By: John Born, Rob Klegon and Chad Wiggins

Beta microphones, first introduced in 1989, have earned a reputation among touring pros and recording engineers for rugged reliability and construction (a Shure signature), precise sound reproduction, low handling noise and high gain before feedback. Everyone knows that.  Beta mics, like their indefatigable SM cousins, turn in a solid, no-surprises performance that make them favorites of artists as diverse as Boney James, Herbie Hancock and Maroon 5.   Engineers, too.

But late in 2010, Shure had some surprises in store for Beta fans and the larger pro audio community with the introduction of the ultra-compact Beta 181 side-address condenser microphone.  Not only is this tiny titan an “ace in small places”, it is the first wired mic from Shure that features a choice of four interchangeable polar pattern capsules. The side address form factor enables the Beta 181 to go places where traditional end-address “pencils” simply won’t fit and the interchangeable heads give great versatility to an endless amount of applications, environments, and stage volumes.

Shure’s Chad Wiggins puts it this way: “It’s so compact; it can really fit in anywhere, whether it’s under a piano lid or in, around, and over a drum kit. And because it offers a selection of interchangeable capsules, musicians and engineers can get really creative with their mic placement, depending on the sounds they’re trying to achieve.”  Its side-address design makes it versatile enough for stereo miking applications plus it’s as practical on the road as it is in the studio. Two more reasons why it won the TEC Award for Microphone Technology and Sound Reinforcement at the 27^th Annual Awards at NAMM in January 2012.

Lately it’s been grabbing some serious attention, not only for its good looks, but its amazing sound quality and versatility. In this article, we’ll highlight the features of the Beta 181 and where it’s finding a home all over the stage or in your project studio.

Just how versatile is the Beta 181?  We asked Shure’s John Born and Rob Klegon to share instrument-miking tips for stereo recording, piano, acoustic guitar, drums and percussion.

Let’s look at them one by one.

Stereo Recording

The advantages: With four polar pattern options, the Beta 181 can literally perform any stereo technique in the book for a wide array of stereo images and options.

XY: Use 2 Cardioid heads at 90 degrees to each other. Offers good separation and minimal phase issues.

Blumlein Pair: Use 2 Bi-directional heads at 90 degrees for a highly realistic stereo image.

Mid-Side (M-S): Use a cardioid and Bi-directional head and change the width of the stereo image later.

Want to know more about stereo miking techniques?  Check out this podcast.

Piano

The advantages: When used with Shure’s new A75M universal clamp, the side address form factor allows you the ability to get the lid closed on most grand pianos, which improves gain-before-feedback.

For Live Reinforcement: Use cardioid or supercardioid patterns clamped to the spine of the piano using the A75M clamp. Place each Beta 181 near the hammers just behind the long structural support that runs the length of the lid (use gaffers tape to protect the finish of the piano before using the clamp). One for high and one for low; you’ll get great attack from the hammers with plenty of gain due to the textbook polar patterns and ability to close the lid.

For Studio Recording: If you’re tracking without other instruments in the room, try spaced omnis for a more natural open sound. If you need the isolation, try the live sound technique, close the lid, and drape packing blankets over the piano for increased isolation.

Acoustic Guitar

The advantages: The Beta 181 sound quality brings out the clarity, presence and tone in your guitar while giving you easy placement due to the side address form factor.

With four polar pattern options, try mixing and matching 2 mics, one further on the neck and the other at the sound hole.  You’ll be amazed at the tonal consistency you’ll receive between polar patterns while giving you two distinct sounds due to the mic placement.

In a studio environment, try putting the omnidirectional about 2’ back from the sound source.  In a good sounding room, this can add richness to your recording for any instrument.

If you’re recording a vocal track at the same time, try the supercardioid capsule and slightly angle the mic downward for the most separation between your vocal mic and guitar mic.  For increased separation, try a dynamic mic on your vocals (Like the Shure SM7B) to really isolate them from each other.

Drums & Percussion

The Advantages:  The Beta 181 can find a home anywhere on your drum set or auxiliary percussion setup. Being a side address mic, the Beta 181 sneaks under a cymbal on floor tom or snare with ease and offers plenty of headroom and SPL capabilities. Add in the A75M clamp and the interchangeable heads and your possibilities are endless.

Snare: Try a supercardioid head right between the hat and first tom for maximum rejection or use a bidirectional head directly under the hi-hat and capture both with one mic. For snare bottom try a cardioid and remember to flip the phase (to maintain coherency between your top snare mic).  The discreet form factor easily maneuvers between your drum hardware.

Toms: Use the bidirectional head and place it between the two rack drums. The null of the pattern will give you great isolation from the kick drum and provide minimal phase issues with your overheads.

Overheads: Try any of the stereo techniques mentioned above.  Each technique will offer different stereo images and provide a clean crisp look due to the low profile design of the Beta 181.  Use a single Bidirectional microphone to capture both sides of the drum set with one mic.  The Beta 181 also makes a great underhead mic when a very direct cymbal sound is desired.

Congas/Bongos: The bidirectional head between the two drums works great in this scenario. Or you can mount two cardioids in an XY between the two drums for a huge stereo image.

Talk about a Mic Shoot-out!

Shure Beta mics are known for taking some serious abuse.  Continuing this tradition, the Beta 181 features a machined capsule housing with a hardened-braised grille and die-cast preamp. In fact, to ensure the grille will hold up to a massive drumstick whack, Shure designed a new quality test that fires a drum stick tip from an air pistol directly at the grille of the Beta 181. This means it will survive even the wildest drummer.

Last but not least…a few comments from engineers!

