SM7: The mic that shaped sound and culture

Twenty Thousand Hertz

Dallas Taylor

Design, Music, Music Commentary, Arts

4.9 • 4.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since their founding almost a century ago, Shure has created some of the most iconic microphones ever made. In this episode, we worked with Shure to tell the story of the SM7 dynamic microphone: from its humble beginnings in voiceover studios in the early 70s, to its use on classic albums, to its rediscovery by podcasters and streamers. Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced by Defacto Sound. Subscribe on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to see our video series. If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠mystery.20k.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Support the show and get ad-free episodes at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠20k.org/plus⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Follow Dallas on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠Facebook⁠, and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Join our community on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reddit⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Episode transcript, music, and credits can be found here: https://www.20k.org/episodes/sm7 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to 20,000 Hertz.
0:06.7	The topic for this episode is one that's really near and dear to my heart.
0:11.4	Actually, it's really near to my face right now.
0:14.5	In fact, it's the closest thing to me right now, this microphone, which is Assure SM7. Every single episode of 20,000 Hertz has been recorded
0:25.4	with this exact same microphone, but it's not just me. Tons of musicians and podcasters and
0:31.9	streamers all use an SM7. I would go as far as to say that this might be the most prolific and important microphone of the last two decades.
0:40.3	Surprisingly though, this mic has actually been around a lot longer than that.
0:44.3	The story of the Shore SM7 starts more than 80 years ago with a game-changing invention.
0:50.3	It ends with some of the most famous and influential creators alive today.
0:54.8	In order to get this story right, we worked with Schurr on this episode.
0:58.8	They helped us with research, fact-checking, and also provided financial support.
1:02.8	We had full editorial control and crafted this episode just like any other one.
1:07.2	So, let's start from the beginning.
1:10.0	Next, we're getting. one. So, let's start from the beginning.
1:22.1	Sure was sounded in 1925 by S.N. Sure, Sidney Natkin, Sure, but he preferred S.N.
1:23.7	He was 23 years old.
1:27.1	This is Michael Pedersen, the official historian from Shore.
1:27.8	Sure was a radio parts company.
1:32.0	AM Radio was all the rage, and you actually had to build your own radio back then.
1:37.9	So Mr. Sure was a radio hobbyist, and he said, I'm going to create a catalog company
1:43.1	where people can mail order their orders in
1:45.6	and Sure will provide the parts to make the radios.
	...

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