Sm57 versus Beta 57

[drummerboybisch]

I am just curious to the main differences between these two mics as I would assume they are fairly closely related? Also, I plan to use it to do some snare/drumset recording plus possibly some scratch vocal tracks with acoustic guitar and am looking for a dynamic that wont bleed like a condenser for that situation, so any other reccomendations would be great. Thanks.

 

[TNO]

I don't think they are all that similar. The Beta is much brighter.

 

[Bassman Brad]

Yeah, they really don't sound anything alike. The Beta does, indeed, sound much brighter. It doesn't actually have that much more high frequency extension, but both have a significant frequency peak in the upper midrange. If you look at the response curves of the two mics, you will see that the peak on the Beta is a couple of kHz higher in frequency than the regular SM57, which is what makes it sound so much brighter.

Overall, I find the Beta much more useful and don't really use the regular 57s much anymore, but there are those who still prefer them for certain applications (snare and guitar amps, usually).