Butter thumbsup

My personal favorite is the SM7B + Portico 5032.

but the 610 really does fit well also.
Pacifica is nice too, pad in or out depending on SM7B roll off.
Hell, I like it with the 737 too.

Actually, it is just pretty great mic with 55+ dB of pre gain.
Only time it fell short was first time I used it with low gain pre,
clearly my fault.

MJH

The SM7b sounded great with my Pacifica, but I believe sounds better on a Berlant Concertone tube pre.

This Concertone is very old, not too expensive, and has crap loads of gain. Surprisingly, it's not very noisy, and really makes the Sm7b sound awesome.

Hi Patrick,

I agree with Tom on this. My SM7Bs sound very good through any preamp I've coupled them with. Of course they sound better through APIs and Great River (stuff I have direct experience with).

As an aside, if you have Digi or Motu preamps, I find the SM7Bs are a solid contender when compared to any other dynamic for drums, loud guitars, bass amps, etc. Their low output becomes an asset in these cases... you never come close to overloading the preamp or cooking the AD converters... lots of headroom, that's a good thing with inexpensive interfaces. I've had some respectably usable rack/floor toms come from Digi 003 preamps and SM7Bs. I used an SM7B and Motu Ultralight combination on acoustic bass (ran out of pres, hooked up my buddies Ultralight via SPDIF into digi rack) and sure enough, it sounded just fine for what we needed. There was enough headroom left in the signal for me to do some EQ and enough isolation to get in a touch of compression without slurping up the rest of the room.

If you plan on tracking a lot of intimate vocals, you'll likely find that the Ultralight will not have the juice you need. Did you try with your voice over guy? Was his voice loud enough for you to avoid that last 5db of noisy gain?

I have a 003 and was wondering if you found the onboard pres have enough gain for vocals? Im looking to add a decent vocal mic right now (which by most accounts the SM7 is), but an outboard pre and a new mic just arent in the budget right now. Thanks.

Thanks to all for your input, I picked up a solo 610 and love it! SM7b is a great mic.

The Sm7b works with the motu with a loud voice, but there's not enough gain for quieter vocals (mic seems to loose its character, normalization doesn't matter)

Without a preamp this might work:

RØDE Microphones - D-Power Plug

I've been working with a Sennheiser 441 into the Digi 003, which is another high quality, low-ish output dynamic. I've got the preamp near the top of the range, but not maxed out. The 003 seems to have plenty of juice for it, so the SM7 into 003 should be fine for vocals unless you're whispering several feet away.

Also, as many have pointed out, recording at 24 bits means that even hitting the middle of the volume range will give you plenty to work with inside the DAW.

Hey Patrick, Hey Spark:

Patrick ... congrats on the 610, that and the SM7B will sound great on tons of stuff.

Spark... I have never tracked lead vocals with just the 003, I've used either a Great River or an API. However, based on tons of other stuff I've recorded I think the SM7B is absolutely worth considering even without the expensive preamp option. I would definitely favour a good large diaphragm dynamic before spending money on preamps... then, get some top notch preamps down the line and you will be rocking... then maybe an LA2A or LA3A... uhh... it never stops. The mic is the best place to start.

You may not need this kind of advice, so apologies if this is too long winded. Here goes. I see you're in Canada. If there's a decent music store nearby like a Long & McQuade, get them to link you up with an SM7B and a RE20... maybe even a MD441 (beware the 441 is ludicrously expensive to buy new, wish I had one though, cool mic). Take them home and try them with the 003. You'll probably find that the RE20 is a bit "clearer" and the SM7B is a bit "richer"... so tough to know what other people hear... for sure the RE20 will give you more level than the SM7B. Try the mics on a bunch of stuff, wire both up, crank up the pres, and walk around the room with headphones and an acoustic guitar, snare drum, your voice, bassoon, whatever, solo each mic in turn to get a sense of how they pick up the space in close and at a distance. Jam them up against a guitar or bass amp and rock out. Stick them in a kick drum. Listen to the two tracks side by side. Try the various switches: low rolloffs on both mics, a presence boost on the SM7B.

Then return the one you feel less excited by. It's really a no brainer. You just can't go wrong with either the SM7B or the RE20. The low gain issue, in my experience, is easily offset by the non-brittle quality they bring to the 003 table. They are two of the most kick ass mics ever made and are still an incredible investment deal... they will be around long after my 003 is gone!

Both my RNP and my Great River do fine with my SM7 on male vocals. Noise is not an issue on the RNP in my experience.

Jim

My friend used tube mp for SM7 last night and said there's no noise issues (he also has Great River and RNP to choose from).

I will do a couple of shootouts betweem 5012 and DAV when I have both here this or next week.

Right on. Thanks guys! I'll definitely be checking out these mics with my 003 in the coming weeks!

Are you sure your friend (a) is using a system with low enough noise to notice, and (b) can hear?

Maybe they're not as noisy as they used to be, but noise is hardly the only problem with this product. There are better cheap-o options than this.

JSL

Sure it was noisier than Great River or RNP, but Tube mp was still usable with SM7.

I'm the friend Tom was talking about. Yes, I'm using a system with low enough noise, and I think I can hear well enough.

While the ART preamp was noisier than the more expensive options, I still found it surprisingly usable. Gain staged properly, noise would not become an issue, unless miking a very quiet source. I probably wouldn't want to stack a ton of tracks tracked through the Tube MP, however. For 40€ I think it's a great little box. If nothing else, it's a very good bass DI.

No, not sure. Actually, his friend is a mental who is 1/2 tone deaf. That is why he posted that info.

I can't speak in regard to the combo of the SM7 and the UA610...But I have a 2-610 and it has tons of gain. I have the older version without the pad, for snare, I have a 57 running at -10 on the gain and the output is around 1-2. Should be more than enough gain.

I would think the Great River would be amazing as well. Go to MySpace.com - Maylene and the Sons of Disaster - Birmingham, Alabama - Southern Rock - www.myspace.com/mayleneandthesonsofdisaster to hear clips of an SM7 into a GR MP2-NV on vox.

Oh, good ... and thanks for taking the comment in good humor.

To each his own -- I personally would have to hold back a little half-vomit if I used this as a mic pre, but I will admit that it's a decent bass DI in a pinch. My personal fave in the cheap-pre-to-throw-at-a-mic category is the Symetrix 302, which is barely more than the ART when you consider the going rate on a used two-channel unit. I think it's a very significantly better mic pre and even gives the RNP a run for its money.

And while it's totally not a fair comparison, but once you've tried the TRP on a nice dynamic mic, with its gobs of pure gain, it's hard to go back. It's that cliche, "I never really knew how great my mic sounded." The TRP gives that experience not just for ribbons, but for pretty much any dynamic mic, and the SM7 is mostly definitely worth hearing that way.

JSL

Great River. Just did a 30-second VO with an SM7>ME-1NV yesterday...decent talent made the job so easy my 13-year-old son could have done it.

RNP's a lousy deal? I love mine...not on everything, but on most things.

Weez

Your loving it and its being a lousy deal are not mutually exclusive.

When I say it's kind of a lousy deal, I mean that other things that are significantly cheaper are just as or very nearly as good. This includes a few new products and a huge glut of reasonably nice pre-amps with plummetted resale values.

It's a statement relative to other options that I have used. You might disagree with my opinion of those other options, or you may not be familiar with them. Maybe you'd love a lot of cheaper preamps just as much or more, I don't know. Maybe you love lamp.

JSL

I love lamp. I love chair.

Weez

UA 610 has plenty of gain for an SM7. My favorite pre is my Eisen Api's for it tho.