Shure SM58 ;-)
The next most ubiquitous mic's in no certain order and in my opinion:
Sennheiser 421
EV RE20
Shure SM7
AKG C414
Neumann U87
Neumann U47
AT4051

This is not exhaustive nor intended to be. There are a slew of other very common options including many ribbon mic's.

Shure, I mean sure, I was going to put a prohibition order on the 58, but neglected to under the false assumption that others would play by the rules
:-)

Now that's a hefty list. You mean to say that no other mic has anything close to the same kind of status as the SM57? I might have thought that a strong #2 would have emerged in the recording industry by now.

It isn't that any one of them is better than the others. These are all the most common "goto" microphones. If you had to break it down to just two mic's, then probably SM57 for dynamic and U87 for tube condenser. But there is no #1 or #2 or #3 really. There is just fitting the microphone to the recording source.

I'd say in a similar way that the SM57 affected the world of mics (value to cost ratio and commonly found) would be the AKG C414

The U87 is not a "tube condenser", but I agree with the Attack on its' importance... nice mic if you can pop for it.

Ahhhh....for lack of a "/".......combined with my brain racing around M50's and U67's and Deccas.......and Droid typing.... :-(

Given the criteria "most ubiquitous and appreciated " - I'd cast my vote for the C414 (in it's many variants) as well.

The U87 is highly sought after, but I'd guess a lot more folks own (can afford) C414s.

I'm seeing SM7Bs everywhere these days, and I'd say most studios have one or more SM81s also.

Yeah unfortunately there isn't much thats as usable, but affordable as the 57/58. I mean the most ubiquitous condensor I see is the AKG C1000 (the gold pencil one?) but that doesn't mean its any good.

There is an old thread back in the archives that addresses this. We have had several long threads where everyone listed what was in their mic closet. Someone went through and compiled all the results. The "winners" were all of the most popular low to mid priced mics - most of which had been mentioned here. I tried to do a search but could not find it. Maybe someone who remembers can think of a key that will identify it.

The thing about the 57 is that it has the biggest market share of the lowest (hence most popular) price range: $0-$100. I don't think that there is anything that has similar market share in the $100-$500, $500-$1500, or $1500-$3000 ranges. Now, maybe the U87 has a similar market share in the $3000-$5000 range, but that's a small market and most of us only view it from afar.

I dont think there is a number 2 ubiquitous or not. There is 57/58 and there are all the others.

There's another reason that the 57/58 are still so revered....anyone remember the AKG D1000?
LOL!!!!!!

BobRogers, post: 356447 wrote: There is an old thread back in the archives that addresses this. We have had several long threads where everyone listed what was in their mic closet."

TWO SUCH THREADS:
[="http://recording.org/pro-recording-forum/28744-whats-in-your-mic-cabinet.html"]What's in your mic cabinet?"[/]="http://recording.or…"]What's in your mic cabinet?"[/]

[[url=http://="http://recording.or…"]Mic closet recommendations[/]="http://recording.or…"]Mic closet recommendations[/]

(sorry no luck on a thread listing the 'winners'.)

moonbaby, post: 356460 wrote: There's another reason that the 57/58 are still so revered....anyone remember the AKG D1000?
LOL!!!!!!

The D1000 looked like Satan's nose-hair trimmer.

The D190e on the other hand was a fantastic little mic - way more open sounding than a 57 on a guitar amp.