MICROPHONE OF THE MONTH NOVEMBER 2016

The microphone of this month is really known to everybody, therefore I did not draw attention to it until today. I do now because of the fiftieth anniversary of the production of this model.

On the occasion, a special edition has been produced, with a non-standard silver colored casing, instead of the usual brown body.

The Shure SM (Studio Microphone) SM 58 was first created in 1966, but it would actually take until 1970 before it had its breakthrough as popular vocal microphone. Until then the Shure company recommended a different model, the 565, as the vocal microphone for professionals. This was Shure's first microphone with this iconic form (which was previously created by AKG for their D 24, in 1958).

Shure designer Ernie Seeler produced a number of variations on the Shure 545 (microphone of the month of October 2014),like the SM 57, in 1965, which also turned out to be a bestseller. The SM 58 has the same element but, because of the gasket (the ball) and dampening inside, it produces slightly less treble and delivers a better result for vocals in most cases. Its distinctive sound is so accepted that it has become the standard for how a vocal mic should sound. Ironically, designer Ernie Seeler detested modern music and loved only classical.

Although Shure presented several successors, such as the SM 78 (1980) and the SM 58 Beta (1988) the SM 58 remains popular and it is still the best selling model of the Shure factory. Partly because of the robust construction; it almost indestructable and very reliable.

This microphone clearly still has a future.

This is one of the types that feature in my book Witnesses of Words, which was recently released. More information about that can be found at www.witnessesofwords.com