Sonos Multi-Room Music System - Review by Oresti

Here at Indaba, we have 12+ people in the office at any time with amazing music libraries on their computers. For a while now, we’ve been looking for a good way to play this vast collection in a seamless way through our office speakers. Luckily, over the past couple weeks we've had a chance to play around with a great product - the Sonos Multi-Room Music System.

The Sonos Music System is an affordable, high-quality product that is both easy to use and easy to set up. I used to work at a Hi-Fi store which sold several thousand dollar stereo systems, and we’d often advise our clients to include the Sonos in their system as a way to bridge their digital music collections into their living rooms and kitchens – anywhere in their homes.

The primary asset of the Sonos system is that you can set up several bases all around your home and be rocking out to Taking Back Sunday in the bathroom while your girlfriend is listening to Death Cab for Cutie in the living room and your dog is napping to Enya in the kitchen.

The Sonos “starter bundle” comes with a controller and two Zone players. One of the Zone players has a built-in amplifier so you can directly connect it to passive speakers and the other player can be connected to active or powered speakers or into a powered system. The controller is a solid tablet that you can leave on your couch or wherever you hang out the most. It has a scroll wheel for the iPod generation and big, easy-to-understand buttons. A 2-3inch color LCD screen which displays cover art and let’s you create and edit your queue. This package goes for about $1,000 retail.

Is that too steep for you? Check out the single ZonePlayer 120 for about $500 and see how you like the system. This is the one that has a built-in amplifier. Already have a stereo system or powered speakers? You can pick up the ZonePlayer 90 for about $350 and get started there. The Sonos system is very flexible: it’s not an all-inclusive proprietary thing, you can actually build your setup bit by bit. Say you enjoy having one room going and decide you love it so much you want two more zones, no problem… simply pick up two more ZonePlayers, integrate them into the setup and you’ll be grooving in no time.

We recently acquired a ZonePlayer 120 hooked it up to a system streaming music for all for us to hear. We have the control in the break area, so whoever is over there can access the system and alter the queue. What I find most of us using is the Sonos Desktop Controller. This is a free program that we all have on our laptops. This allows us to add our personal music libraries to the music index and create playlists using everyone’s collective library. I just added my 19,000 song library to the index and it smoothly integrated after only about 10-15 minutes while not interrupting whatever music was playing. And get this: not only can you use the Sonos controller and the computer program to manage the playback, they’ve also created a free application to use on your iPod touch or iPhone! They’ve really made it so there’s no limit to accessing the system. Just check out the screen shot of the program and the pics of me using the controller and iPod touch! All very elegant GUI and seamless integration.

All this writing is taking away from my playlist making… Go check out the system for yourself at www.sonos.com or go listen for yourself at your local Hi-Fi store.

Gear Review: Sans Amp Bass Driver DI by Guest Blogger Ryan Roberts

A recurring challenge that both producers and musicians run into; while attempting to capture music on tape or computer is: obtaining a strong, vibrant bass tone.  The ever elusive, quality bass tone, seems lately to be isolated to high budget projects or major commercial releases.  I’ve tested and selected an external bass driver that could play an integral part in your home recording process.

Much more than just a direct box, the SansAmp Bass Driver DI is capable of dialing up big vintage tube tones, bright modern slap sounds, gnarly distortions, and a lot in between. It has three different outputs to drive power amps, or to go direct into recording desks, PA mixers, or to just simply enhance your current rig.  The controls offer a broad range of traditional bass amp sounds, including such meaty styles as Bassman and SVT, as well as raunchy, crunchy overdriven sounds that would typically require a multitude of effects units.

Controls include:

• Presence-  contols the amount of definition and upper harmonic content;
• Drive -  adjusts the overall gain structure and overdrive.
• Level -  regulates the XLR and effected ¼’ output levels.
• Blend -  allows you to mix the direct bass signal with SansAmp Tube Amplifier Emulation circuitry (which is particularly useful for basses equipped with Piezo or Bartollini pickups). SansAmp circuitry.
• Bass & Treble-  are active EQ controls, specifically tuned for bass guitar, that cut or boost +/- 12dB.

