|
Post by drbill on Jan 8, 2017 18:51:40 GMT -6
Well, people have been known to jump on bandwagons... and get paid to publicly endorse things. So nothing surprises me anymore. I remain steadfast in my extreme lukewarmness towards the SM7 and belief that it is only useful as a tracking mic for ghost vocals. There. Curmudgeonly enough? The SM7 is the one mic that I don't think there is anybody paid to endorse & I know the folks at Shure don't do the paid shill thing, not their style. They sure didn't pay ME for buying a used 30+ y/o mic. Should I hit them up for one?
|
|
|
Post by EmRR on Jan 8, 2017 18:57:48 GMT -6
I don't get the hype for it, I never will and unless the singer / song requires that I use one. Maybe you also missed the part where I said I haven't used my SM7 in a few years, followed by agreeing with Dan that if "I could only have one", it would fit. The thing is, I don't have only one. Two different things; which is most universal in application versus which sounds best at a given moment. From a POV of not having many vocal mics to use on a continuous stream of unknown incoming clients, the SM7 is the better pick in most cases. My UMT70S was a terrible early choice for 'best vocal condenser', it really doesn't do what you want on a lot of people and types of music. I certainly don't feel any hype for the SM7, it just happens to work more than passably well more of the time than not. At the point I used it a lot, it beat my particular MD421 most of the time, with the 421 having too much hyped brightness accentuating sibilance, and I didn't have an RE20 at the time. It usually beat the RE16's. It usually worked out better than the UMT70S or 414-BULS, given the preamps I wanted to use. I didn't yet have the Samar or....the Samar....or the Samar....and it wouldn't be so universal in application as an SM7, although the Samar beats the pants off an SM7 in critical comparisons, you could put a Samar in more poor sounding vocal places than an SM7 when talking about the close miked rock and roll studio. Clearly....YMMV....it's a taste thing. Mojave? Still haven't been in the room with any.
|
|
|
Post by jcoutu1 on Jan 8, 2017 18:58:51 GMT -6
For some reason I skipped Dan's post, I'm going to say this and nothing else on the SM7B.. It is reliably mediocre, quite thin, flat, bit pitchy up top and that's why it works in dense mixes etc. of course this is opinion but again there are better go to microphones out there that also work reliably, on a lot of things most of the time like the Senny MD421.! I used it on guitar cabs, on vocals, on drums etc. etc. and the only use case I've found it not to work on is very specific singers. But the same applies to pretty much any microphone. I'm far from the only person to not use an SM7B as their go to's.. I don't get the hype for it, I never will and unless the singer / song requires that I use one.. I won't.. Have you used a SM7 not an or b model? What mic amps were you using it with? I never understood the undying love, but I understand it better now than I got one (along with Dan). I cannot find it mediocre, quite thin, flat or pitchy up top. Sorry. That said, I rarely choose it for a vocal, as I have a huge compliment of mics, but when I got the SM7, I understood what the rave was all about. Using Silver Bullet, vp28 or AML1073 mic pre's. Used it on a live Christmas record for the lead vocalist, and it absoLUTELY holds it's own. Using ANY condenser under those circumstances would have been recipe for disaster. I wonder what that record sounds like...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2017 19:04:35 GMT -6
For some reason I skipped Dan's post, I'm going to say this and nothing else on the SM7B.. It is reliably mediocre, quite thin, flat, bit pitchy up top and that's why it works in dense mixes etc. of course this is opinion but again there are better go to microphones out there that also work reliably, on a lot of things most of the time like the Senny MD421.! I used it on guitar cabs, on vocals, on drums etc. etc. and the only use case I've found it not to work on is very specific singers. But the same applies to pretty much any microphone. I'm far from the only person to not use an SM7B as their go to's.. I don't get the hype for it, I never will and unless the singer / song requires that I use one.. I won't.. Have you used a SM7 not an or b model? What mic amps were you using it with? I never understood the undying love, but I understand it better now than I got one (along with Dan). I cannot find it mediocre, quite thin, flat or pitchy up top. Sorry. That said, I rarely choose it for a vocal, as I have a huge compliment of mics, but when I got the SM7, I understood what the rave was all about. Using Silver Bullet, vp28 or AML1073 mic pre's. Used it on a live Christmas record for the lead vocalist, and it absoLUTELY holds it's own. Using ANY condenser under those circumstances would have been recipe for disaster. I have only ever used the SM7B (not sure of the differences top o' me head), as for pre-amps take your pick.. API / Daking and even got a free Art Tube MP with a mic I bought from Thomann, generally via an outboard LA2A (though tried it every way I could). I'm not talking about just my setup either, I hear it in near enough in every song / video / comparison (A/B's) I've ever heard. Again, I wanted some people to make sure I was doing the right thing when choosing a new mic. After many clips on many singers, not one of them chose the SM7B as their favourite. SM7B's do of course have their uses, live is one of them.. Sound much better than an SM58, whilst having the same off axis rejection etc. I'd never use an LDC live, especially as most of the stuff I do is rock / metal. I've not even been able to get away with handheld condensors, even though it was worth a try.?
|
|
|
Post by drbill on Jan 8, 2017 19:09:34 GMT -6
Have you used a SM7 not an or b model? What mic amps were you using it with? I never understood the undying love, but I understand it better now than I got one (along with Dan). I cannot find it mediocre, quite thin, flat or pitchy up top. Sorry. That said, I rarely choose it for a vocal, as I have a huge compliment of mics, but when I got the SM7, I understood what the rave was all about. Using Silver Bullet, vp28 or AML1073 mic pre's. Used it on a live Christmas record for the lead vocalist, and it absoLUTELY holds it's own. Using ANY condenser under those circumstances would have been recipe for disaster. I wonder what that record sounds like... Not a record. A live Christmas morning video for a church. It sounds fine. I REALLY, REALLY wanted to use my 77DX, but that wasn't going to work either....
