*For me, a good analogy to the SM57 and SM58 is an oldschool four string Fender P Bass. A plain ol' P Bass with a midrangey single split pickup and only a single passive volume and tone knob, and just a plain ol' stamped metal bridge. It was first developed and released in 1957, and in the over six decades since then, companies such as Alembic and EMG, and many many others, have really developed and progressed the art and science of manufacturing basses and bass hardware... That being said, since hundreds of thousands of recordings, and millions of live performances, were performed with an ol' Fender P Bass. And since many of the greatest bassists in history played some of the best bass lines ever recorded on many of the most popular and famous songs of the last six decades, even though it has a much narrower frequency range and less strings and frets than modern active 24 fret neck-throughs, for millions of musicians..., and even more importantly, hundreds of millions of non-musician regular music listeners..., associate the narrow ranged nasal sound of a P Bass with the sound of all those great players playing those killer lines on so many of those classic songs... So, because the non musician masses of listeners out there, as well as many bassists themselves, equate the lo-fi, (relative to modern basses), sound of the P Bass as THE sound of classic quality... THAT's why I feel the P Bass in analogous to the classic SM57 and SM58. They not be as clear or refined as other more modern mics, but since singers, as well as the population at large itself, have heard the 57 and 58 on so many recordings and at so many shows, that tonality, whether too nasal or too wooly or whatever compared to better modern designs, is now deeply ingrained into the minds of millions as, "good".* 🤔

Nothing picked up the instruments better than the SM57

sm57 wins. Even the proximity effect is not bad at all, and you can hear the crisp highs.

sm57 most familiar tone for guitar amps, sm58 in these samples though are my preference

Sm57 still the king on instruments and snare, it made the cello sound great too. beta 56a was pretty good too.

For Vocals, sm58, for everything else, the sm57.

Très bonne vidéo ! Très instructif !

Thank u sm for this video bro

That beta 56a is super impressive both aesthetic and tonality.

Gracias por ser claro y conciso muy buen video y por traducir ya que mi inglés no es tan fluido para entender.

Proximity effect is not a property of dynamic mics but that of directional mics. So a cardioid/supercardioid/figure of 8 etc. mic will have proximity effect irrespective of if it is a condenser or a dynamic (or a ribbon) while an omni will not have one. (However, there are those cardioid dynamic mics which have special provisions for reducing the proximity effect like the Shure KSM8, the Electrovoice RE20/27/320 and the AKG D2XX line but these still have proximity effect for some extent.)

Sm58 rules

1:29 1:32 1:35 1:38

I like to think I have pretty good ears, and I cannot barely hear a discernible difference between these microphones, at least so far with the vocals and Trump.

Well, it didn't seem to make much difference on vocals and not that noticeable all around however I will say the betas in general seemed to have a slightly brighter overall sound on the various instruments

Perhaps I'm biased as I own three Beta 57a's but I really liked the sound of them compared to the 58/57 series and yes the 56a sounded identical and the 58a sounded closer to the straight 58. Can I assume the "a" stands for "Amplifier" as in these mics excel at being used to mic an amp? I use them for live vocals and wanted the most side noise suppression and the most response range for both male/female voices. They have been great and also look more modern than the classic 58 "big ball" look.

in this case, the SM57 wins in terms of tone on all instruments.

1:32 beta58 1:38 beta57

Quote: If the SM57 would be a mic it would sound like the Beyerdynamic M201. OK - that mic cost about 250,- but you won´t regret the extra cost.

It would be great to hear the difference in a live sound/recording setting. I think the Beta’s are brighter which could be useful in live sound application. How much better are they for off axis sound rejection while recording in that same live setting? Does the super cardioid polar pattern make that much of a difference?

1:38 beta57a 1:48 beta58a

It's very dificult to ear a difference between the mics with the cello !!!

3:15 3:22

Sir I am full beginner. I want to record my written poetry professionally. Suggest me audio interface and dynamic mic. Which gives me professional level quality. Because my room is not sound proof. My total budget is 300 dollars. Tell me such a setup that I will not regret buying.

The 56a cancels out drums/background noise does the 57a?