SMooth’s microphone preamp stage is ultra-high gain and low-noise. Being a very insensitive mic, the SM7 requires more clean gain than many preamps can provide. Some have attempted to fix this with inline boosters, but we eliminated the need for these with mic preamp circuitry capable of 70dB of gain, with a noise figure only 1.5dB higher than theoretical minimum. Plenty of pure you, without the hiss.
Voice artists everywhere have a love-hate relationship with noise gates. They’re great for eliminating background noise, but sometimes they go too far and clip off the beginning or end of words; dialing them back lets in too much background. Corny Gould (our resident processing genius) decided to invent a new approach: the Room control. It acts like a mixer; turn it clockwise to add more room tone (environment) to the signal, counterclockwise for room suppression. It couldn’t be easier.
The compressor is really special. Adjustable from “natural” to “massive”, but always clear and silky. We’ve created the optimal frequency-shaping contours, so again, just plug in your SM7 and it sounds amazing. Plus we give you just enough adjustment range to finesse the sound, but never enough to mess it up. Oh, and wait until you hear (or should we say don’t hear) the de-esser. It reduces sibilance without giving you a lithp.
Finally, there’s a little bit of magic we call Sparkle. If you love the darker sound of your SM7A or SM7B, plug it in and leave Sparkle disabled. But if you’d like to emulate the sound of the original SM7 or even the legendary SM5, turn Sparkle on. Voila! Transmutation complete.
SMooth is the perfect companion for your beloved SM7 (or SM5) mic. Everything you love about the SM7 is right there — but warmer, punchier, more articulate and consistent. And yes — bigger.
The lens can be removed to expose the controls for fine tuning. Here you can set everything from pre-amp gain to compression drive to how much environment (room tone) you want. You can decide how much de-essing to engage, trim the EQ settings, and select meter behavior. Oh, and here’s where you’ll find that magical Sparkle switch that can make your SM7B sound more like the classic SM7 and SM5B. Once you’ve got everything perfect, snap the lens back on and enjoy.