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 8, 2017 19:27:51 GMT -6
I don't get the hype for it, I never will and unless the singer / song requires that I use one. Maybe you also missed the part where I said I haven't used my SM7 in a few years, followed by agreeing with Dan that if "I could only have one", it would fit. The thing is, I don't have only one. Two different things; which is most universal in application versus which sounds best at a given moment. From a POV of not having many vocal mics to use on a continuous stream of unknown incoming clients, the SM7 is the better pick in most cases. My UMT70S was a terrible early choice for 'best vocal condenser', it really doesn't do what you want on a lot of people and types of music. I certainly don't feel any hype for the SM7, it just happens to work more than passably well more of the time than not. At the point I used it a lot, it beat my particular MD421 most of the time, with the 421 having too much hyped brightness accentuating sibilance, and I didn't have an RE20 at the time. It usually beat the RE16's. It usually worked out better than the UMT70S or 414-BULS, given the preamps I wanted to use. I didn't yet have the Samar or....the Samar....or the Samar....and it wouldn't be so universal in application as an SM7, although the Samar beats the pants off an SM7 in critical comparisons, you could put a Samar in more poor sounding vocal places than an SM7 when talking about the close miked rock and roll studio. Clearly....YMMV....it's a taste thing. Mojave? Still haven't been in the room with any. I've said a couple of times, I've used them over many years for metal bands and it has been my go to as you said to get passable results in most situations (you do screaming metal? BRB.... SM7B, knock yourself out). I'm not sure if I'm doing a bad job iterating here, but we are essentially saying the same thing.. They're not that expensive either and I've had a couple of mic's broken (and one nicked) over the years. So you'll not cry yourself to sleep over a broken 2K+ LDC. But for my own project stuff, there's far better choices even in the sub 1K LDC department. Y'know maybe I've worked with them a little too much, when you listen to something over and over you can tend to become hyper-critical. But the conclusion is still the same, for me they are mediocre.. Which I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, as you said some mic's really don't work well on some stuff and great on others.. At least it's consistent (on most things)..
|
|
ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
Posts: 14,943
|
Post by ericn on Jan 8, 2017 19:30:36 GMT -6
The SM7 is the one mic that I don't think there is anybody paid to endorse & I know the folks at Shure don't do the paid shill thing, not their style. They sure didn't pay ME for buying a used 30+ y/o mic. Should I hit them up for one? For years they paid me for selling them, so I might have gotten paid for your old mic!😎
|
|
|
Post by drbill on Jan 8, 2017 22:47:13 GMT -6
They sure didn't pay ME for buying a used 30+ y/o mic. Should I hit them up for one? For years they paid me for selling them, so I might have gotten paid for your old mic!😎 Awesome! Glad SOME one got paid.
|
|
|
Post by ChaseUTB on Jan 9, 2017 14:26:47 GMT -6
@shadowamd drbill is talking about a SM7 not a SM7a or an SM7B, three different mics with similar nomenclature. I just had to put that out there. Can anyone specify the differences between the SM7, SM7a, and the SM7b? jcoutu1 you almost made me spit out my drink 😱😂 All over the SM7, I shure didn't think this thread would go this way.. 😭🤠
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 9, 2017 14:35:07 GMT -6
@shadowamd drbill is talking about a SM7 not a SM7a or an SM7B, three different mics with similar nomenclature. I just had to put that out there. Can anyone specify the differences between the SM7, SM7a, and the SM7b? jcoutu1 you almost made me spit out my drink 😱😂 All over the SM7, I shure didn't think this thread would go this way.. 😭🤠 "The differences among the SM7, SM7A, and SM7B, the SM7A featured a humbucking coil designed to reduce noise picked up from computer monitors and an improved mic mount. The SM7B has a larger foam windscreen, which is included with the mic." So the main difference is the SM7B put on bigger undies..
|
|
|
Post by ChaseUTB on Jan 9, 2017 17:24:16 GMT -6
@shadowamd drbill is talking about a SM7 not a SM7a or an SM7B, three different mics with similar nomenclature. I just had to put that out there. Can anyone specify the differences between the SM7, SM7a, and the SM7b? jcoutu1 you almost made me spit out my drink 😱😂 All over the SM7, I shure didn't think this thread would go this way.. 😭🤠 "The differences among the SM7, SM7A, and SM7B, the SM7A featured a humbucking coil designed to reduce noise picked up from computer monitors and an improved mic mount. The SM7B has a larger foam windscreen, which is included with the mic." So the main difference is the SM7B put on bigger undies.. So the SM7 lacks a windscreen and humbucking coil designed to reduce noise and that affects the sound how? The SM7 is being described as almost a different sound than the latter versions. Anyone: What makes the SM7 sound the way it does vs the SM7a &B?
|
|
|
Post by dandeurloo on Jan 9, 2017 17:40:05 GMT -6
I'm not sure. But at some point I will try and compare my SM7 to one of my friends SM7B's and see if there is any real difference. Not sure when that will be. I think I am mixing pretty sold for the next month or so.
|
|