Shure Beta 57A Supercardioid Dynamic Instrument Microphone

The Shure Beta 57A takes on the job the SM57 made famous — close-miking snares, guitar cabs and horns — and sharpens it. A tighter supercardioid pickup, a hotter neodymium cartridge and a hardened steel grille make it the instrument mic that keeps its focus on a loud, crowded stage, where spill from the kit next door and the wedge at your feet are the real enemies.

Focus where the stage gets loud

The supercardioid pattern narrows the Beta 57A's pickup to what sits directly in front of the grille and holds that shape right across its 50 Hz to 16 kHz range, so a snare mic hears the snare rather than the hats, and a cab mic hears the speaker rather than the drummer. Its deadest spots sit roughly 120 degrees round the back instead of straight behind — aim the wedges and side-fills there and you can push more level before anything starts to ring. The neodymium magnet gives it more output than an old-school dynamic, so your preamp works less and the noise floor stays down.

At home on drums, amps and horns

The response is shaped for instruments, with presence that lifts the crack of a snare and the edge of a driven guitar, and a low-end roll-off that keeps things under control when it's jammed hard against a drum head or a speaker cone. That roll-off turns proximity effect into a tool: creep in for more body on a floor tom or a bass cab, back off for a leaner, brighter result. Clip it 25 mm off the cone for attack, pull it back 15–30 cm for a fuller, rounder sound, or point it at the bell of a sax or trumpet. It's no slouch on a gritty vocal either.

Built for load-ins and stray sticks

The body is die-cast metal finished in Shure's silver-blue enamel, and the hardened, matte steel mesh grille is made to shrug off rim-shot misses and the knocks of a road case. Inside, a pneumatic shock mount isolates the cartridge from stand rumble and handling bumps, so stage vibration stays out of the mix. It connects with a standard balanced three-pin XLR, and comes with a stand clip, a thread adapter for European stands and a zippered bag for the trip home.