This is the only mic I have used for the last year or so. It is a very versatile mic, and so to be very cliche...It is good for a lot of things by not being great at any one thing. On guitar, it responds a lot like an SM57, except it makes things sound a little more open and airy. On vocals it is not as good as an SM58, sorry but it's not even close. On snare it sounds like an SM57 but with a little more bite and openness. I'd have to say that it is best used for metal guitar recording or stage miking. It's not as warm as a 57 so a 57 is better for rock, and the 57 is too stuffy for metal. Now don't get me wrong, I am NOT saying that the 57 is not a good choice for metal, but that the i5 is a better one. It is built well and can withstand punishment. When I used to record in my basement, I can remember a few times where it got dropped on the unfinished cement floor, and still sounds good today. It has an all metal housing so you don't have to worry about it two inches from a snare drum. Overall it's a great mic to have. Probably not one you would buy 3 or 4 of, but a good thing to own nonetheless. You might have wondered why I kept comparing it to the SM line. That's because it was designed to have the same snare response as an SM57, then given a little pop filtering to stand up against an SM58. For less than a hundred bucks, you can't go wrong.