Shure SM81's for drum overheads.

M

metalj

New member
Looking at a used pair for around $500, clips and case all included.

Any members out there with experience with these?

I read a post by someone a while back that stuck with me for some reason. They said about these mics that "why not buy a set of mics you can use for a lifetime" when helping a poster decide on what kind of mics to buy for drum overheads.

Thanks for any feedback.
 
metalj said:
Looking at a used pair for around $500, clips and case all included.

Any members out there with experience with these?

I read a post by someone a while back that stuck with me for some reason. They said about these mics that "why not buy a set of mics you can use for a lifetime" when helping a poster decide on what kind of mics to buy for drum overheads.

Thanks for any feedback.
Click to expand...

Totally sounds like something I'd say about 81s. :p
They're a great, honest, microphone.

No idea what the price should be in the US, but $500 equates to about what I paid here.
 
metalj said:
Looking at a used pair for around $500, clips and case all included.

Any members out there with experience with these?

I read a post by someone a while back that stuck with me for some reason. They said about these mics that "why not buy a set of mics you can use for a lifetime" when helping a poster decide on what kind of mics to buy for drum overheads.

Thanks for any feedback.
Click to expand...

The same thing can be said about many mics in this price range.

I have no personal experience with the 81's in my studio. They were the ones that were used at a studio I worked in for a while when just producing vocal tracks. They sounded quite good to me as drum overhead mics.


I personally now use KSM141's for my drum overheads. I like that they can also be set to 'omni' pattern which works very well for acoustic guitars. I purchased them used via a member here for $500 for the pair.
 
I bought a pair off of a forum member here, hopefully he'll chime in because I think he used them as overheads. I'm not an acoustic drum guy, but these things sound amazing on acoustic guitars. They work for backing vocals as well. They're ruler-flat and honest, I've enjoyed using them on anything that I think already sounds good, when I want to capture an accurate representation thereof. They take a little more gain than my other condenser mics, but with a quiet preamp they're really solid workhorses.
 
I'm sure many hit records were made with SM81s on overheads and other instruments. If you can't get good sound with an SM81 it's probably not the mic's fault. It's my default overhead mic when available.
 
I like SM81s - I never bought two as a pair, but I do have a few singles. They all sound close enough to each other (even when they're of dramatically different vintages) that I always feel comfortable to just grab any two for stereo recording. You might be able to save money by buying them separately.
 
They are simply solid, reliable small diaphragm mics. Good enough for the Grammy's, good enough for most things. What's not to love? They aren't the best SD's in the world, but they'll give you 95% of the performance for a fraction of the cost of Schoeps or high end DPA's, half the cost of Josephsons or Neumann KM 184's. They are simply a reliable industry standard. They'll always be good for something.
 
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