Us Americans are wimps. Scandinavians know how to test music gear. As a metal soundtrack pounds away in the background, a Shure SM58 gets subjected to some serious torture testing, including:
- Being used to hammer nails
- Dropped a couple of meters
- Frozen
- Dunked in water
- Driven over by a car
And then something really nasty happens involving Heineken and a microwave.
Mats Ståhlbröst, diabolical creator of this insanity, explains:
We wanted to find out if the SM58 can live up to its [reputation as the toughest mic in the world] and decided to put it through a series of tests. PS Studio is Scandinavia’s leading magazine covering music production.
Of course, Shure had no part in these tests … wait, they actually did? (I’m going to start requesting review units from these guys!)
The Swedish Shure distributor supplied us with an SM58… and I think both they and Shure should be pretty happy with the results. This is one tough mic. 🙂
I’ll say. There’s a reason the SM58 is a favorite in live venues. You have my permission to keep this a secret and tell everyone to keep babying your mics, mind you.
And to think, the ONE time I dropped an SM58 on stage I actually worried about it. Silly me.
A friend of mine used to play in a couple of electro-noise bands back in the '80s. He reminisces about playing gigs at venues where GG Allin had been the night before and wondering if the mics had been up Allin's ass.
That's torture-testing.
Yes, the mic still works, but the microwave is seriously #^@'d up.
I'm curious by what they mean when they say "a minor sound difference".
I'm still going to take good care of my SM57.
JD: it does say the files are available at http://www.studio.se/laddaner
This doesn't surprise me actually. I don't think the legend would be so widespread and lasting if it was BS. 57's are just as tough. Any equipment post GG Allin probably should have had a disinfectant bath if the mics survived that guy they have to be tough.
ive got Shure C606 Spotlight Dynamic Microphone – which is cheap doest not suck – im happy
I worked for Shure many years, just forwarded this article to my old crew. Terrific!
[…] vis CMD […]
[…] There’s a great blog entry over at Create Digital Music regarding the infamous Shure SM58 microphone. It’s so refreshing seeing this kind of information getting spread around the internet. […]
[…] Shure SM58 Mic Torture-Tested: Takes a Licking? – Being used to hammer nails, dropped a couple of meters, frozen, dunked in water, driven over by a car and more… […]
I would bet my last pound that there is one on Mars
I BET THIS TEST COULD BE DONE WITH A AUDIX OM2 ALSO THESE MICS ARE TANKS LOVE TO SEE A TEST WITH ONE AGAINST THE SHURE SM58 ANY CHANCE???
BET EVERONE WACHING THIS WOUD LOVE TO SEE THIS THROW A LITTLE ROCKY MUSIC IN AND LET THE BEST MIC WIN …. RF. SO THERES THE CHALLANGE.. FOLKS WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN AND WHY??? BLOG BABY BLOG HERE IS A PITCHURE OF THE CHALLENGER…. http://www.zzounds.com/item–AUDOM2
WHAT YOU THINK PETER ?????? USE A AUDIX SAME TEST SEE HOW IT FAIRS???? FOR YOUR NEXT TEST..
thats fucked up wow that mic took a beating and still lived i droped mine one time and thought i fucked it up but never mind that lol
[…] covered the gory abuse back in October 2007. Little did we know then that the test wasn’t over. It seems Mats and […]
Im doing a followup on this one.
Studio magazine already stated that the rumors are probably true. But the question is how much does that "minor sound difference" matter?
Does anyone know if there has been any tests on things such as frequency responce and impulse response AFTER treating a SM58 this way?