KVR Audio

Majken · Post by **Majken** » Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:55 pm

There's an old myth among musicians and engineers - it's impossible to kill a Shure SM58. We decided to see if the myth could stand up to a true "mythbusters" test. Here's a list of what we did to the microphone and a link to the video. The result? Just watch the damned thing

* Used as a hammer
* Dropped from 2 metres
* Dropped from 5 metres
* Frozen for an hour
* Submersed in water
* Crushed twice by a car
* Drowned by a bottle of beer
* Microwaved

Enjoy!

Majken · Post by **Majken** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:13 pm

Bumpity bump!

blatanville · Post by **blatanville** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:20 pm

henry rollins, one of the sweatiest performers of all time, swears by them...I paraphrase: "they may not sound the best**, but they're bulletproof"

**[and given Hank's limited vocal range, that's not a real issue]

Majken · Post by **Majken** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:21 pm

Hehe, well in all honesty I thought they were tough.. but I really had no idea just how much punishment they would take.

stanlea · Post by **stanlea** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 6:59 pm

Deceptive thread. I thought it was about sex.

Majken · Post by **Majken** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:23 pm

stanlea wrote:Deceptive thread. I thought it was about sex.

Well, gearporn is gearporn!

phraggle · Post by **phraggle** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:25 pm

You thought a thread titled "Shure SM58 - The worlds toughest microphone? See the video!" was about sex? Why is that?

Lol!

jackson · Post by **jackson** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:31 pm

good stuff

stanlea · Post by **stanlea** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:35 pm

T'was just my imagination

Hovmod · Post by **Hovmod** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:10 pm

Majken wrote: * Drowned by a bottle of beer

A SMALL bottle of HEINEKEN!? Pah.

Chuck E. Jesus · Post by **Chuck E. Jesus** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:20 pm

Hovmod wrote:
Majken wrote: * Drowned by a bottle of beer
A SMALL bottle of HEINEKEN!? Pah.

no shit...pour a PBR on it, let's see how that goes...

and i was hoping to have the audio portion of the abuse live, including the drowning....

blatanville · Post by **blatanville** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:28 pm

oh, and this creature (gg allin)

regularly inserted his mic in his ass, bounced it off his skull, and assaulted audience members (in that order) while performing.

let's hope he was using an SM58 for optimal sound and durability!

Chuck E. Jesus · Post by **Chuck E. Jesus** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 8:58 pm

blatanville wrote:oh, and this creature (gg allin)

regularly inserted his mic in his ass...

isn't that how eddie van halen got the infamous "brown sound"?

Compyfox · Post by **Compyfox** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:36 pm

Actually that doesn't totally convince me. Okay, it might be due to the fact that your report (if I could have found it) is in Swedish, but a couple of things are kinda left out.

For example... after you drowned the mics in water and beer. Did you let the mics dry up or just record straight after you put it out of it's wet misery? Same with the freezing... you see that you put it into the freezer, but you touch it as if there was nothing happening (also 1 hour is a bit short for such tests), and... did you let the mic heat up and dry out again or not?

It's understandable what happens with the mic used as hammer, crushed by a car, etc. But what's not understandable at this point... you wrote in the video "the sound changed slightly", but with all tests after that, nothing.

What about the microwave? Usually you'd see sparkles and you'd fry the membrane. Shouldn't there be a sounddifference, too?

Mythbusters all right, but like with the real show, it shows something, but it's only half-baked and based on those results, a certain myth is either confirmed, or busted.

Sorry to be picky about that, but if you want to put emphasis on your tests, then you have to present a little bit more.

jackson · Post by **jackson** » Tue Oct 23, 2007 9:48 pm

Damn, and people though GG Allin was "anally retentive".