Snare Mic Recommendations

Macca_25387

I’ve just listed a Behringer 8 channel preamp that would work perfect to expand your inputs, should you decide to go that route. I’ve used it many times for drums. Apologies for the hijack. 

maltingsaudio

I have a Sennheiser black fire e604 which is streets ahead of my other e604’s that I use snare top, and an audix f1 for snare bottom . I’m not a fan of using bigger mics on snares such as the 201 or 57 as the associated stands get in the way for no real extra improvement to the sound. 

I am however rather liking new kid on the block Beyer TG 151 in place of the black fire and also for toms , and guitar cabs for that matter well worth a look 

robinbowes

maltingsaudio said:

I have a Sennheiser black fire e604 which is streets ahead of my other e604’s that I use snare top, and an audix f1 for snare bottom .

I've not heard of "black fire" - what's that all about?

Now that you come to mention it, I've got three e904, and I bet they'd sound great on snare (not tried as I usually have them on toms).

maltingsaudio

robinbowes said:

maltingsaudio said:

I have a Sennheiser black fire e604 which is streets ahead of my other e604’s that I use snare top, and an audix f1 for snare bottom .

I've not heard of "black fire" - what's that all about?

Now that you come to mention it, I've got three e904, and I bet they'd sound great on snare (not tried as I usually have them on toms).

Black fire was the mic name before they re named everything with E numbers! Do try the Beyer it’s a real Swiss Army knife of a mic

robinbowes

maltingsaudio said:

robinbowes said:

maltingsaudio said:

I have a Sennheiser black fire e604 which is streets ahead of my other e604’s that I use snare top, and an audix f1 for snare bottom .

I've not heard of "black fire" - what's that all about?

Now that you come to mention it, I've got three e904, and I bet they'd sound great on snare (not tried as I usually have them on toms).

Black fire was the mic name before they re named everything with E numbers! Do try the Beyer it’s a real Swiss Army knife of a mic

Thanks.

I'll keep an eye out for the TG i51 - I'm not doing much with the PA at the moment, but fancy trying one instead of an M201 (whcih sound great, but you're right about the stand getting in the way).

R.

AntonHunter

Interesting! Would definitely like to hear the 151 against a 201, found a review commenting on how natural it sounds, which is encouraging.

Stuckfast

robinbowes said:

I've not heard of "black fire" - what's that all about?

The Blackfire range was a series of Sennheiser mics which I think dates from the 80s or thereabouts. Most of them were basically rebadged versions of existing non-Blackfire models without one or two of the bells and whistles, and I think they were sold at somewhat lower prices through a different retail channel. The ones that are identical to other models sometimes come up more cheaply and they're worth picking up, especially the Blackfire 509 which is identical to the Sennheiser MD409. (Secondhand prices for 409s are insane.)

AntonHunter

Does anyone have any experience of the Beyerdynamic TG D58 or D57? Or their predecessors Opus 88/87? Looks like an affordable way to get a condenser in there on the snare, and they sounded ok to my ears in shootouts vs dynamic mics at least.

Danny1969

AntonHunter said:

Does anyone have any experience of the Beyerdynamic TG D58 or D57? Or their predecessors Opus 88/87? Looks like an affordable way to get a condenser in there on the snare, and they sounded ok to my ears in shootouts vs dynamic mics at least.

The trouble is, at least in my experience is the wider pattern of the pickup means more hi hat bleed. With some drummers it would be unusable as a snare mic. Great for side stick though 

AntonHunter

Danny1969 said:

AntonHunter said:

Does anyone have any experience of the Beyerdynamic TG D58 or D57? Or their predecessors Opus 88/87? Looks like an affordable way to get a condenser in there on the snare, and they sounded ok to my ears in shootouts vs dynamic mics at least.

The trouble is, at least in my experience is the wider pattern of the pickup means more hi hat bleed. With some drummers it would be unusable as a snare mic. Great for side stick though 

Good call. 

octatonic

Stuckfast said:

There have been a few different OctoPre variants over the years. Not all of them have pads on the inputs. For drums you definitely want to get one of the versions that does. That allows you to knock the input level down by a further 10 or 15 dB or so before it hits the preamp, so there's less chance of overloading the converters.

The important specification here is maximum input level. For example the current OctoPre lists +16dBu with the pad, whereas the Audient ASP880 is specced at +32dBu. That means you can feed the ASP a much hotter signal than the OctoPre before it overloads.

I have the ASP880- the annoying thing with it is it doesn't have a damn power button.
Otherwise it is excellent.

maltingsaudio

Danny1969 said:

AntonHunter said:

Does anyone have any experience of the Beyerdynamic TG D58 or D57? Or their predecessors Opus 88/87? Looks like an affordable way to get a condenser in there on the snare, and they sounded ok to my ears in shootouts vs dynamic mics at least.

The trouble is, at least in my experience is the wider pattern of the pickup means more hi hat bleed. With some drummers it would be unusable as a snare mic. Great for side stick though 

If you really want to risk a condenser on a snare I suggest you have a look at the ATM450 side address microphone, sounds great but bit too pricey to trust near a sloppy drummer

robinbowes

I'm intrigued by these: https://microphone-parts.com/products/snare-microphone-kit-sdc84-high-spl-edition

I've linked specifically to the "high spl" SDC product as we're talking about snare mics on here, but several of their products look interesting, esp. if they're any good!

Anyone got any experience of them?

R.