You can pretty much crank the gain all the way up on that sucker (if needed) without a lot of added noise; and the response still tends to remain relatively linear (the sound doesn't suffer), even at higher gains -- something the Mackie doesn't do to well.

But a general rule is that pretty much anything that sounds good with a ribbon mic will be a good match for the SM7. They have similar requirements.
 
u mean its a faulty mic cable or a cheap mic cable?

cuz it sounds alright with my marshal MXL

anyway..how do you like the sound of you sm7 with your setup
 
i was thinking about getting an RNP...cuz thats seems like a pre i can grow with and has a reputation of being transparent

any thoughts?
 
Teacher, when I asked Fletcher about whether a SM7 would work well for me,
he indicated that if you sound good on a SM57 then it should also on the SM7.
By that logic, the RNP is an excellent pre for the SM7 as it's supposed to match the
SM57 extremely well.

BTW, just bought a mint SM57 from the 80's where you can switch the
impedance to 50 ohms. This could be the ticket to improving my VTB-1's
performance on a Shure Unidyne III microphone (VTB-1 has 50 ohm switch),
like a '57, to try to get it to as comparable as possible to the RNP.
At the very least it'll be a fun experiment.

Chris
 
thanks...thats what i was hoping to hear

i got scared when i heard the SM7 vs. my previous marshal MXL 1006 stuff
 
Back
Top