Shure SM7B

Workbench
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After being on a Campfire Call today (April 22, 2025) , I came across a note that reminded me of the wealth of expertise available here.

I’ve been trying to up my game a bit with the sound quality of my podcast episodes and I still have a lot to learn. I searched and read some discussions here in PC and as I didn’t find exactly what I was seeking, I am tossing two questions out to this tribe.

My mic is a Shure SM7B, a very good mic, yet I have not experimented with it as much as I should. Even with dozens of episodes completed, I find that I end up sticking with what I already know (not a lot, technically speaking, as most of my knowledge is process-based). Then I’ll decide to chase a topic in a thread (here or elsewhere) and when it seems like I’ve happened across yet another topic that could help me, I’ll dwell there a bit and occasionally make some changes. This post is about one or two of those potential shifts.

I am going to test these scenarios first and I really want to hear what you have to say, fellow podcasters.

Item 1: Shure mic settings - physical switches
I am going to capture 20 seconds of audio, reading the same content, with each of the four combinations below and after checking sound on playback, decide how to adjust the settings.
There are switches on the back of the mic. Bass Roll Off and Presence Boost .
Bass Roll Off starts ~300 Hz
Presence Boost works on all vocal audio in the 700Hz -7000Hz range (which may be a bit too broad)

  1. Left up, right down – Bass Roll Off not activated (OFF), Presence Boost not activated (ON) [factory settings)
  2. Left up, right up – Bass Roll Off not activated (OFF), Presence Boost activated (ON)
  3. Left down, right up – Bass Roll Off activated (ON), Presence Boost activated (ON)
  4. Left down, right down – Bass Roll Off activated (ON), Presence Boost not activated (ON)

These are all destructive filters, meaning you can never recover the original ranges of audio if these filters are ON. You will be able to do some correction post-production, but not a lot.

This is how I think I understand these mic switches and what they do.

What are your thoughts on these settings? (I know some of it depends on the vocal range of each person speaking.)

This might not seem like a very sophisticated question and/or one that I should already know the answer to, but “good enough” has been good enough at factory setting yet I wonder if a change could move “good enough” to “even better.”

Item 2: Shure mic “where”?
This question is about physical mic setup. Location, angle, distance from mouth, etc. Talk across it, down into it, mic below mouth, mic above, etc.
I vividly recall lots of practice during The Podcasting Fellowship, yet I once again settled into “good enough” and then relied (rely) on some post-production to edit it to “good enough+” - or so I think. My speaking voice is not the strongest or clearest and I am actually working again on some breathing and speaking tips from a recent Seth G post, but I still want to hear from all of the experts here regarding mic location and orientation.

Thank you, in advance, for any insights and tips you are willing to share.

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My first instinct would be to not enable either, and record raw. My thinking is a proper audio editor would be able to filter out anything down in sub-300hz range, and boosting the mid-range might change the sound of my voice.

…which leads to my next instinct: do exactly what you suggest and test all four combinations of setting on my own voice to see if I can hear the difference.

I’m a fan of (as everyone has seen over the years) mic just above my mouth. I do this to reduce the plosives striking the mic—the SM58s I use are very sensitive to plosives. The SM7B is very un-sensitive to plosives though, so you should be able to ignore plosives in your search for position.

The next layer is then about what does the mic really pick up when presented with a human voice. By far, the greatest thing I have ever read about recording the human voice is this article…

https://www.dpamicrophones.com/mic-university/facts-about-speech-intelligibility

(From a 5-year-old blog post, if you also want to see my comments, https://constantine.name/2020/09/30/microphones-and-the-human-voice/.)

I read through all of that carefully, and came away with: Place the mic 45° above, pointing down towards my mouth (and within 45° left-right of center) is best.

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Hi David, I would agree with @craigconstantine on going for neutral as a starting place but also experiment a bit once you know how to get back to ‘normal’.

The SM7B manual suggests this for a flat response

Screenshot 2025-04-23 at 15.30.33
Screenshot 2025-04-23 at 15.30.331226×794 21 KB

Mic position - I go for a hands breadth (about 4 inches) and also have it offset and angle it towards the corner of my mouth so breath from speech misses the mic capsule to avoid plosives. If you are too close, other mouth noises and essing will start to interfere. More experiments until you find a sound you can live with.

Fix it in post is always an option, but often I can make it different, though not necessarily better. Keep noise and unwanted stuff out of the recording as much as possible. The software you use will determine how easy and reproducible any fixes are, but that feels like another conversation.

Some videos I use in the Podcasting Workshop - in case they help answer some of your questions.

Recording - Overview

Recording - Mouth

Recording - microphone

Hope that helps - shout if you need more or different @David3560

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Hey David

It was great catching up at the campfire. You’ve just become the first guest on my Fed Up Podcast, we joked about starting!

I researched the SM7B for a review I wrote a while back, so I had this information on file. I’m glad to share my take on this.

The SM7B is wonderfully forgiving, and a few minor tweaks can turn “good enough” into broadcast-grade.

Understanding the two rear-panel switches

Left switch Right switch What happens Typical use-case
Up (flat) Down (flat) Factory default—full bandwidth Start here for all tests
Down Down Bass-roll-off: gentle –3 dB around 200 Hz, tapering below 100 Hz Tames proximity boom, HVAC rumbles, or chesty voices
Up Up Presence boost: +3 dB around 2–4 kHz Adds articulation for darker voices or when your mix feels “muffled”
Down Up Both filters A quick “broadcast” curve—great when you’re close-miking and still need clarity

As you mention, changing the settings is a “destructive” process, meaning you can’t restore what you’ve cut.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing because turning on the mic’s “brightness” switch right when you record is usually cleaner than raising those frequencies later on your computer. The mic makes just your voice a little louder before any background hiss sneaks in, onto the tape, so you’re turning up your voice, not the noise.

