I just picked up a Shure SM57 in February 2026, and honestly, I’m blown away. It solved one of the most frustrating problems in my home studio: recording a guitar amp without picking up outside noise. My “studio” is just a bedroom, and I’ve always battled traffic sounds and general room noise creeping into my recordings. With the SM57, that problem practically disappeared. This mic is incredibly focused. I can place it right up on the amp, and it captures the tone I want without dragging in the rest of the room. I’ve even had a TV playing off to the side and still recorded clean guitar tracks with no noticeable bleed. That’s something I couldn’t pull off with other mics I’ve tried. The SM57 just does what it’s supposed to do. It handles high sound pressure levels without flinching, so you can crank your amp and it won’t distort. The midrange presence is perfect for electric guitar. It gives you that punch and clarity that sits right in a mix without much extra work. There’s a reason this mic has been a studio standard for decades. It’s affordable, built like a tank, and sounds right. If I’d bought one 30 years ago, I probably would’ve made a lot more music instead of fighting my setup. Plain and simple, the SM57 is the sound of electric guitar. And it turns out, it’s exactly what my home studio needed. Read more
I’ve had my Shure SM57 for a while now, and I’ve got to say, this mic is like the Swiss Army knife of the audio world. It’s been through a lot with me—live gigs, studio sessions, and even some impromptu jam sessions in the garage. Honestly, if this mic could talk, I’m sure it would have some wild stories to tell. First off, the build quality is rock solid. I’ve dropped it, knocked it, and generally put it through its paces, and it just keeps on going. It feels like it’s made out of some indestructible alloy that laughs in the face of accidents. And the sound quality? Oh boy, it’s impressive. The SM57 captures instruments with such clarity and detail—it’s like it has a built-in magic filter that makes everything sound just right. It’s versatile too. Whether I’m miking up a snare drum or an electric guitar amp, the SM57 delivers every time. The dynamic range is fantastic, and it handles high volumes without distorting. It’s like having a reliable friend who always knows what to do, no matter the situation. One thing to keep in mind is that it’s not the fanciest mic out there, but for the price, it’s an absolute steal. It doesn’t need phantom power, which is a nice plus. If you’re looking for a mic that gets the job done without fuss, the SM57 is your go-to. In summary, the Shure SM57 is a classic for a reason. It’s tough, reliable, and always delivers top-notch sound. If you don’t have one in your collection yet, do yourself a favor and grab one—you won’t regret it! Read more
I bought this mic mostly for streaming, but it's a fantastic general purpose desk microphone as well- with some caveats. Let me preface all of these caveats by saying that the sound quality you can get out of this mic completely overshadows any of the measures I had to take to do so, and it's now my *only* microphone. 1. You need to be close to the mic in order to get good sound and simultaneously good background noise rejection, and some people might find having a mic this close to their face disagreeable. This is not unique, however, to the SM57; it's a pretty standard caveat of these types of mics. 2. You will need an audio interface and very probably a preamp to get the most out of it. Personally, I've got it hooked up to a Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen, and that's been doing absolutely fantastic, although you do need to crank the gain all the way up it seems in order to get strong enough signal. I have been told that a preamp would help, and I intend to get my hands on one sooner or later to make the most of this mic. Finding good mics is hard especially in the $75-200 range as there is a lot of abject garbage masquerading as "professional grade". This makes things a lot simpler; the SM57 is one of the most widely used microphones in music and broadcasting for a reason: value and functionality. You can buy better microphones, but not without a dramatic jump in price. I'll be hanging on to this mic for as long as I can, and based on the apparent build quality, that may very well be forever, barring exceptional acts of foolishness on my behalf. Read more
I have been around SM57 for many years as a musician, and also as a sound person typically either with small groups, or in churches. Although the SM57 is touted as an "instrument" mic, and it is perfect for that use, it may also be used for vocals when some other mic is not available, or not working right. The SM57 also makes a fantastic mic for spoken word like with podcasts. For years i used this next to my PC as the input mic for online audio input of spoken voice. The upshot of this is that the Shure SM57 is an extremely versatile microphone and a fantastic value selling at roughly $99 (in beginning of 2024). This mic uses the Unidyne III capsule, which was an award winning advanced mic capsule design from the 1950's, and which appears in several of the most popular Shure microphones over the years including the SM57 and SM58. The SM57 was designed to be slim profile, extremely rugged, and to provide CARDIOID (heart shaped; this rejects side and rear sound quite well making feedback handling easier) pattern dynamic microphone use in a wide variety of applications. You will see this used on snare drums, on guitar cabinets, covering brass players and on lecterns (like at the White House which has hundreds of these mics along with the Shure windscreen). Part of the appeal of this mic is that it is not large, so it does not detract from the subject when doing video or filming of a person speaking into a microphone. I use this mic on spoken voice, trombone music performance, and on big band wind player parts (sax and brass). The output of the mic is not powerful but should work on most consoles with around 60db of channel gain. Output seems a bit better than the SM7B which is so popular with podcasters today. Read more