This pedal is in short, a marvel.  It works great, its incredibly durable, and it consistently astonishes me with the varying amount of sounds that I can get out of it.  It retails at $199.99, so start saving that milk money, and check it out.

Preview: Digidesign Pro Tools 8 - by Oresti

Many of you may have already heard the rumblings - there is a new Pro Tools coming to town and it’s not messing around. Yes, industry favorite, Digidesign Pro Tools, is getting a major facelift in Version 8. Many of you may consider Pro Tools overly technical, and lacking the creative tools to make the tracks you want to make the easiest way possible, which is why you may turn to other popular DAWs such as Logic Studio and Ableton Live! Truth is, each of these programs has their purpose, but in my opinion, Pro Tools is the best one for the sheer tracking and editing of audio.

As Digidesign has obviously realized that its competitors are closing in - in part by including vast libraries of plug-ins and creative tools from the get-go at very reasonable prices - they’ve put in a lot of time and money to make sure Pro Tools 8 is a hit not only with engineers, but with all musicians and creators. Their goal is to make the new PT a non-stop shop for music with a fresh and comfortable new look and a whopping 8GB worth of included content.

What are some of the new exciting things Digidesign is offering? Well, probably the most stand-out feature aside from an attractive and easy to use GUI is the scoring facility. Gone are the days of mediocre MIDI and absolute lack of notation in Pro Tools. Supposedly they’ve put a lot of time into making this feature something more than a basic Finale or Sibelius, so comprehensive charts will be available to those who need them.

As far as the 8-gigs of fun new stuff, there will be well-stocked studio sounds from the get-go. Rather than lame “lite” versions of soft synths, there will be a full-featured piano, drum machine, organ, and the second version of Xpand!  There will also be 20 new AIR effects and a huge library of loops. Other free plugs will include amp-modeling from Eleven Free and SansAmp. The SansAmp plug-in alone is about $400 new, so having it thrown in there is pretty amazing.

One of the features I really found interesting was the new comping utility, which allows you to look at all your playlists simultaneously and give them ratings rather than having to click through them one by one and keep notes on a piece of paper. This will increase vocal-tracking and editing efficiency ten-fold!

Anyways, the most I could get from reading a few blogs out there is that there isn’t an actual release date, but PT 8 should be out sometime between November and December. It will retail for about $250 but I believe upgrades from Version 7 will be available for about $150, if previous releases are any indication. Also, for all you students out there, I’m sure there will be academic versions for about $140 as well, so keep some cash to the side and get ready for what is bound to be an amazing new version of an already great program. Check out more new features at the Digidesign site or check out a more hands-on review at AudioMidi.com.

Plug-In Review: Waves Renaissance Compressor - by Oresti

Loud, louder, loudest… punchy, hard-hitting, screaming, intense. These are some of the adjectives towards which we strive with our pop and rock music - we want to make it stand out, be in your face. How is that done? Compression! Sure, things have gone too far lately, with tracks becoming louder than ever - to the point where they don’t even sound good anymore and are simply distorting. That actually has a lot to do with mastering, and that’s not really what I’m focusing on here. What I am focusing on is plug-in compressors, and more specifically, the Waves Renaissance Compressor.

Sure, we’d all love to have amazing outboard compressors like an LA2A or 1176, or maybe a pair of Distressors, but these are all going to cost you a couple of grand. Perhaps some of us are lucky enough to have access to one, if not a couple of these, but for the most part we’re relying on the compressors in Pro Tools and Logic, or whatever platform you may be using.

