Curious(again) about this Mic

seannash

Okay so ive been doing alot of reading up these days on recording and mics and ****.

I came across a reference to the mic used on "Thriller"
The Shure sm7.

I googled it expecting it to be very pricey but it seems its a relativly cheap mic.
Is it widely used?
the reviews seem good for it.

Again just curious:)

DamagedTrax

my fave rock mic. it gets nice and gritty on a male vocal

seannash

Ive done a search on here but noone has ever recommended it to anyone it seems.

Could it work on regular vocals?

DamagedTrax

seannash wrote: »

Ive done a search on here but noone has ever recommended it to anyone it seems.

Could it work on regular vocals?

i guess. its just not the first thing i'd reach for on a smooth vocal.

it does what it does.. not an allrounder.

seannash

DamagedTrax wrote: »

i guess. its just not the first thing i'd reach for on a smooth vocal.

it does what it does.. not an allrounder.

ah okay
Thought it would have been good seeing as how Micheal Jackson used it on Thriller.

Would it be a case of not being a professional allrounder but a good allrounder for everyone else?

krd

It's not a condenser mike. It's a bog standard stage mic. It you want to sing quietly and have rich detail in the recording, you use an expensive condenser mike. If you have someone belting it out, you use a a shure. People like Bono and Freddie Mercury used shure stage mics to record their vocals.

A condenser mic can reveal a lot of ugliness in a vocal - stage mics can be very forgiving.

seannash

krd wrote: »

It's not a condenser mike. It's a bog standard stage mic. It you want to sing quietly and have rich detail in the recording, you use an expensive condenser mike. If you have someone belting it out, you use a a shure. People like Bono and Freddie Mercury used shure stage mics to record their vocals.

A condenser mic can reveal a lot of ugliness in a vocal - stage mics can be very forgiving.

For bog standard its getting good reviews though.Its only 300 squids.
A bit mad that micheal jackson used it

seannash

Found a list of artists that used it

1. Michael Jackson, Thriller
2. Brandon Boyd of Incubus, (YouTube - Brandon boyd (INCUBUS) a Capella)
3. Fran Drescher
4. Between the Buried and Me
5. Every Time I Die
6. Devin Townsend
7. Mastadon, Crack the Sky
8. Wilco, Sky Blue Sky
9. James Hetfield, Metallica
10. Tegan and Sara
11. Hawthorne Heights
12. Stevie Nicks
13. Death Cab for Cutie
14. Lifehouse
15. System of a Down
16. Bruce Springsteen
17. John Mayer
18. Kings of Leon
19. Neil Finn
20. Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins
21. Los Lonely Boyz
22. AC/DC
23. Oasis
24. Billy Idol
25. Red Hot Chili Peppers

Good few shouty types on there alright but surely there has to be some detail in there shouts too?

Total noob at this so i could be missing the obvious

DamagedTrax

as i said. it does some stuff very very well but its never gonna be velvet

krd

seannash wrote: »

For bog standard its getting good reviews though.Its only 300 squids.
A bit mad that micheal jackson used it

It's bog standard, because the shure range are considered the standard.

It's because what it does. In the way it does it. It looses a lot of what you give it. but it tends to lose what you want it to lose. They're dynamic mics - so you can go from loud to quiet easily.

It's like saying, why don't electric guitarist replace their coil pickups with little condenser microphones for better quality.

madtheory

It's a great sounding mic. For vocals it has no shortcomings compared to a condenser. Particularly if you're going to be compressing the vocal a lot. Other great dynamics are RE20, Beyerdynamic M201, Sennheiser 421.

jtsuited

whack it into a distressor and you've my favourite male vocal chain.

Aridstarling

madtheory wrote: »

It's a great sounding mic. For vocals it has no shortcomings compared to a condenser. Particularly if you're going to be compressing the vocal a lot. Other great dynamics are RE20, Beyerdynamic M201, Sennheiser 421.

If you had to choose one Mad? I'm looking at the Sm7b, RE20 and 421 early next year, just having trouble picking one at the moment. They all seem to tick the same boxes really. I'm sure I'll end up with all three eventually.

madtheory

RE20 personally. It has a beautiful sound on most voices- that's why it's so popular in radio. It's also the most cardioid cardioid I've ever used, excellent rejection in a multi mic setting. That's because it's a seriously well designed interference tube. The SM7 is too close to a 58 for my taste, I'd go for the 201 before that because they work well on a lot of instruments IME.

Aridstarling

Thanks Mad, I'll definitely keep that in mind. One of my friends is getting the 201 soon (on my recommendation) and we try to get complementary gear seeing as we end up using each others stuff all the time.

Doge

madtheory wrote: »

I'd go for the 201 before that because they work well on a lot of instruments IME.

They do IMH!

madtheory

waveform wrote: »

They do IMH!

You'd love that.