Shure SM81 Reviews

Great Mic!

An allrounder of a microphone, good on Over Heads, Hats, acoustic guitars.

Decent price!

Nothing to fault

I'm using them to mic up acoustic nylon and steel-strung guitars. Solid construction, proven recording pedigree. What's not to like!

Very good mic use for drums over heads natural clean sound love it

Sounds great and neutral for almost every purpose

I use it on guitar, overhead, room mic and even vocal. This one sounds great everywhere. Very neutral sound. Typical Shure.

Great mic!

I'm using it for acustic guitar recordings and it rocks!

good sound

good sound easy set up

Great Recording Mic!

I use it to record in studio violins and acoustic guitars.

It's perfect of solo instruments, it gives you exactly the clarity which you would need in a mix. The only eq that i use with this mic is just a high pass filter.

It's really sensitive for live envoirment. At my church we use it to mike a cajon and sometimes jembe. The sound outfront is good, but you cant volume it up too much, cause it gets feedback. If you cut the low's it gets better, but if you want to have a bassy sound from the cajon or the jembe you would need a bass drum mic, and this is not what i would recommend for bass.

Pros:

Overall great mic, great clarity of the sound, great for studio purpose for recording acoustic instruments like violin , cello, acoustic guitars and maybe drum overheads.

Cons: Not so great for live playing at high decibels.

If you want a good, neutral mic for affordable price...

I like recording acoustic Instruments.

I wanted to buy a pair of quality smal diaphragm cardioid condenser mic what has linear frequency response, and really wide transparency, so what can transmit well also below 100 Hz, and really brings high frequencies (also 15khz-20khz) without annoying colouring. So what can give a neutral and full picture of an instrument in a not distant

mic position where a cardioid characteristic is enough.

And I like its sound.

I listened to a huge amount of records, I read tons of tech spec, user rewiews etc.

Finally I found this Mics: Schoeps mk-4, Neumann km-84,

Shure Sm-81. The Schoeps was the best for me. The Km-84 was the Second, Shure was the third.

I needed more money for the Schoeps. The Neumann firma doesn't produce the Km 84 anymore. I bought the SM 81 stereo pair.

And I'm really satisfied! I have already recorded steel string acoustic guitars, drum overhead, percussion and saxophone. All of the records were really successful!!! This mic brings excellent clarity for the price.

Important: I have high quality audio interface ( RME FF 800)

And: This mic doesn't have high output. (5,6 mV!) If you have a silent sound source, for example a small bodied nylon string guitar, you need an appropriate quality audio interface for good result. (It's actually an elementary thing.)

And! Don't forget: this is a mic with cardioid characteristic!

Cardioids has proximity effect (increased lowend) at nearfield recording situations! If your instrument quiet silent maybe you have to put the mic so close to get a transparent sound, but in this case you may have strong proximity if your instrument has significant lowend. And It can be

annoying, in case of any audio interface!

A silent nylon string guitar can be difficult also because of

the boomy sound of the sound hole.

So if you want to record acoustic instruments with cardioid, you like the neutral character, you have a good audio chain, and your instrument not a silent one with significant lowend, and you don't need the absolute high end and you don't want to sell your car for a pair of sdc, i can recommend this mic!

Studio classic that goes beyond advertisment

It is a very well-known acoustic guitar mic, which would beautifully record both nylon and steel strings. But, although it is never advertised as a vocal mic, it can do an amazing job with bass/bass-baritone voices, making frequencies between 1500-2000 hz blend into the mix.

Pad and high-pass filter make it even more practical.

It will be very useful both as a single mic and as a stereo pair (shure says that sm81's "quality of the microphone is such that you can purchase two SM81's at random and know that they will be the equivalent of a matched set.")

Great condenser mic

All but nice thoughts about this mic. Recording quality is reallly good. The casing and the wind shield are a big plus as well.

Home studio - great mic!

I used to record with large diaphragms and finally decided to buy a small diaphragm for guitars. It's a surprisingly nice difference. Not that large are not ok but the small one gives so much clarity and sparkling sounds.

SM81 responded amazingly nice to all tricks I've thrown to it. Very clear, responsive, balanced natural sound, a real joy to shoot guitars and the likes.

I gave all stars because I don't care about features (it doesn't come with a lot) but I love "plug and play" concept which seems to be the case with SM81.

Test of time will tell if I change my mind about this unit. But so far, just amazing.

Excellent SDC for Percussion and Acoustic Guitar

The SM81 is an industry standard for high hats. Extremely robust, it really can take the abuse which comes with life on the road, and even the occasional off target attack from an enthusiastic drummer's stick.

I have three of these, as in addition to micing hats, they also make excellent overheads.

On acoustic, they produce a slightly more mellow tone than the KM184, or some other SDCs in the arsenal. I personally find them a useful option for jazz guitar. If you are comparing them to SDCs of a more modern design which follow the trend for a brighter tone, you may find them a little dull on anything stringed, However, they do take EQ well.

The mic comes with a pop shield (essential if using for any vocal recording as this mic is extremely sensitive to plosives), and mic clip. All is contained in a robust, gig-proof plastic case.

All in all, an excellent SDC, which because of its wide industry acceptance and rider-friendly qualities, I enthusiastically recommend particularly as a mainstay for live work.

I use this mic for Charleston

It have an amazing and fine Sound. It catture high and low frequencies very very well (large rage of frequencies)

Lovely Overhead

With so much choice on mics for different applications it is a hard call on what to go for so maybe price is a determining factor! The SM81 already has great reviews and as I buy to fit riders it was an obvious choice to get a pair of these in and they do not dissapoint. I have AKG 414 and Neumann KMS105 models at hand and these Shure mics offer that same high end quality and are often the go to choice for many gigs where they suit the event better. Perfect for live Overheads use.

My mic

Hi, I always use this mic for overhead and results is amazing

Work horse mic

Highly versatile microphone suitable for studio and live work. Works great with stringed and wind instruments as well as percussion and hi hats. Sound is clean and transparent. Sturdy rugged design. The high pass filter is a great feature that adds the microphones versatility.