Whoopysnorp
New member
This morning I scored myself an SM7 on Craigslist. I had been wanting a large diaphragm dynamic and was more leaning towards the EV RE20 or the Heil PR40, but then this Shure appeared on the used market, and I just had to go for it. As a test, I recorded a new vocal track on a demo of mine. Here I have links to an mp3 with the vocal done using the SM7 and another mp3 with the original vocal track done with an MXL V69M:
We Like Devices (V69M)
We Like Devices (SM7)
The preamp in both cases was a Presonus Eureka. In both cases I used some conservative compression on the way in, and in the case of the SM7 I also had a 4 dB boost around 14K. Both tracks have the Waves RVox plugin applying some more compression, but no additional EQing. The bass rolloff and the presence boost on the SM7 were engaged. Also, the V69M has a NOS Mullard 12AT7 in place of the original Chinese piece of crap tube, so the mic sounds substantially different from stock.
I am quite pleased with the sound of the SM7--it's a very different flavor. It was also much easier to do that vocal take, and I in fact put little effort into it, being just for a test after all. Rather than put it on a stand and position a pop filter like I had to do with the V69M, I just sat in my desk chair, held the mic by the yoke, brought it a few inches from my mouth, and let 'er rip. I had no problems with handling noise, and the background noise level is certainly much, much lower on the SM7 track. I think both mics sound good but I'm very glad to own an SM7 now.
We Like Devices (V69M)
We Like Devices (SM7)
The preamp in both cases was a Presonus Eureka. In both cases I used some conservative compression on the way in, and in the case of the SM7 I also had a 4 dB boost around 14K. Both tracks have the Waves RVox plugin applying some more compression, but no additional EQing. The bass rolloff and the presence boost on the SM7 were engaged. Also, the V69M has a NOS Mullard 12AT7 in place of the original Chinese piece of crap tube, so the mic sounds substantially different from stock.
I am quite pleased with the sound of the SM7--it's a very different flavor. It was also much easier to do that vocal take, and I in fact put little effort into it, being just for a test after all. Rather than put it on a stand and position a pop filter like I had to do with the V69M, I just sat in my desk chair, held the mic by the yoke, brought it a few inches from my mouth, and let 'er rip. I had no problems with handling noise, and the background noise level is certainly much, much lower on the SM7 track. I think both mics sound good but I'm very glad to own an SM7 now.