Sometime this summer, I found myself in a bit of a rut when I was recording a pop-punk band in my home. I tracked everything as best as I could, but when mixing, nothing was really happening for me. Things sounded “okay,” but the guitars weren’t screaming, the drums weren’t rockin, and the bass wasn’t rumbling. After talking to some friends, I realized what I was missing was a reliable compression plug-in, I was just using the standard Bombfactory 1176 emulator that comes with Pro Tools and it simply wasn’t cutting it.

I found out that I could buy an academic Waves bundle at school with their Renaissance plug-ins like the reverb, eq, and of course, compressor. Of course, not everyone has access to academic pricing on the Waves gear, but it doesn’t mean you can’t go on www.waves.com and check out some demos until you’re convinced you should spend the money to upgrade your sound.

Anyways, upon implementing the Renaissance Compressor into my mixes, on individual tracks as well as a master buss compressor, the tracks were finally rocking! Waves gives you a slew of presets to start getting your sound with, from a “drums,” preset to “electric guitar,” “vocal,” etc. They even have settings for buss compression.

Though it’s a digital plug-in, the plug-in actually manages to “warm-up” your sound. You get options between “Opto,” optical compression, which is a more vintage sound, and a bit slower to attack, like the LA2A, as well as an “Electro,” version that is a more modern sound. There’s also brick-wall limiting built-in so that you won’t clip. This allows you to really crank certain things without getting nasty digital distortion, a really great feature for modern rock and pop music.

You can pick up the plug-in all by itself for $200 on the Waves site  or if your looking to get a sweet bundle of great plugs, you can start with the Silver bundle which is available at a discounted rate of about $800 right now. The latter includes 16 great plug-ins including verbs, equalizers, a stereo imager, delays and other useful stuff.

I’ve gone ahead and done six Renaissance Compressor comparisons for you using their presets. All with and without the plug-in activated so you can hear the possibilities of using Waves software. I did some more straightforward stuff for you, such as bass guitar and electric guitar, drums and vocals.

• Bass (Reference) | Bass (With Waves Compressor)
• Drums (Reference) | Drums (With Waves Compressor)
• Guitar (Reference) | Guitar (With Waves Compressor)
• Vocals (Reference) | Vocals  (With Waves Compressor)

Something a little different was severe stereo compression on a simple piano track, just to show you how the compressor can also be used as an effect at times

• Piano (Reference) | Piano (With Waves Compressor)

And finally, I used the plug-in as a master-buss compressor on a small clip from one of my Indaba sessions:

• Stereo Mix (Reference) | Stereo Mix (With Waves Compressor)

Alright, do some listening… I’m sure you’ll find that it’s a fun and effective tool for bettering your mixes. Try out the demo from Waves, and maybe you’ll like it enough to buy it! Don’t shy away from trying other Waves compressors as well, they’ve got a variety of amazing emulations available (API, Neve, SSL).

Synth Feature: Nord Lead 2X - by Oresti

It has recently become apparent to me that Indaba has a strong synth-centric community, so for this week’s gear review, I thought I’d focus on a piece of hardware I know and love, the Nord Lead 2X.

But let’s take a step back for a second. Say you’re looking to get a keyboard, what are some important things you need to think about? Well, budget is a big consideration. If you really don’t have much money to throw around for a keyboard, perhaps you’re better off getting a MIDI controller - in other words, a keyboard with no sounds loaded onto it. M-Audio and other companies make a variety of keyboards with varying amounts of controllers on-board that start at $100. These devices will be your quickest, least expensive way into the realm of digital synthesis, as you can just use them to control software synthesizers in Garageband, Logic, Live!, or Reason (just to name a few programs).

If you’re really looking to get a hardware synthesizer with built-in sounds so that you don’t have to rely on your computer, then you should head over to your nearest Sam Ash or Guitar Center and just start playing all of them! Roland, Korg, Yamaha, Moog, Clavia… there’s a great variety of keyboards out there, with different purposes and sounds, and it’s up to you to figure out what best suits you.

