greetings earthlings and brand new shure sm7b owners today i'm going to be walking
you through how to properly set up the shure sm7b but first let's talk about what comes in the box
wait actually i gotta throw this when you open the box you'll get a little bit of documentation
you'll get a cable tie the actual microphone a back plate to cover the switches on the rear
of the microphone a big old fat foam windscreen and a 5 8 to 3 8 inch microphone stand adapter
step one is attaching the microphone to a microphone stand the screw mount on this has a 5 8
inch threading and that is what you'll find on a standard microphone stand here i have one of these
really big stage tripod microphone stands the end of that is 5 8 inch threading so all you need to
do is place the mount on the stand and then screw it on and you should be good to go but if you find
yourself with a desktop boom arm those typically have 3 8 inch threading so you will need to pull
out the golden adapter thing that we saw and when you're installing this onto the microphone make
sure that the notches face outwards because this will allow you to use a coin to loosen or tighten
this down then you do the exact same thing and you place the mount next to the boom arm and screw
it on step two is setting the microphone in the correct position now i know that a lot of people
enjoy using their microphone really far away from them because then it allows the microphone to be
out of their vision and it doesn't interfere with their computer peripherals whether it be typing
on a keyboard or clicking on a mouse with this microphone that is very difficult to get away
with because it is so quiet and because of that i always recommend using this microphone no farther
than six inches away but to get the best results i personally prefer around three inches away
now i have the microphone about four fingers away from my mouth but it is directly in front of me
and that makes the microphone really susceptible to plosives what plosives are is when you make
a p or a b sound a gust of air leaves your mouth and it could hit the diaphragm of the microphone
making a really loud percussive sound for example please bring pizza pronto
please bring pizza pronto you can really hear the air hitting the diaphragm of the microphone
that that is not a sound that you want that is very distracting and it can actually damage your
microphone so what we want to do is move the microphone slightly off axis and we will speak
past the microphone now when i say please bring pizza pronto no air is hitting the diaphragm
and you avoid any of those plosives step three is connecting the microphone to your usb audio
interface and setting the gain the first part of this is incredibly easy you'll take the female
end of the xlr cable and connect that to the sm-7b and then you'll take the male end of the xlr cable
and plug that into the xlr port of your usb audio interface next you want to open up the software
that you're going to be using to record or stream any software really that has a visual meter
because we're going to be using that to set the gain of the interface right now i have the gain
on the focus right set to 12 o'clock i will slowly go ahead and increase this and what we're looking
for on the meter is hitting around negative 18 decibels that gives us enough headroom so if we
get really loud we don't hit zero decibels meaning we will not clip or distort the interface and to
reach this level you can see we hit around 3 30 or maybe 4 o'clock on the gain dial
and this is the level that i would have the microphone set at if i was recording or streaming
because in both of those situations i'm able to add gain in post if you do want to know a little
bit more about that i will link two videos for you the first one being how to set your gain properly
and the second on how to set up obs so you can bring up the level from around negative 18 db
to a more listenable level without clipping or distorting your interface
however if you aren't able to adjust your audio at all once it's made it onto your computer
maybe you're in a conference call for work or maybe you're in discord then i think it would be
acceptable to increase your gain a little bit more although i will tell you to be very careful here
i'll just go ahead and increase my gain to 100 percent on the focusrite 2i2 3rd gen
and on my meter you can see we're hitting around negative 6 to negative 3 db and the reason why
i'm telling you to be careful here is if you get loud you can hear that it does start to distort
and sound really bad hopefully if you're in a work call you're not screaming at anybody but that's
just something to be aware of if you set your gain this high you need to be acutely aware of
how loud you're speaking and make sure to monitor what your level is at because if you get excited
if you get angry you will clip and distort your microphone and it sounds terrible
and the last thing that i'll say in this section is if you're using a phet head or a cloud lifter
one of these mic activators or inline preamps the methodology and steps are exactly the same
you're just going to install this preamp in line and then you're going to engage 48 volts
phantom power and then you'll set your level accordingly nothing else changes you should
be shooting for the exact same level step 4 look at the accessories and the switches
first let's look at the windscreens that come with a microphone and currently i have the
smaller windscreen installed this will be less effective at stopping plosives or those gusts
of air but it will allow the microphone to be a little bit brighter sounding because when you
put the thicker windscreen on that adds a lot of foam in front of the diaphragm and that reduces
the highs on the microphone quite a bit so my recommendation is unless you know you're really
bad with plosives or you know you're going to be recording in an incredibly windy environment
i think you should use the thinner windscreen because it yields a much better sound but let
me go ahead and put on the thicker windscreen so you can hear how that affects the sound and now
the really thick windscreen is installed and you should hear a change in the tone of the recording
it should sound a little bit darker you should lose a little bit of the shh that top end in
the recording because this attenuates quite a bit of that however it does an incredible job
at plosive rejection that's why i say unless you know you're terrible with plosives i recommend
using the little one but if you are terrible with plosives it's amazing and the last thing that i
want to say about the foam windscreens is don't be afraid to not use either of them i imagine a lot
of people won't be looking at this for streaming but if you're using this microphone for recording
this is a very common trick in recording studios because the foam does reduce that high end and
if you want a little bit more of that life taking off both of the windscreens and using
an external pop filter can yield much better results and give you a slightly brighter sound
and the second thing we want to look at are the switches on the rear of the microphone
one of them is going to be a low cut filter which will reduce the low end of the recording
the other is a presence boost which will increase the higher end of the recording for this example
let's say that i like eating the microphone i'm right on top of it and i'm getting a lot of that
proximity effect a lot of that added bass and i think that it sounds a little bit too muddy
that's where the low cut filter on this microphone would come into play so let me engage that so you
can hear how that sounds now i've engaged the low cut filter and you should hear quite a drastic
change to the tone of the recording it reduces a lot of that body a lot of that warmth that i
think is so appealing about this microphone but it's undeniable it does make it sound less muddy
and a little bit more clear but now let me switch off the low cut and we will do another example
now i have the big fat foam windscreen on it and i do not have the low cut filter engaged
now let's imagine i think that this sounds a little bit too dull a little bit too dark
and i want a little bit more liveliness a little bit more top end to the recording
that's where the presence boost will come into play so let me go ahead and switch that on and now
i've engaged that presence boost switch and again you should hear quite a drastic change the top end
comes to life there's a lot more information going on up there it is much more prominent
my words sound a little bit clearer so if you're using this microphone and you think that it's too
dark or dull sounding do not be afraid to engage that presence boost switch and just because we can
now i have the low cut or high pass filter engaged and that presence boost switch engaged just so you
can hear how it sounds with both the switches engaged and the big fat foam windscreen on it
in case you want to use it in this configuration and here i am right on top of the microphone with
the low cut and the presence boost engaged with the smaller windscreen on it and i am eating the
microphone right on top of it but i am partial to the completely neutral mode no low cut and no
presence boost engaged let me go ahead and switch back to that and finally once you've determined
what setup you're going to be using in terms of the windscreen and the switches on the microphone
just do a quick double checking of your gain level again because adding the foam windscreen and then
the presence boost that will affect the level that you're getting out of the microphone so just make
sure you're still hitting an appropriate level and adjust accordingly and i think that's about
it on getting your sm7b set up if you do have any other questions go ahead and leave them in
the comments and i will try to answer as many as i can if you did find this video fun interesting
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watching thank you so much for listening congrats on the new microphone i'll talk to you later bye