Testing Process (for the truly obsessed!)

  1. Record your 20-second paragraph four times (one for each switch setting).
  2. Level-match the takes (the roll-off will lower RMS level slightly (i.e., turning on the bass roll-off switch will make your recording a bit quieter overall), so you need to adjust for this to keep things even for comparison).
  3. Listen on the same headphones/speakers.
  4. Pick the take that you like.

If you find a setting that sounds better, you’ll also save yourself the work of tuning your sound in post-production.

Mic placement

The SM7B’s wide “sweet spot” is forgiving, but consistency matters more than perfection. There are a few options to experiment with:

Variable Guideline Why
Distance 4–6 in / 10–15 cm for conversational tone Close enough for intimacy, far enough to avoid plosive overload
Angle 20–45 ° off-axis, talking across the grille Keeps air bursts from plosives out of the diaphragm while preserving tone
Height Capsule roughly lip-to-nose level Minimises nasal airflow and chest reflections
Vertical orientation Slightly above mouth pointing down ≈ 30 ° Useful if you read from notes—helps reject keyboard noise. But Joe Rogan and Lex Friedman use different angles. Just experiment.
Pop protection You should not need one with the SM7B. The foam filter and design is effective.
Room Treat first the reflections—rug, curtain, bookcase Remember your recording space changes what the mic captures so you should experiment with this. A $30 duvet behind you often beats a $300 plugin
Pre-amp gain 60 dB of clean gain or an inline booster (Cloudlifter, FetHead) The SM7B outputs –59 dBV; many interfaces top out at ~55 dB. Make sure your interface is giving you enough gain to tickle the -12dbs level while speaking normally.

Putting it together

  • If you’re 4 – 6 inches away and like a warm, intimate sound, start flat. Turn on the presence boost only if your voice still sounds muffled or too far back in the mix.
  • If you work inside a treated booth/room but get too much low-end bloom, engage the bass roll-off and leave presence flat.
  • For untreated rooms where HVAC or traffic is an issue, roll off the bass and engage the presence boost; it clears mud and pushes intelligibility without needing heavy post-EQ.
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Excellent summary of your review @Jey

Great to ‘hear’ your voice

S

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Ya know, that’s a really good point I’d forgotten about. (Not just in my reply to David, but in general.)

I’ve gotten so used to what my mic sounds like (in my ears, in my headphones, in real time) that I have forgotten how I had to work at that originally.

This is probably a detail (practice being consistent, more than trying to be good) we should all talk about more. :thinking:

ɕ

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Thanks @steveh ! It’s truly lovely to hear from you, too.

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@Jey @steveh and @craigconstantine
It’s impossible to overstate my appreciation for the way you all jumped in and provided such stellar responses.

I am moving through every one of the answers, links, and demos, one at a time, from each of you, and will be “re-experimenting” as I go. The montage episode (with a bit of host-on-mic interjections) that I am working on now, and the upcoming guest-based installment slated to be recorded a few days from now (and the already recorded but waiting to be edited episode) will not reap the benefits of everyone’s help, but every episode after those absolutely will.

Your replies took me back to the early days of TPF (2? 3?) when all of this was brand new. Reading what you wrote here, now, made me realize that there is always a need to drill on the basics. It’s why Larry Bird continued to show up early and stay late at the gym shooting free throws even at the peak of his pro basketball career. It’s why players at all levels run through pre-game drills. I have gotten away from that component of consistency, and this thread is leading me to “go back to school.” And rightly so.

@craigconstantine - this single Podcaster Community discussion is worth more than the dollars spent for my annual renewal expenditure. :money_bag:
@Jey - I am honored to be your honorary (faux? virtual? imaginary?) guest on the Fed Up Podcast. :joy:
@steveh - fantastic to see your latest videos from the Podcasting Workshop!

While some of the specifics of your answers differed in some ways (which is very interesting, and encouraging, because that means that there are multiple ways to be good at this), there were some common themes that emerged, such as the importance of consistency and practice.

The other piece that is extremely beneficial is how each of you pulled in some of your other (older) work to reinforce the guidance you provided.

This concept reminds me of a conversation I had with a school principal. I visited him three or four years after our initial work together and our conversation – as was the case with virtually every on-site interaction I had with school leaders – was based on two simple ideas:

  1. what can you share with me about the status of X [the project or issue the leader was working on the last time we met or spoke], and
  2. what are you thinking about doing/accomplishing next?

Everything else, including the support the leader needed, would emerge during the conversation that grew out of those two prompts. And, invariably, I would have the privilege of referencing great work that leader and school had already engaged in, and the progress they had already made, and value that they had brought to bear with others.

This PC thread feels like that to me. My questions absolutely helped me but I hope that each of you is reminded of the great work that you’ve done (and do), how your own work and expertise and success has progressed, and the value that you have brought and continue to bring to those with whom you interact. You have the same impact (often unseen for years or even never known to you at all) that any great teacher has on their students.

So, yes, another lengthy, written, DavidRamble.
I simply felt compelled to zap back with more than “thank you.”
(And if you’ve read all of this, then this is Thank You, squared.)

Have a great day, all!

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