Shure SM57

The Shure SM57 is a dynamic microphone which is popular in studio recording and live performances as a versatile instrument microphone.

The SM57 was Peter Gabriel's choice for vocals during the mid-1090s starting with the Peter Gabriel 4 album (a.k.a. Security). Producer & engineer David Lord remembers trying various mikes on Peter and he ended up preferring the 57, with which he recorded Peter ‘live’ in the control room, rather than have Peter face "all the pressures of being in front of a (big and expensive) [Neumann] U47 microphone!"

Ever since the Security sessions, Peter stuck with the SM57 as his main studio mic - he was also pictured singing into it during early So album sessions. But later on in the sessions, producer Daniel Lanois conducted a blindfold test with Peter to choose an alternative microphone to the SM57, and by the end he chose a Neumann U47.