SM57 bass?

[Churchengi]

Is the shure sm57 good for bass amps?

[michaelhoddy]

Not especially, but it can work in a pinch as long as you're not after room-shaking low end. Really doesn't do a very good job of reproducing the bottom octave of the instrument. If you use it in conjunction with a direct out, you can actually get a quite a good sound, but by itself, it doesn't truly reproduce much accurately below about 70 Hz, and it's already starting to roll off at 100 Hz.

[Churchengi]

Ok thanks a million

[TimmyP1955]

And, like most directional mics, it has a wide boost of as much as 12dB centered at about 200Hz.

[Tim Gillett]

Sorry to have to correct you but the SM57 has no 12db boost centred around 200hz. If it did it would be a horrible sounding mic. It does have a deliberate presence boost, peaking by about 6db at 6khz.

Perhaps you are thinking of the proximity effect with (most) directional mics which does indeed boost bass when close micing. But in this application it would probably be a directional mic used anyway. So there would be no difference.

Tim

[TimmyP1955]

Sorry to have to correct you but the SM57 has no 12db boost centred around 200hz. If it did it would be a horrible sounding mic. It does have a deliberate presence boost, peaking by about 6db at 6khz.

Perhaps you are thinking of the proximity effect with (most) directional mics which does indeed boost bass when close micing. But in this application it would probably be a directional mic used anyway. So there would be no difference.

Tim

At a distance, no, but up close it does, just like every other directional microphone (save for a few EV RE series models). They may not publish a graph that shows it (as they do for some other models), but it's there.

[GZsound]

At a distance, no, but up close it does, just like every other directional microphone (save for a few EV RE series models). They may not publish a graph that shows it (as they do for some other models), but it's there.

Sounds just like "phantom" power.

[FJ_Studios]

If you can go direct in AND run an SM57, that might sound alright. The DI will keep the low-end solid, and the mic will get you the attack/growl out of your amp...