Mix Live Blog: A Birthday Look Back at the SM57 and SM58

A hundred years of doing just about anything is a pretty impressive accomplishment. A hundred years of innovation and helping lead your industry is a milestone. This year, Shure, Inc., reaches that milestone.

Peabody, Set the Wayback Machine

Shure was founded in 1925 by S.N. Shure, primarily for the purpose of selling radio parts. Hard to believe that anyone would build or service a radio, but at the time, radio was a primary form of entertainment in the United States and across the globe (television was developing but wouldn’t make its way into the majority of homes until much later).

Several years later, in 1932, Shure introduced the Model 33N microphone, becoming one of a few American microphone manufacturers at the time.

The Model 33N, sometimes referred to as a “ring and spring” microphone, was described in a Shure catalog (ca. 1933) as a “‘two-button’ carbon microphone… famous for its accurate reproduction of music.” Priced at 50 bucks (the equivalent of a hefty $1,200 in today’s dollars), the Model 33N wasn’t exactly affordable, and if you wanted the desk stand, you’d have to cough up an extra ten.

It boasted a frequency response of 30 to 8,000 “cycles,” as they referred to Hertz back then. For those unfamiliar with the concept, a carbon transducer uses vibrations from a moving diaphragm to compress and expand granules of carbon to which a charge has been applied. As the granules compress and expand, resistance across the granules changes, generating an audio output. Primitive by today’s standards, but state-of-the-art at the time.

You can read more about the history of Shure in this Mix article, but in the meantime, let’s take a look at two iconic Shure products that have been in production for 60 years, for the most part unchanged: the SM57 and SM58.

Birth of the SM57…

The lineage of the SM57 goes back to 1959, when Shure developed the Unidyne III moving-coil capsule for the Model 545 microphone. A far cry from the capsule used in the Model 33N, the Unidyne III marked a significant improvement in performance due to the fact that it was end-address (as opposed to side-address), a feature that made the polar pattern more consistent and reduced feedback.

The SM57 with the Unidyne III was introduced in 1965 as a “Studio Microphone” (hence, the SM), referring to television studios and leading to the discreet color and finish. The microphone was quickly adapted by audio engineers as being capable of recording just about anything, including the President of the United States. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson became the first United States President to deliver a speech over a Shure SM57, and since that time, not a single 57 has failed in that application.

…And the SM58

And what about the Shure SM58? It was introduced one year later, in 1966, also based on the Unidyne III capsule. Perhaps the biggest difference between the 57 and 58 is the ball grille atop the latter. The size of the grille changes the minimum distance a source can be placed from the capsule, controlling proximity effect and yielding slight sonic differences.

If there are any microphones that deserve a place in music history, it’s the SM57 and SM58. The reasons are clear: They’re affordable, they deliver excellent sound quality, they’re versatile, and they are incredibly reliable—even when swung like a lasso from a mic cable.

In fact, I recall many years ago interviewing the FOH engineer for a famous rocker who would douse himself with buckets of water on stage while holding his SM58. The engineer told me they’d simply swap out the mic and let it dry, to be used again at the next show. Now that’s rock-and-roll!