DJ Equipment Reviews

Get just the sound you want with the SGM 1000 microphone

From as far as 40 years ago, Azden has started producing microphones for the world at large. It’s just in the last 15 years that they made a name for themselves though, and got the DJ equipment reviews they deserved. True, being specialized in mainly two areas of the DJ’s life, those reviews won’t cover DJ mixers or whatnot, because Azden now offers great quality and experience in either microphones or speakers. And while speakers, being more universal, can certainly be used by DJs even if they’re not specifically designed for that, it’s a bit more complicated with the microphones. Let’s take for instance the SGM 1000 microphone from Azden.

Besides the review on the SGM 1000, this post is alos meant to be a crash course for working DJs on shotgun microphones and their uses, because at their heart, mics like the SGM 1000 aren’t really made for DJs, or not for DJs alone. If you want to check out any previous post on Azden, we’ve been lazying on the job with them, so you’ll only find them mentioned in our top 10 DJ microphones DJ product review here. 

So, what’s a shotgun microphone and what’s it good for, besides sounding like it’s going to put a hole through something? Don’t be alarmed, it’s not overly complicated and shotgun microphones and the SGM 1000 ca certainly be used by DJs too, if you’d like. They’re the long kind of mics you see people using in movies and in television in general. This is because of the tube-like construction, which allows the SGM 1000 to be a lot more sensitive to the sound coming from one direction (from right in front of it) and basically ignoring most of what’s going on sideways or in the back. SGM 1000 thus lets working DJs and sound professionals record only the sound that they want, as long as they point the SGM 1000 towards it.

Being so unidirectional, the SGM 1000 can be advantageous or disadvantageous to a DJ, depending on the situation, but on the bright side, the SGM 1000 is top quality and the sound that it captures is really well taken care of and recorded right. It provides working DJs with both a wide frequency response and very low noise recording, not to mention the ability to point and record. While not perfect for the studio DJ, the SGM 1000 certainly works in a noisy environment such as the club, where you want to pick up just the music rather than all the crowd noise.

The features and tech specs of the SGM 1000 from Azden really underline the quality and usability of this shotgun microphone:

• frequency response from 80 Hz to 20 kHz
• impedance is just 1.5 ohms at 1 kHz
• a signal to noise ratio of 70 dB
• maximum SPL input is 120 dB
• dynamic range of 96 dB
• for output, the SGM 1000 has a 3 pin XLR type jack
• and with dimensions of 12.2" (310mm) length, 0.83" (21mm) diameter, you can visualize the size of the SGM 1000, but weighting just 2 lbs, it’s not going to be hard to carry anywhere

The SGM 1000 is a nice addition even to a DJ’s gig bag, although much more suited to an audio professional for instance, and it’s very flexible as well. You can power the SGM 1000 either through phantom power or use a AAA type battery if you’re on the road (it will function for about 1000 hours with alkalines, so I wouldn’t worry about battery life). Azden also provides an included windscreen and unique shockmount holder for their SGM 1000, with an integrated shoemount as well and a carry pouch for easier transport.

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