Just as I mentioned in my studio monitor review a couple of weeks ago, everyone has a different set of ears and really needs to listen until they’re comfortable with that they’re purchasing. This goes the same for any guitar, speaker, pair of headphones, and certainly keyboards are no exception.

I already have a full-sized digital piano, a Yamaha P-80, which was the closest thing I could find to the feel of playing an actual piano, but could fit in my cramped apartment, so I wasn’t in the market for a keyboard with a real piano function. During my keyboard quest, I was searching for something that could give me great lead synth lines and big open pads. From fun power-pop to atmospheric Radiohead-style openness, I needed something that I could use on a variety of projects.

At school, I was able to get accustomed to using a micro-Korg, a tiny, fun synth that’s great for leads and has a cool retro look to it. Those go for about $400 new, $300 on eBay, so if what you’re after is ultra-portable with great lead sounds, this is probably a solid option for you. Some drawbacks are the tiny keys - I have fairly large hands as I’m more of a piano player, and it can be rather cumbersome to maneuver. It also feels a bit cheap and plastic, as if you may break it if you play it too hard… but I suppose this is also part of the appeal.

Another synth I tried out at school which really caught my attention is the Roland SH-201. A bunch of fun knobs and oscillators, full-sized keys… and a couple of more octaves than the micro-Korg. I made some sounds I really enjoyed on this piece of gear and after a few weeks, headed over to Guitar Center to pick one up. The SH-201s go for about $600 new, and if you’re lucky you can get them for about $400 on eBay. Anyways, upon my arrival to Guitar Center, I sat down and started playing a few licks on the 201, and there was even a demo model on sale, so I was completely ready to buy it until a beautiful red synth caught my eye. I had seen people playing these before - Clavia’s Nord keyboards… clean, solid, and red. I figured they were just pretentious and didn’t really have much going on, but I took the Nord Lead 2X for a spin and found it blew the Roland keyboard out of the water.

The sheer sonic quality of the synth was instantly noticeable. Much better digital to analog converters, a more solid feeling knobs, and a cleaner overall package made me want the Nord piece within seconds. It has similar oscillators and options as the 201, but the 201 is all plastic and kind-of looks and feels like a toy. As I’m an aspiring musician and producer, I want to feel as if I’m working and performing on a professional instrument, not a toy.

The Lead 2X has a high-resolution pitch-bend and modulation wheel, which give you smoother, more music control over your changes than your usual controllers. The pads will flesh out your work and the leads will drive your hooks, there’s really no reason to not get one of these aside from the cost. At $1,000 new, the Lead 2X can be a bit hard on the wallet, but just keep your eyes peeled on eBay for it’s older siblings, the Nord Lead 1 and Nord Lead 2, and you might find a great deal! There’s also a rack version for a couple of hundred dollars less, which has no keyboard attached to it. If you already have a keyboard or controller you like, simply get a Lead 2X Rack and you’ll have the same great sound.

You can check out some more details and listen to some demo’s at the Clavia site. I’ve made a couple of samples for you to check out as well. Here’s a clip for a song I recorded before I added a Nord pad to it. It works, it’s a big outro to the song, but the artist and I just felt it needed something more to really bring it home, so we added an eerie wind-like pad to it. By adding the pad, the track is fleshed out and way more lush. You can also do some cool stuff with the arpeggiator. On this sample, you can hear me modulating the frequency response with the mod-wheel halfway through.The Nord can also do classic saw synth very well, as you can hear in my shoddy rendition of Van Halen’s “Jump.”

Alright Indaba, that’s enough from me… go check out some synths and get your tracks poppin’!

Gear Review: IK Multimedia Classik Studio Reverb Plug-In - by Oresti

    One of the biggest factors in the overall sound quality of your recordings comes directly from the acoustics of the space you’re recording in. Since most of us don’t have a multi-million dollar acoustically treated space to record in, or even a several-thousand dollar one for that matter, we have to rely primarily on synthetic “space,” or digital reverb. Sure, most recording platforms come with some sort of generic reverb - in Garageband, there’s simply a slider that says “reverb” and you put on more, or less. In a more advanced program like ProTools, D-Verb is an included plug-in that gives you a few options to choose from, and various parameters to work with.

