Usually one thinks of a condenser microphone when thinking about recording vocals. Or perhaps a ribbon but very rarely a dynamic. And when one does think of a dynamic microphone they’re usually thinking of a sort of “punk rock” sort of sound (like when using an SM57 or SM58) but the Shure SM7 is a dynamic mic that has a huge reputation as fantastic vocal microphone (at a very reasonable price: currently $350 on Amazon.)

This mic was designed to be used for voice overs and broadcasts (like a radio talk show) and it’s a great choice for those applications but it’s use in recording music that I’m focused on here.

One of the things that makes this such an intriguing choice for home recording enthusiasts is that this mic can record with the sound quality of a condenser without picking up the room sound. This is important because most of us who record at home have a crappy sounding room (that has not been acoustically treated in any way.) This mic also does a great job of filtering out unwanted vocal noises so you won’t need to worry about gating out noise like you may with a condenser.

Another thing that makes it interesting to use the Shure SM7 is that it has been used on many famous recordings including as the vocal microphone on Michael Jackson’s Thriller album and the Red Hot Chili Peppers have used it on all of their albums. It’s cool to think that people who had the choice to use $3000+ microphones chose this $350 microphone instead.

And this mic can be used for other purposes other than vocals. For example it was used to record the acoustic guitars on Pearl Jam’s song “Daughter.”

I personally don’t have experience with $3000+ mics but I have read many accounts of people who do and who have chosen this microphone over a $3000+ Neumann condenser mic (for a common example.)

Dynamic Microphones, Home Recording

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