Lauten Audio Snare Mic assessment: What’s it?
When the time involves amplify or report your snare drum, you’re possible going to start out searching for an appropriate microphone. You’ll want a mic that’s able to dealing with the excessive SPLs (sound stress ranges) which might be the snare’s stock-in-trade; it’ll have to be rugged sufficient to do battle on busy levels whereas dodging erratic stick hits, and above all, you’ll need it to seize your snare drum in its greatest gentle.
For many years, that search has been a brief one, beginning and ending nearly instantly with Shure’s SM57. This rugged workhorse has, for all eternity, been round £100/$100, and when it isn’t being tirelessly punished a few inches out of your snare head, it may be employed by your bandmates on their amps and vocals.
So, because the outdated saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t repair it. However Lauten Audio is tearing up The Little E-book of Massive Cliches by specializing in a devoted mic, designed particularly for snare drums. In a market dominated by forgettable mannequin names, Lauten has opted to easily name it Snare Mic. Let’s see if it might probably flip our heads from everybody’s go-to microphone.
First, we must always make clear that the appliance is the place the similarities between the Lauten Audio Snare Mic and Shure’s omnipresent instrument mic finish. For a begin, Snare Mic is a F.E.T.- pushed condenser microphone with a 32mm capsule, 20Hz-20,000Hz frequency response, and the power to face up to SPLs of as much as 135dB. For reference, which means you might mic-up a jet engine earlier than it’s going to destroy the mic (spoiler: we didn’t check this declare).
Now, there are numerous F.E.T. condenser mics on the market, all boasting the same ‘higher than our listening to’ frequency response, and hardy, high-SPL tolerances, so why not simply use one in all them?
Properly, along with the spec sheet, the Snare Mic is provided with some intelligent filter-switching optimised for snare drums. This, mixed with the shape issue, end-fire design and a declare of bleed-busting off-axis rejection of 28dB are what set the Snare Mic aside out of your common-or-garden, all-purpose large-diaphragm condenser mic.
Lauten Audio Snare Mic assessment: Efficiency & verdict
The Snare Mic comes properly packaged inside its personal Cordua carry case, and the very first thing you’ll discover is that it’s a chunky little brute, weighing in at simply over 400 grams. It comes with its personal built-in holder, which attaches the mic to your stand, but in addition contains its personal angle adjustment.
That is made through a sturdy paddle that’s ultimate for making fantastic changes from the taking part in place – no fiddly thumb bolts to fret about, and when you’ve locked your stand in place then you definately don’t must danger creating the dreaded droop with a purpose to make positional modifications. You possibly can, after all, connect the snare mic to a clip-on rim mount if flooring house is an issue.
Lauten gives some useful information on positioning the Snare Mic with prompt angles for capturing extra of your required sound out of your snare. Flatter angles (20-30 levels) to select up extra crack and snap, medium (30-40 levels) for added physique, and steeper (40-50 levels) to maximise the physique and low finish of the drum. These are rules-of-thumb, and may very well be utilized to different mics on the snare, however it’s nice to see a mic model take this ‘serving to hand’ method when you’ve by no means tried to seize your snare earlier than. Equally, there’s a reminder that the Snare mic requires phantom energy with a purpose to work – so keep in mind to interact this when you’re met with silence!
Subsequent up is the filtering we talked about earlier. You’re most likely used to seeing a hard and fast high-pass filter on condenser mics, which are sometimes used to tame low finish rumble on vocals, overheads and guitar tracks. Right here although, we’ve a pair of multi-position toggles. One controls a low-pass filter and the opposite is for a high-pass. Every toggle will be set to one in all three positions. For the high-pass there’s flat, 140Hz or 80Hz, and for the low-pass we get flat, 5KHz or 12KHz, so, excluding the ‘flat’ settings, the high-pass will filter out frequencies beneath the choice, and the low move will filter out frequencies above its chosen place.
