Shure SM 7 B Reviews

Worth the money.

This mic is as good as people say. With a good preamp you can easily mistake him for a 1500£ mic. Plus, it's very well built, pretty solid and versatile. You can use it on vocals, some part of your drum set and even guitar/bass cabinet.

If you have the budget go for it, you won't regret it.

Very Good

This is a great mic with a solid design.

Surprisingly detailed for a dynamic, but need a great preamp to really shine.

Works well for bands recording live in a studio as you can still get the condenser like quality without the bleed.

If it's good enough for Michael Jackson, it's good enough for us :)

Good all round

Well designed and useful in a wide range of live and studio applications. The built in switchable filters give the mic more flexibility and is a great alternative to a 58. I mainly use this mic for vocals or snare, though also sounds great on toms. Worth owning two in my opinion.

Love this mic

Even though it requires a pre-amp to give it the right oomph, I really love this mic. Works great with a Golden Age Pre 2

Great addition to any studio set up

I bought this mic to use primarily as a male vocal mic, but I have found it to have several other uses. It works well as a kick drum mic and a bass amp mic. For vocals, it is perfect. I have recorded several vocalists, ranging from singing to screaming and the mic has excelled at each one. The mic does not a lot of gain, and I have bought a fethead preamp to give it an extra boost. If you are just recording people screaming, then you may not need the extra gain from the preamp. Overall, this mic has been a great purchase and I can see why it is regarded as a studio standard!

Great mic

I own about a dozen microphones, but this is my favourite. It even makes me sound good!

It flatters my voice, turning the slight harshness that I sometimes have into creamy smooth sound. I highly recommend that you buy a Cloudlifter pre-amp to go along with it, as it has a low output, and needs a boost.

I'm not sure I would use it live, but for studio and recording purposes, it is amazing.

Very pleased

I've used my SM7B in my home studio for vocal recording and for some live recordings too. It sounds full and smooth and has a very high quality reproduction of the vocal sound. It has a tight cardioid pattern and the off axis bleed doesn't sound half bad so it's suitable for live recording. I encourage vocalists to sing fairly close to the mic in live recording situations and it handles this well without excessive proximity effect or popping. You will need to give it a lot of gain, so you need a decent preamp both live and in the studio. My only dislike is that the vocal sounds ready-compressed. This works fine if you are recording certain types of music like rock, or pop, but I find that aspect unsuitable for folk or country songs where you can lose a little of the expression of the vocalist and I prefer to use a condenser for these sessions. I also found some vocalists reluctant to sing through it for live recording, simply because it looks clunky. Overall though, this is a great mic to have in your armoury and it's not too expensive either.

Fantastic quality from Shure!

I love this mic. It sounds killer, both for vocals and guitar amps. It has great features like low- and highpass etc, although I never touch them.

The build quality is superb and this product feels heavy and top notch, something that I've come to expect from Shure.

A downside is that you need a lot of gain to use this, but if your sound card doesn't have the amount of preamp gain you need, you can just use something as simple as a Cloudlifter and you're good to go.

In short, a fantastic mic that is the perfect complement to a condenser microphone for home studio owners.

Awesome!

This microphone has exceeded my expectations. An exceptional tone with room to play due to the LPF and presence settings offered, although I prefer to record flat and alter EQ in post.

Good mic for vocal Recordings (but not only, works like a charm on hihats or snare drums). This mic requiers a preamp with lot of gain to get to a good recording level.

The mic attachement is a bit strange at first (it is a broadcast mic aimed to be used upside down in broadcast studios) but you quickly get used to it. The sound is a bit "closed" comparing to your typical large diaphragm vocal microphone, but with the preamp gain/eq combinasion, you end up having very good results. The isolation from sounds coming from the sides is very good, so no problem to use it to record vocals in the control room or in a noisy environment.

Shure SM7B

Fantastic microphone, have used it on all my productions since purchasing it. I am particularly fond of it on vocals and a particular advantage of this mic is the fact you don't have to use an additional pop shield when recording. I tend to record a lot of metal bands and sometimes the vocalist feels a lot more comfortable holding the mic so with foam cover included really helps to eliminate those plosive words and getting spit sounds through on the recording.

As well as vocals I have also had great success using this mic on guitar amps, acoustic guitars, hi hats, kick drums and toms.

Really warm sounds, would definitely recommend!

