Through Thursday, March 31 at midnight, you can grab SoundToys’ Devil-Loc plug-in for free, concluding a giveaway that began at the TapeOp party at South by Southwest. Devil-Loc is a nice-sounding emulation of the Shure M62. Chris Conover, in thanks for a Record beta I sent his way, points to the offer, a code (which I’ll share with readers), and mentions some ways he likes to use it – particularly, he says, on drum room mics:

It is inspired by the Shure M62 Level-Loc, which was designed to be a leveling amplifier for microphones to avoid spikes and fades. Users have discovered the M62 to have incredibly gritty, dirty, and unusual compression characteristics that made drums sound larger than life and quite aggressive.

Chris Conover at theProAudioFiles.com

The only bad news in all of this, aside from the expiration date, is that the plug-ins do need an iLok, if you don’t have one of those handy.

More than an opportunity to pimp SoundToys (whose work I really do enjoy as creative sound plug-ins), I think it’s a good opportunity to point to the site for which Chris is writing, theProAudioFiles.com. It’s full of reviews, tips on mixing, interviews, and resources for sound production. It could be a great place to start to get your mind on sound work.

http://theproaudiofiles.com/

For their part, SoundToys will have a Deluxe version of this plug-in next month. It’s really just as interesting to learn about the history of the Shure hardware on which it’s based, if you’re not already familiar with it:

The Shure M62 Level-Loc was designed by Shure to be a leveling amplifier mostly for mics. The concept was it would keep an even level (locked level) once it hit a certain input so you wouldn’t get “fade outs or blasting”. It was super simple with only a switch for three “distance” settings based on how far from the mic you were. The M62V upped the control a bit by adding an input level knob. However, the reason it became famous was not because it did a good job of leveling, it may have, but largely thanks to SoundToys user Tchad Blake and his desire to push, abuse, and do deliciously evil things to his tracks. He discovered that pushing the Level-Loc gave you gritty, dirty, unusual compression that made drums gigantic and nasty. Both of which are good things. So we’ve taken that concept and dropped it in the simple two control Devil-Loc. Then we’ve taken it further than the original hardware with the Devil-Loc Deluxe.

Read up on the plug and the contests and giveaways going on:
https://www.soundtoys.com/sxswpromo/

Then grab the actual plug – while there’s still time – via this link:

https://www.soundtoys.com/sxswpromo/&rc=340-9736-993

Just how rugged is your microphone? Mats St̴lbr̦st, editor of the Stockholm-based Studio, took testing to a new extreme last year. He did violence to the legendary Shure SM58 Рthe sub-$100, vocal dynamic mic. It was used to hammer nails. It was dropped several meters. It was frozen. It was dunked in water. It was driven over by a car. It had beer poured on it. It was placed in a microwave atop a pizza. And the thing kept on working.

We covered the gory abuse back in October 2007. Little did we know then that the test wasn’t over. It seems Mats and company buried the SM58. The SM58 has been there, underground, for a year, even enduring a harsh, Swedish winter. To complete phase II of their test, the folks at Studio unearthed the poor mic, washed it (running it under a tap, of course, not doing it properly), and gave it another test. Surprise: still working.

Incidentally, the SM58 and variants make a fantastic gift for a musician. Even if they’ve already got one, they could probably use another.

Shure SM58 Product Page – and yup, positive they do not endorse this sort of thing, but if it keeps working like this, who needs a warranty?

Here’s the new video. May not be suitable for squeamish audiophiles:

And the original torture test:

Sound files promised in Studio 01-09, but that issue doesn’t seem to be up yet. (Selected from the dropdown.)

Got an SM58 – or other mic – that’s taken some abuse? Send us photos!

Us Americans are wimps. Scandinavians know how to test music gear. As a metal soundtrack pounds away in the background, a Shure SM58 gets subjected to some serious torture testing, including:

• Being used to hammer nails
• Dropped a couple of meters
• Frozen
• Dunked in water
• Driven over by a car

And then something really nasty happens involving Heineken and a microwave.

Mats Ståhlbröst, diabolical creator of this insanity, explains:

We wanted to find out if the SM58 can live up to its [reputation as the toughest mic in the world] and decided to put it through a series of tests. PS Studio is Scandinavia’s leading magazine covering music production.

Of course, Shure had no part in these tests … wait, they actually did? (I’m going to start requesting review units from these guys!)

The Swedish Shure distributor supplied us with an SM58… and I think both they and Shure should be pretty happy with the results. This is one tough mic.

I’ll say. There’s a reason the SM58 is a favorite in live venues. You have my permission to keep this a secret and tell everyone to keep babying your mics, mind you.