    In the case of D-Verb, you may think that you don’t need anything more: it has several presets, hall, plate, room, theusual stuff, and it gives you everything you need to  tweak the sound. But is this free plug-in really all we need to get a great sounding space? Well, in my opinion… no!

   Professional recording studios use outboard reverb from companies like Lexicon and TC Electronics that costs several thousand dollars. Obviously the majority of us aren’t going to drop that kind of green for our reverb unit, but what about a couple of hundred dollars? There are decent reverb units out there which will get you a much better sound than your current free plug-in, but even those add complications. How am I going to interface the unit with my recording setup? What cables will I need? These aren’t difficult things to answer and solve, but it does add some more mess to your studio, so what about digital options, plug-ins.

    When I first delved into the world of reverb plug-ins, I tried demos from various companies before I made my final decision. One of the demos I tried was from a company called IK Multimedia, and is called CSR or Classik Studio Reverb. This plug-in blew me away with its ease of use and amazing high-resolution sound. It emulates some of those classic outboard reverbs that big recording studios use, and it does a damn good job.

   For only $400 new, you can bring spatial life to your sound. It’s available for less if you shop around online, or even check out eBay. You may even get your hands on it for $150-250. Anyways, CSR comes with a Hall, Room, Plate, and Inverse reverb settings. When you open it initially, you get the easy, go-to prameters, and a slew of easy presets to start with. For example, if you’re working on your drums, you may pick out “large drum hall” or something like that to get a good starting point for your settings. Now, if you’re a more advanced user, you can click the “advanced” tab and have a great variety of parameters to go through. From stereo spread, to LPF and HPF, different reverb times and different frequency bands, and so on. IK Multimedia has really made this unit for anyone from an amateur engineer to a professional who has very intricate tweaking on their mind.

    The first project I used this on was a jazz quintet. I did all my recording in a traditional studio, but didn’t have time to mix the record there, so I had to do it all in the box in my apartment. I realized that D-Verb was not going to cut it for this hi-fi jazz troupe, so I turned to getting this plug-in, and it really made all the difference. When I played my preliminary mixes for my professor, 9-time Grammy Award winning engineer Jim Anderson, he was curious about the reverb. “What setting are you using on the 480L?” he asked. The 480L is a classic Lexicon unit which use in the studio which the tracks were recorded, they go for about $6,000 on eBay right now. Anyways, when I told him it was a reverb plug-in I had recently purchased, he was amazed, “Oh wow, sounds great!” he replied.

    Anyways, there’s only so much one can say about a plug-in… you should just go and hear it for yourselves! You can download a demo from the IK Multimedia site and try it out in your recording program.

    And for just a quick listen of this thing, I’ve made three samples for you to peruse. One is a dry bounce of the clip, then I have a version with Digidesign’s D-Verb and then one with IK Multimedia’s CSR . I tried to match the settings as best I could to make it a fair comparison, and I think it’s fairly obvious how much richer the IK sound is. But that’s enough from me, go check it out!

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A look at studio monitors, by Oresti

       Now that you’ve all receieved your mixing primer from Josh over the last couple of weeks, it’s important for you to know that one can’t execute a good mix on just any pair of speakers or headphones - a reliable monitoring system is necessary. The EQ curve, or frequency response, of a standard pair of computer speakers, or a pair of iPod headphones is bound to be very inaccurate and will not allow your mix to translate well to other systems. Since our hearing range is from 20-Hertz (very low rumble) all the way up to 20-kiloHertz (inaudible to most adults, more of an air-like feeling than any definable tone), it’s important to have a system with a relatively flat frequency response from low to high. It’s very expensive to have the sort of playback system that can achieve this, but it’s unnecessary for most of us to even need accurate playback in those super low frequencies. Most speakers will roll off a bit higher up, between 40 and 80 Hertz, but it’s not uncommon for them to playback through up to 20-kiloHertz and beyond.

