Noise (hiss) using SM57 and SM58 - should I swap to 2 condensors or fix the hiss?

[AngryMonkey]

Hey,
I have a problem with noise (hiss) on my tracks, please see the attached song for an example (start quite acoustic guitar piece shows it in particular).

I am recording stereo acoustic guitar. The only mics I have are a Shure SM57 and a Shure SM58 - so im using 1 near the 12th fret and 1 near the bridge.

Trouble is I need to turn the gain right up to get a decent (loud enough) signal with these mics, but then I also get a lot of noise (hiss). I dont notice the hiss when singing into them, only when doing quite stuff like acoustic guitar (singing is lounder and more directed I guess). It doesnt seem to matter if I turn the gain up on the mixer, or in my recording package the hiss is still there.

Would you expect this hiss with these mics (im going into a Presonus FP10) in which case maybe I should get 2 small matched condesors?

Or would you expect their to be very little hiss in which case I should look to fix the problem (maybe I have a dodgy FP10, but I dont want to go down that road unless im certain its not just the mics).

Thanks,
AM.

[brandondrury]

This hiss is caused when you push cheap preamps really hard. In your clip I didn't notice any hiss problems. It's not exactly the mics.

Dynamic mics are lower in output level and would therefor require use gain on the preamp therefor less noise. However, I don't think it's fundamentally sound to use a change in mics as an alternative to poor gain staging.

If hiss is a problem, just don't push the preamps so hard and makeup for the gain digitally in the software. This is what I had done in the past back before I had preamps that didn't get noticably noisy.

Brandon