Another great dynamic mic from shure

So far I have only used this mic in a studio environment, though the rejection of ambient noise and the included popshield means it would be one of my first choices for vocals on a location recording or somewhere with poor acoustics. It is great for vocals where the singer is loud/breathy/very bright sounding, as it does not amplify these traits in the same way most LDC's do. It also works very well on guitar amps, snare drums and most loud acoustic sources (I've even heard people having success on kick drums with this mic) due to the high spl handling, smooth frequency response and smooth dynamic response. It is also a good replacement for a condenser in many settings where other dynamic mics don't convey enough detail. The build quality is excellent, with the same weighty and rugged feel the sm58 and similar mics have.

Don't speak highly enough of it

It might be a little prizy but you do get what you pay for, Shure can never get it wrong.

The sound is warm, clear, not to mention how good it looks.

Highly recommended.

Affordable industry standard classic studio mic.

This is one of the only affordable mics you can get in this price range that has been used by all the great engineers, producers and artists for decades, (and still is).

For certain singers (Michael Jackson, Anthony Kiedis, Bjork to name but a few) and producers (Rick Rubin, Quincy Jones etc) the SM7 is preferred to the most expensive condenser mics.

Its dynamic so is great for micing in non-treated rooms or when recording a vocalist that's playing acoustic at the same time because it wont pick up the room and guitar as much as a condenser would.

The SM7 is a very affordable top of the range tool to have in any studio, professional or amateur.

Workhorse

This is what you should get before looking over all hundreds of options of large diaphragm condensers.

This will get you close to a expensive/good sound without having to treat the s**t out of your acoustic environment. LDC are more sensitive to the surrounding room acoustics. This one can give you a sound close to expensive LDC, if the signal chain is good, HW, preferably, 1 or 2 HW comps(brings up the small details, without shouting). I compared it to a Brauner VMX and Neuman U87, and was still pleased with the results from the shure. Had to pull up the gain high as hell though, and that gives you some background hiss. Also I removed the mushy foam wind/pop shield from the mic, and used the pop screen I use with LDC (makes a difference...)

Have not used it on instrument or cab, just vocals so far. I bet it works well on some sources and not so good on others.. But you can have it as a more or less secure start for a recording studio IMHO.

A great microphone, solid and easy to use

It's not hard to find a good recording setting with this one. It's great if your room doesn't have acoustic treatment, because it highly rejects room sounds if set up properly. The sound is quite warm and bassy, good for male singing and podcast/overdub. It's big and looks solid like a rock. You get a second pop screen for podcast use which promises to give you an even warmer/more bassy sound. I personally use this to record guitars in conjunction with a ribbon mic, to record my vocals, and as a substitute to sm57 when recording more twangy sounds full of top end, as it naturally tends to give a more mid-low punch and a top end roll off. Great microphone, and a standard for professional recording studios. Really worth the money, highly recommended.

Perfect!

At close proximity these dynamic mic's are my all-time favorite. Set one of these up with a condenser mic and balance the difference!

Good choise for less than optimal spaces

The SM7B dynamic mic is an optimal mic for tracking vocals in acoustically less than optimal project home studios since it's not affected too much by room sound. The mic works really well for aggressive male rock vocals.

Pair this with the Golden Age Pre73 and you have a very good cheap setup for tracking vocals.

The mic works well for kick, guitar cabs and snare as well. Has that distinct Shure SM57 type midrange to it, but fuller.

Classic Mic

Classic microphone, and very versatile. Very good for rock pop hip hop.

Tested in many environments and types of voices.

Optimos results with a live music project Acoustic Rock, in my home studio in hiphop and rock male vocals.

If you have a good mic pre, have very good results

Glad I bought this microphone, has found many uses already!

This mic has served me well as a live mic on my snare drum, and likewise at home.

Most importantly it has yielded very pleasing results in the studio on various singers, percussive objects (for example I've cranked the gain and recorded a matchbox as a percussive instrument and it sounded awesome!)

The feel of it is sturdy, well build, and it looks cool. I'm sure it could survive a few more knocks than I've already subjected it to.

Overall, this mic has less 'depth' than some of the others I use - but in the context of the combinations I tend to go for, it works wonders in bringing clarity and punch to my mixes (or certain elements of them)

If you've got enough dough, get one of these and you won't be disappointed.