MindTheGap
1515 posts
Apr 22, 2016
2:01 PM
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I've a very specific question about the Shure 585 - aimed at kHz who has said he has one, but equally anyone else who's got one.
Not the usual question "is it clean/gritty/hot?", but instead...
You know your Akai DM13 has a 'voice' i.e. it colours the sound when cupped, even played fairly clean. As opposed to the SM57 (or PylePro) which respond to cupping and have super output but their timbre is fairly straight.
Well, if you know what I mean by 'voice', what is the 585 like?
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Last Edited by MindTheGap on Apr 22, 2016 2:01 PM
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SuperBee
3633 posts
Apr 22, 2016
3:04 PM
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Hmm...I have one but it is loZ and it's been worked on. I expect the original loZ was a balanced output but mine is unbalanced.
Certainly the mic responds to cupping but I'm afraid I've used it so rarely I can't say much with certainty let alone accuracy. I'd describe it as 'warm', mellow perhaps. It's not a particularly aggressive edgy sound...but I've not used it in anger, just plugged into a 5w SE tube amp to test that it works. my fellow harp player on the blues club committee has much more experience than me in using one. His is also loZ and he used to use it into the PA...he described it as a warm round sound. Always said it was very nice...but he no longer uses it.
I'd like to find a hiz or dualz version. I'm inclined to like the mic...mine needs some new foam in the wind guard...the original was beyond disgusting...
There's another of these old shures I'd like to track down...is it the 533? Sphereodyne...I think the same mic has a couple different designations. The one I'm thinking of is often called the 'James cotton mic'
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Killa_Hertz
1150 posts
Apr 22, 2016
10:18 PM
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The hiz 585 is also refered to as the James cotton mic.
I have a hi z version. But to be honest i haven't used it quite enough to give you a great discription. I only used it a few times and really wasnt a huge fan initially.
Ill give it another go when i get a chance and give you a real comparison. I'll try to do some sound bytes too.
But I'm away for the weekend.
The 533 is a nice mic from what i hear, but they are expensive. Unless you get a loZ, but im not really interested in LoZ.
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MindTheGap
1517 posts
Apr 22, 2016
11:20 PM
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Thanks. Yes, I thought the 585 was the James Cotton mic, but it's only what I've read. And yes it's the Hi-Z one I'm interested in.
I've seen some YT demos, but as usual they tend to focus on break-up and grit, so really it's a demo of mic+amp combo. If I use one, then the breakup will be provided by the Harp Break or my amp, and I know what those sound like. I'm interested in the cupped voice.
Last Edited by MindTheGap on Apr 22, 2016 11:22 PM
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SuperBee
3635 posts
Apr 23, 2016
1:12 AM
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Ah yes, right you are...
Anyway, according to Ron sunshine, who has a few yt demos of 585 btw, on at least one of which he also sings..the 585 and 533 use the same element...but fritz hasenpusch wrote a piece in which he called the 533 the 'bottom feeder of the shure ball mic line' and while praising it as a harp mic, implied it was a somewhat lesser vocal mic.
I'd probably use my 585 except the guy who modified it has done so in such a way that it's very difficult for me to use a plug in transformer with it. Oh, yes, he's attached a 1/4 inch. I guess I just need to fit a screw on cable with an xlr on the other end.
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MindTheGap
1518 posts
Apr 23, 2016
8:51 PM
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Just a guess, but the things that make it a poor vocal mic might be the things that make it an interesting harp mic. An uneven frequency response, for instance.
So I looked around and, at least in the UK, there's nothing much of any of these 2nd hand. Some Lo-Z versions that's all. I may never know.
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