That’s a helpful function in itself, however the true enjoyable comes from combining the 2 filters, and it’s this that sits on the coronary heart of what the Snare Mic is all about. With each filter switches of their ‘flat’ positions, we get the complete frequency response of the mic. It’s full, and un-coloured, choosing up loads of element.
With the low-pass set to 80Hz and the high-pass set to 12KHz, the Snare Mic emulates the sound of an EQ’d dynamic mic. We positioned our SM57 subsequent to the Snare Mic on this mode, and the outcomes are fairly uncanny. “However why would I would like this to sound like a mic that prices three-times much less?”. Properly, it seems that individuals fairly just like the sound of a dynamic mic on a snare drum, and this fashion you (or your engineer) have choices with out having to alter or arrange one other microphone. Plus, when you intend to make use of the Snare Mic dwell, it’s going to assist tame potential bleed on stage, however there’s one other manner of doing that…
With the high-pass set to 140Hz, and the high-pass set to 5KHz, we’re in what Lauten calls ‘Bleed Decimator’ mode. The concept being that these settings, mixed with the mic’s cardioid polar sample will combat bleed from the remainder of your package. That is necessary for a few causes – it allows extra correct processing, most notably with regards to surgical EQing and heavy compressing, with out nuisance cymbal bleed proscribing what you need to do. However, the opposite profit is that much less bleed means much less potential for section points, which is especially prevalent with the variety of microphones you’re prone to have arrange in your package, and may rob your drum sound of its low finish if not saved in verify.
This setting is one in all our favourites, and whereas we have been sceptical concerning the Snare mic’s potential to ‘decimate bleed’, it actually does work. It’s not utterly autonomous, you’ll nonetheless must take a little bit of care when putting the mic – putting its null level in direction of your hi-hat will assist. However get it proper, and also you’ll positively discover a very good discount in bleed out of your cymbals and different package components in your snare mic.
The ultimate setting is designed to optimise the mic for capturing the rattle of your snares. Lauten says that the Snare Mic’s ‘X-Ray sound’ can get rid of the necessity for a second microphone positioned below your snare, which is one other useful idea notably when you’re low on channel-count.
We tried the Snare mic on a lot of snares together with a 14”x5” Ludwig Acrolite, a 14”x5” Tama Starclassic Maple, a Mapex Black Panther 12”x7” Cherry/Maple and a Premier 14”x6.5” brass-shelled drum. Every time the outcomes have been related in every mode, and particularly, the Snare Mic captured the rattle of our Acrolite’s barely free snares very clearly with out the necessity for an under-snare mic.
The Snare Mic is a refreshing product, in a world of repurposed and all-rounder mics that carry generic descriptions resembling ‘instrument mic’, ‘small/giant diaphragm condenser’, it’s nice to see a mic aimed particularly at one of the vital necessary sounds in our kits. However it’s extra than simply pleasant naming and advertising and marketing bluster. The filtering is the jewel within the crown, and whereas at first you’ll possible be referring to the paperwork to recollect which mixture you need, it quickly turns into easy, and we expect you’ll discover your most popular setting and preserve it there more often than not.
Sure, you should purchase a number of microphones, and even one other snare drum for the worth of the Snare Mic, however the identical will be mentioned for a lot of microphones. When you’re critical about recording your drums, or desire a bulletproof, dual-purpose studio/dwell mic, it’s nicely definitely worth the funding.
Lauten Audio Snare Mic assessment: Arms-on demos
Barry Johns Studio Speak
Jake Reed
Sweetwater
Lauten Audio Snare Mic assessment: Specs
- Sort: F.E.T. condenser microphone
- Output: XLR (requiring +48v phantom energy from pre-amp)
- Frequency response: 20 Hz – 20 kHz
- Sign to noise ratio: 69 dB
- Dimensions: 112x71mm (with mount hooked up)
- Weight: 407g (together with mount)
- Contact: Loud audio
