Interesting...

http://www.recordingmag.com/resources/r ... l/330.html

Granted the characteristic sound of the 57 is what makes it so useful for guitars and the like, but it is still a cheap project to try out. Just use the special cable and see what sounds better for a use.

I use the impedance-dicking-with knob on my ART DMPA a whole ton. Opens up my dynamic mics a lot. Seriously, I think part of the reason we try and find "better" mics than the 57 and a lot of amateur/armchair/homebrew recordists hate the 57 is because we're hearing it wrong. We're used to hearing it on a cheap live sound console or interface pre. Improving the pre- or rather better matching it to the mic- improves the 57.

While working on the Garda stuff I was struck by how good a plain old 57 sounded on the top of the snare, or on the guitar scratch tracks (which I later replaced; see above...) The snare sounded great! API pre. The guitar didn't sound narrow or constricted at all. Granted the playing was crap and the placement was "whatevs", but it had something... driven Chandler or Neve. Okay, time to reevaluate this bastard...

Giving this mic the proper load is why you can put it on a snare or a tom or a cab and get a "pro" sound. I'm serious. I busted it out to do overdubs and it sounds fine. Not the narrow bastard thing I'm used to. I'd sworn off 57s and was using ribbons and condensers exclusively. It still does the midrange sit-in-the-mix thing but... Take my word on this.

I'm eager to solder together the cable and try it, but my time is limited, as is my energy...

Have to wonder why variable impedance isn't more common on interfaces. It's a fucking conspiracy is what it is.

hm.. interesting premise. man- go get yourself a resistor!

must admit.. i have no use for 57s-- but theres certainly enough of them around. i wonder if i oughtn't make a box or tway for 609's, 57s, d112s, and whatever else i have lying around. hell.. resistors are cheap enough...

wouldn't you think it'd be in shures best interest to just DROP the damn impedance though? i mean.. shit.. if it SOUNDS better? i mean, for better or worse, everybody uses them-- why not make sure they SOUND good? that's why i don't use mine ever except to hold pages flat on music stands or as mic box ballast...

We'd been using ours just on random stuff at rehearsal (in-ears, not going through the PA! ) or live just because we know ours work.

I suspect it's just the handful of us nerds who largely dislike the things- there's a fair bit of 57 unlove in the recording world- so no reason for Shure to change any aspect of the design of the things. They sell well enough. But yeah, your typical interface or live sound pre does not do the thing any favors. With something a bit nicer or tweakier, it improves. Granted it's still a 57 and does the midrange thing, and there's a number of mics that fill a similar role with a different, usually crispier voicing. (The Beta 57 being one of them.)

Have made the modified cord out of a broken XLR. Will post findings - We're gonna point a 57 at a Bogner Shiva tomorrow and see how it do.

Well, recorded four of this guy's twelve tracks with the cord and the 57. It was an Uberschall, not a Shiva or whatever I thought it was.

I made a comparison of with and without the cord. Now the extra resistance did lower the output a bit so I had to normalize them. I didn't have the patience to ask him to play the same thing twice (did it as he was noodling, warming up) so I didn't deem the comparison good enough to share... but my impressions at least were that with the cord, the tone is a bit 'neater'. Without it there is a bit more harshness in the presence and a bit of woofiness in the lows.

Now it's those qualities that have always made me a little shy about using just a 57, I'd usually mix in another mic to temper those frequencies that are jumping out at me, but it sounds acceptable this way, so I'm doing the tracks with just the 57 and DI as a fallback.

Awesome it worked for you. Similar to my impressions as well; it just seems to refine the thing, the different impedance.

Now, have you read any about removing the transformer from a 57?

Yes... supposedly evens out the frequency response, really expands the low end, and makes phantom power harm the mic?

I like my 57s as they are. Maybe if I had more. I have two, and one of them is a loaner.

The problem with 57s is that when you have them you tend to find uses for them and tampering with the mic that lives on your guitar cab is maybe not something you feel inclined to do... I have a few and they're all pretty well fixed emplacements.