      Anyways, I thought I’d mention a few speakers that I’ve had some experience with and enjoy. The pair I’ve found to be best for those with a tight budget is the KRK RP-5 monitors. If you’ve ever been to a Guitar Center store, you may have noticed these little guys stacked in a giant pyramid, with the in-your-face yellow drivers glaring at you. Well, there’s a reason they stockpile these guys: they perform very well, have three input options, easy adjustment controls, and most of all, they’re cheap! At only $300 for a new pair, or $200-250 on eBay for a used pair, there should be nothing holding you back from experiencing clearer, more accurate sound. I used these my freshman year of college and not only did they fit into my cramped dorm space without any issues, they packed enough power in their 75-watt amps for small parties.
  

      The KRKs are a good start, but if you’re really looking to take your mixes to the next level, it’s good to have at least two pairs of speakers to compare. No speaker is perfect, and it’s important to have different monitors to help your mix be ready for the outside world. A lot of big recording studios will have big main speakers that they can crank and simulate what their mix would sound like in a club or show, and small near-field monitors for flat reference while they are mixing at the console. There may also be a second pair of monitors on the console that have been chosen because of their limited frequency range.
    

    In my home setup, I recently acquired a pair of these “limited-range” speakers, the Fostex 6301Bs. You’ve probably seen one of these little black boxes somewhere in your life - they are used for all sorts of things and taken allover the place. They’re a solid piece of gear that will never break on you. This speaker is only a single driver, and has a limited response of 80-Hertz to 13-kiloHertz. On the surface, you may think, “Why would I want to buy something which is lacking in frequency response?” Well, the answer is, the majority of your audience will probably hear your music on their laptop speakers or iPod headphones, and therefore won’t hear the things that you would be hearing on your higher-resolution monitors. I’ve even seen these things used in Fred Kevorkian’s mastering room at Avatar Studio here in N ew York, he compares them to a pair of giant boutique speakers that probably ran for $100,000! These Fostex monitors aren’t the only reliable pair of speakers for this purpose, but they’re by far the simplest and most durable I’ve encountered. The 6301Bs will run you about $380 for a new pair, but you can definitely find them on eBay for $175-225.
   

     Since my time as a college freshman (yes I’m a big boy Junior now), I’ve upgraded from the KRKs to a pair of Dynaudio speakers, the BM5As. I decided on these speakers after I realized I needed a little more clarity, a larger frequency response, and simply some more power. I went to a couple of stores with some CDs I was very familiar with and just listened. I listened and listened, thought I wanted a pair of Genelecs, then a pair of Adams, but after a third day of listening and thinking, I decided on the Dynaudio monitors. Everyone has a slightly different pair of ears on their heads, and expects a different color or sound from their speakers, but I honestly believe the Dynaudio’s did the best job presenting me with sonically accurate, and flat response. They’re easy on the ears, very laid back, and they are my current go-to company for the sound I expect. These go for about $1,000 for the pair, so you really have to heart set on these and sure they’re a good fit for you, I’d recommend going to your nearest Guitar Center or similar store, bring some familiar listening material, and see what you think is best for you! I enjoy the BM5As, especially with their extended high frequency response which goes up to 21-kiloHertz, and adequate low-end which drops out around 50-Hertz. In combination with the Fostex, I have a very complete picture for my mixes and I’m usually satisfied with my mixes when I carry them over to a car stereo or hear them on a friend’s Macbook Pro speakers.

Reviews and news of music equipment old and new.  

