The Shure SM58 is a professional cardioid dynamic microphone, commonly used in live vocal applications. Produced since 1966 by Shure Incorporated, it has built a reputation among musicians for its durability and sound, and is still the industry standard for live vocal performance microphones. The SM58 is the most popular live vocal microphone in the world. It is a development of the SM57 microphone, which is another industry standard for both live and recorded music. In both cases, SM stands for studio microphone.
An SM58
Robert Lockwood, Jr using an SM58 in 1982
Patti Smith using an SM58 in 2007
Randall Bramblett using an SM58 in 2015
A microphone, colloquially called a mic, or mike, is a transducer that converts sound into an electrical signal. Microphones are used in many applications such as telephones, hearing aids, public address systems for concert halls and public events, motion picture production, live and recorded audio engineering, sound recording, two-way radios, megaphones, and radio and television broadcasting. They are also used in computers and other electronic devices, such as mobile phones, for recording sounds, speech recognition, VoIP, and other purposes, such as ultrasonic sensors or knock sensors.
Shure Brothers microphone, model 55S, multi-impedance "Small Unidyne" dynamic from 1951
David Edward Hughes invented a carbon microphone in the 1870s.
Humphrey Bogart, Jack Brown, and Lauren Bacall with RCA Varacoustic MI-6203 ribbon microphones broadcast to troops overseas during World War II.
Inside the Oktava 319 condenser microphone