SM57 Troubles

[Pocketlint]

I'm very confused...yesterday I was at my friends house recording drums. We had my sm57 micing the snare and a few other mics for overheads and kick. When we were testing the levels we noticed a cracking sound in the recording. When we played the audio back a few more times, we figured out that it was my sm57 and that it was making the cracking noise AFTER ever snare hit. We tried everything to figure out what was wrong. We checked the cable, my friend's speakers, the interface, but nothing changed so we tested it through one of my monitors and we had to turn the volume up to full to even hear my voice when I talked through it. So I took it home, and now this morning I tried talking through it using a crappy traynor practice amp and it worked fine. But I also tried it through my Line 6 and the same thing happened when we tried with my monitor. So I was wondering if anyone here knew what the heck is going on. I've never had any trouble with my sm57 in the past and now all of a sudden it just craps out on me. And we didn't drop it or anything!

Thanks

 

[Steenamaroo]

The only mic I ever had that make a 'cracking sound' was an RE20 and it only did it up against a kick, or something of equal volume.

It turned out to be a write off capsule.

That said, is there any chance you were clipping the preamp or converters? That'll do the same thing.

 

[kid klash]

...is there any chance you were clipping the preamp or converters? That'll do the same thing...

Yep. That'll most probably be the problem. An SM-57 can handle a huge dynamic peak without batting an eye. The snare can produce a huge spike that will clip just about any mic pre if it's turned up too high.

 

[PRHunt]

Yep. That'll most probably be the problem. An SM-57 can handle a huge dynamic peak without batting an eye. The snare can produce a huge spike that will clip just about any mic pre if it's turned up too high.

In which case, check the gain at the preamp and set it so you get peaks in the DAW at about -12dB to -18dB. If you still get too much signal even with the preamp gain at minimum, then engage the pad on the preamp (if it has one) OR grab an inline pad (or inline attenuator as they are also called).

Paul

 

[Nico Zottos]

I've experienced that with the SM57 before, like said above it usually has to do with clipping or the cable and since you said you checked the cable I'd go with the first one.