Review of Budget Audio Interfaces - by Josh

This week, we’re going to take a quick look at a few audio interfaces.  For those just getting started with computer recording, an audio interface refers to the hardware that you use to record and playback sounds.  Most computers come with some sort of basic audio recording capabilities, but stock sound cards are invariably noisy and of low quality.  A simple upgrade of less than $200 can vastly improve the sound of your compositions and collaborations here on Indaba.  Here’s a look at a few options if you’re looking to upgrade your original card, or just want to add a low-cost portable system to your current set-up. I’ve chosen to look at 2 channel interfaces that are ideal for recording one instrument or voice at a time, and are less expensive than comparable 3+ track recorders.

M-Audio Fast-Track Pro – $200 - User Reviews

The Fast-Track USB is a small, external interface with two phantom powered inputs and near-zero latency. It will allow you to record two instruments or mics at once, and also has nifty features such as midi in/outs, digital SPDIF in/outs, and a nice package of included software.  This is a good deal for an inexpensive interface that also has phantom power---important because most condenser microphones require power.  If you have an external mixer or preamps with phantom power, you could opt to save a little dough and get the ultra-budget M-Audio Fast-Track USB ($99), which does not have phantom power built in.   The advantage of buying an M-Audio product is that it is the only third-party interface that can use Pro Tools, in the form of the M-Powered Pro Tools software.  Pro Tools is considered the industry standard audio editing and recording software by many professional engineers and musicians, and this card gives you the opportunity to learn the program.  However, the Pro Tools M-Powered software is not included and will add an extra $250.

Tascam US-144 - $150 - User Reviews

If you will never need to use Pro Tools (there’s plenty of other viable software options) consider the two-channel Tascam 144 which has similar features to the Fast-Track-Pro but costs less. The software bundle and features aren’t as extensive as the Fast-Track, but if you don’t need the extras this could be a good choice.

Alesis iO|2 - $160 - User Reviews

Another good option is the Alesis iO|2, which has a sleek, low-profile design that makes it great for portable use.  It comes bundled with Cubase LE software so it’s a full workstation right off the bat.

Any of these interfaces will be a significant upgrade over the sound card that comes with your computer.  My recommendation is to go for the M-Audio Fast-Track if you think you may want to use Pro Tools at any point; the Alesis iO|2 if you want an inexpensive interface with software included to get you going; and the Tascam if you don’t need any included software.  There are other options out there too…I’d like to hear your comments if you’ve had experience with these three, or other comparable audio interfaces.

Reviews and news of music equipment old and new.  

Classic Gear Review: Shure SM57 Microphone - by Josh

For our inaugural weekly gear review, we thought that we’d keep it simple and pay homage to a true classic in the recording and sound reinforcement world – the Shure SM57 microphone.  Everyone who is not living in a cave has at some point either used or heard music created by an SM57 – arguably the most popular and versatile microphone currently in production.  If fact, if you've listened to a speech made by the president from the White House, you’ve heard the SM57 – it’s been the mic on the President’s lectern for over 30 years.  There are several reasons for the SM57s popularitity:

1. Price – At around $100 new, they are relatively inexpensive, and because they are in such heavy use they are easy to find used for even less
2. Durability – SM57s are known for their ability to stand up to the rigors of touring and general rough treatment by musicians
3. SOUND – While not quite as nuanced as a $5000 Neumann mic, the SM57 has a clean, focused sound that picks up the source while minimizing background noise

Pretty much every major studio and touring rig in the country has at least several SM57s and 58s lying around (the 58 used the same capsule with different windscreen).  Engineers with a full arsenal of high-end mics still often rely on the 57 as a go-to mic for snare drums, guitar amps, vocals and string instruments.  The SM57 is so great at capturing these instruments and mainly because it has a capsule with a nice “presence” curve (a boost in the high-mid range frequencies that causes the sound to stand out in the mix) in addition to a tolerance for loud volumes.  The windscreen on the SM58 creates a slightly different sound that makes it very desirable as a stage vocal mic.  Either way, the SM57 microphone is a true studio and touring workhouse that should be part of everyone’s microphone collection. Post your thoughts and comments, or any stories you might have about the SM57.