I just recorded my les paul with emg 81/85's in bridge position.

signal chain: guitar---- line 6 (clean setting)--- MICS----Firepod @ 44.1

Forgive the crappy chords, forgive the crappy pre.

Mics were placed opposite same position on the 4 x 12.

PR 30 http://steelyd.ac.cc.md.us/~php04/pr30.wav

SM57 http://steelyd.ac.cc.md.us/~php04/sm57.wav

Edit: This was recorded in my basement... I was not going for perfection... I just wanted to let you hear the difference in mics..

Yes, the heil sounds better. It doesn't lose all the bottom end. In my opinion though the sm57 is a terrible mic. So it was admirable defeat. I am not trying to be an ass. But did you tune your guitar before you did this?

I just put up the mics and played. I was not concerned about anything, but showing the difference in sound between the mics. If you feel the need for a better example I can take more time with the recording.

Well, I think that the SM57 is a fantastic mic. I really dont understand the hate for it. I could understand not particularly liking the sound, but to dismiss it as a bad mic is a bit silly to me. Ive found nothing in its range that is so flexible, durable, and predictable. For 75 bucks waddaya want?

i used to do sound for the president. we used 2 sm57's on his podium at all times. The 57 has been used as the presidents podium mic for ages..

I like the 57 also. In my experience , I have only seen one ever break (not counting the plastic ends). The mic got stuck between two parts of a moving stage at the washington hilton and towers...

Oh and be warned if anyone ever has to do work there... that stage is fucked!

I listened to it on my home computer that has two small speakers and a sub(not a fancy sub of course). They both sounded pretty much the same, the Heil has more low end though. Maybe the differences will be bigger when recording a distorted guitar?

sonicdeath wrote:i used to do sound for the president.

Anything we should know about this experience ?

m.koren wrote:

sonicdeath wrote:i used to do sound for the president.

Anything we should know about this experience ?

Yeah, I was wondering about this one as well...


"georgy boy, can you tap the mic a little bit? I wanna see if it's working"

In my own personal experience the sm57 sux. It depends on what you have to compare it to. I tried a beyer ribbon 500,260,160, sennheiser 421, re-20 on guitar amp all destroyed the sm57. Then I tried the beyer 201 on snare, a 3d full sound on the snare, a 57 one dimensional flat and boring. If you have any of these mics, compare and I am quite confident you will feel the same. For vocals I couldn't find any mics that sounded worse. Akg solidtube, any beyer ribbon, sennheiser 421, re-20, gefell m930, at4033, yes all more expensive. Yes, all much better sounding.

Anything we should know about this experience ?

what do you want to know? I worked for white house communications. We had to set up audio for all events. We always used 2 sm57's at the podium.

Was I ever around the president? Yes. I never spoke to him directly, Only the V.P. I worked with the Clinton administration and Bush Administration.

You have to understand how much this job sucked. I always had a gazillion secret service men all around me, Some were actually very cool..(I used to play Halo with one of them all the time before events.. I will not mention his name) And I always had to wear a suit. It was also a pain in the ass when you had to have your gear checked for bombs and such... It really slows things down...And then there is security sweeps... The job was very high stress. If you ever fucked up... well you could never fuck up.. or at least you never wanted to find out what would happen if you did.

I hated to deal with the library of congress, and the press. The always wanted direct feeds from the board, when i had two perfectly fine 24 channel press boxes on the floor next to me. They always came late and bugged me... I had to have my secret service pals escort the press away multiple times....you think they would know not to fuck with you when the president is speaking and you are watching the levels...

It was a good experience, and looks really good on my resume...

George and Bill never had to tap the mic. It was my job to insure Bill could just go up and speak and George could go and make an ass of himself.

Being around these men, and their families was very positive. If you overlook all the politics, They were very kind and not dicks to anyone around them. Cheney was a dick though.. I always loved to help set up lights for his press conferences and make sure I had one pointed right in his face...he he he...

I have plenty of good memories and stories... Im glad that part of my life is over now. Its time to move forward.

Does that answer anything?