Review: Shure SM4 Home Recording Microphone

The simplicity of a well-built studio condenser microphone is something that I always find beauty in. There isn’t always the need for extraneous bells and whistles to be added, when the device is built to do one job, and do it well. And that’s just what Shure have done with the SM4 Home Recording Microphone. It goes back to simple studio microphone design, with a build that has been engineered around use in the home studio. With the SM4, you can stop worrying about unwanted noise from other devices, and just get on with the process of recording great music.

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Let’s take a closer look and see just how seemingly simple this design is, yet how clever Shure have been in putting it together too. At first glance, this looks like a studio condenser microphone, and that’s because it is! We’re not trying to fool anyone with the looks here, it’s a solid tool built for a task. However, Shure have considered the modern musician’s situation, understanding that not everyone has a professional studio built into their home. So, they have designed the SM4 Home Recording Microphone to capture the perfect sound, even when in the ‘not so perfect’ recording environment. 

SM4 Home Recording Microphone

In this day and age, we are living amidst a constant field of radio frequencies and digital transmissions. Even when everything is all quiet at home, there’s always noise and electrical interference that goes unnoticed in your day-to-day routine. Put a microphone in the room to capture a critical vocal take, and you’ll often hear unwanted RF interference, or static in the recording, especially on those lower-level vocals where you’ll likely drive the gain a little harder. It can be disheartening to listen back and hear your recording has picked exactly what you didn’t want to hear. So, Shure developed their patent pending Interference Shielding Technology into the SM4 to take care of just this problem.

This system is designed to block RF noise, which is common in the presence of mobile phones, Wi-Fi routers, laptop computers and power supplies from associated devices. It’s all that noise that we live with at home and never really notice, until it’s captured on your recording. With an integrated pop-filter and faraday cage built into the microphone housing, this greatly reduces the noise, and tackles plosives in vocal performances at the same time. 

The housing itself is very plain. It’s a sleek, solid black metal chassis with the cage exposed on the upper third. Within this is a dual diaphragm design, with a pair of one inch brass capsules that have been specifically tailored to handle high sound pressure levels, with a low self-noise. That means, you can turn the gain up on low volume sound sources and not be concerned about the operation noise finding its way into the recording, or you can pull the gain back on loud signals, like drums or amplifiers, and not have to worry about distortion. This makes it the ideal home recording microphone, where environmental noise is also an issue, so a lower gain structure can mask some of those issues.

This SM4 has a fixed cardioid polar pattern, which offers good side and rear rejection. There are no added features like high pass filters, boost switches or gain adjustments. These have been left off to allow for the best audio capture with the least amount of self-noise. Again, it’s simplicity in design, for a good reason. After all, you can always adjust these and other factors on your preamp, or in your DAW. The frequency response has a nicely controlled low end, so a high pass filter isn’t going to be a necessity in any event, and with a bit of a bump at 4kHz and a little dip around 8kHz, this microphone offers a vibrant and pronounced mid-range that doesn’t sound honky, nor tinny. It also has a nice airy top end, so you are going to capture amazing detail in both voice and instrument at a close range, without too much from around the room. It’s almost like it has the reduced reach of a dynamic microphone, with the articulated capture of a condenser. Basically, Shure have taken the time-honoured studio condenser microphone design and given it a rebuild to make it more friendly for home recording environments. An expensive studio condenser microphone works well in a studio, but tends to accentuate the faults in the room when used at home. The SM4 is the solution. This microphone is going to make your room setup a lot easier, and allow more people to get great quality recordings at home without compromise.

The standard version of the SM4 comes with a collar mount that screws in at the base around the XLR connection, with a padded bag to store your microphone when not in use. It is also available in a Studio Kit, which includes a carry case, suspension mount and pop filter.

Whilst the cage on the microphone does reduce plosives somewhat, with the added pop filter, they are dramatically tamed, along with any sibilance issues, all without overtly affecting the resulting sound of your vocal or source. This is easily attached to the shock mount with a magnetic design, so you can easily take it on or off depending on the need, and it’s always mounted at the same distance from the capsule for consistent results every take.

Shure have put a lot of thought into this concept. The SM4 Home Recording Microphone bridges the gap between a beginner’s setup and a professional studio space. For those of you looking to take your recording to the next level in your home studio, you can do so without having to concern yourself so much with the room’s failings, and not have to power off every device in the house in order to do so. If it’s time to elevate your home recording, then you need to get along to your local Shure dealer and check the SM4 or the SM4 Studio Kit!

For local Shure enquiries, visit Jands.