“The Omni Pattern on the Beta 181 is my favorite on acoustic guitars in the studio.  It’s very natural and versatile.” – Eric Schilling (Grammy Award Winning Engineer)

“Love, love these mics.  For a drummer, I really don’t want a microphone getting in the way. The Beta 181′s are perfect for that. The sound of the mic is crisp – great low end and great punch. I’m using them all over the world.” – Charlie Benante, Anthrax

“We began using the Beta 181 on the top of the Leslie cabinet about a year ago and haven’t looked back. The mics are placed on opposite sides, right next to the louvers on the outside of the cabinet. The console eq is flat, the image is wide, and the Leslie sounds in the PA like you are sitting right in front of it. Perfect!” – Hugh Johnson, FOH Engineer for Vince Gill

Got a favorite side-address mic tip to share? Please share it below!

In May 2011, our SRH 940 Professional Reference Headphones went out into the world, and some pretty nice reviews have been making their way back to us ever since.

SRH940s are over-the-ear, closed-back headphones designed for audio engineers and in-studio talent from vocalists to voice-over pros, but savvy audiophiles know this means good sound in personal listening applications as well.

Or, as Gizmodo puts it, “amaaaaaaaaaaazing” sound. (Count ‘em: 10 extra as.)

Additional reviewer comments include, “Damn!” (MusicPlayers.com).

Reviewers have called the sound quality extremely clear, accurate, and detailed. They also appreciated the creature comforts, like the padded headband and swivel cups with soft velour pads—both of which make all the difference if you’re wearing them for multiple hours. And, since everybody likes a good deal, they consistently noted the exceptional quality for the money.

Check out the specs, the 360° demo, and all six reviews on the SRH940 page on shure.com.

In spite of all the advances made in ribbon technology it’s hard to overcome the impression that these microphones are divas. We asked four sound engineers who record and tour with the likes of the Pretenders, Susan Tedeschi, Frank Sinatra and Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander about their on stage and in studio experiences. Here’s what they had to say.

In this issue, we’re talking about ribbon mics. How are you using them?

Roger Lindsay: “Lead and pedal steel guitars.”

Julian King: “I frequently use them on guitar amps, drum room mics and acoustic instruments like guitar and dobro.”

Eric Schilling: “I use ribbon mics in lots of applications, drums, horn sections, guitar amps, pianos. I often will choose a ribbon mic when I want a smoother top end and a more rounded bottom. If I am recording and find the sound too bright, I will often switch to a ribbon. I have also found that using a ribbon on an electric guitar will give me a very natural sound.”

Mike Sponarski: “Besides being in front of a high SPL guitar amp, I’ve experimented with ribbons in a kick drum and on the bass amp. There hasn’t been any clipping, distortion or damage. These ribbons have been able to handle anything I’ve thrown at them so far. I’m very happy with them.”

What can you achieve with a ribbon mic that you can’t with another type of dynamic mic?

Roger Lindsay: “In both cases, the ribbon mics offer more weight and authority to the overall instrument sounds compared with either conventional dynamic or condenser models. They offer a richer, more full-bodied sound, particularly in the lower and low-mid frequencies which often suffer with conventional mics at higher sound pressure levels.”

Julian King: “I like the ambient nature of the mics. The ‘figure-eight’ design provides a lot of nice room texture that comes to the back side of the mic and that lessens the need to set up a separate “room mic” for close mic sources like electric guitar amps, acoustic guitars, dobros, mandolins and those kinds of instruments.

I also like using ribbons on drum overhead and drum room mics. They help soften the edgy tone of the cymbals that’s frequently hard to control.”

Eric Schilling: “I will often use a stereo ribbon mic for drum overheads. Particularly on jazz sessions. I have never been able to find a condenser or dynamic that will give me such a smooth and natural sound for drum overheads.”

Any challenges?

Roger Lindsay: “Not really, despite the bi-directional characteristics of the mics, the level of ambient pick-up from the rear of both units on a fairly loud stage was inconsequential. I’m still experimenting with different mic placements to see how this may affect the overall sound, but so far exact placement seems to be less critical than with some other models.”

Julian King: “I have actually found that in a few instances, one of my normally favorite attributes was a problem. In very ambient recording environments, the returning reflectivity to the back of the mic can be overpowering. In some cases, I have placed a small pad or gobo behind the mic to help limit some of the returning sound pressure.”

Eric Schilling: “The fact that most ribbon mics are bidirectional can sometimes be a bit problematic if I have a lot a unwanted information coming in the rear of the microphone.”

Mike Sponarski: “The only real challenge I’ve found has been due to venue acoustics. I’ve used the mic on Susan Tedeschi’s sax player and usually it works well, but if the venue is extremely live, such as a classical performance hall or a reverberant or middy room, then the bi-directional pattern can be a bit problematic. In those cases, if trying a few different placements doesn’t help, I’ll go back to the SM7 or maybe a KSM32. Other than that, it’s been an easy piece of gear to use.”

Some people might say they’re too fragile for live performance. What do you think?

Roger Lindsay: “The first mic I ever used was a Reslo ribbon in the 60s and this sounded good but was notoriously fragile.

With the new materials used on the KSM353 and KSM313, Shure has two ribbon mics that combine exceptional performance with rugged construction and components. That’s a Shure trademark. These should dispel the myths that ribbon mics are unreliable and too delicate for live applications.”

Julian King: “I don’t do much live stuff, but the modern ribbons that I have used seem quite sturdy. I am guilty of treating them with my usual ‘blacksmith-like’ touch. So far they have held up great. I don’t hesitate to put them close to a high level source like guitar amps.”

Eric Schilling: “This would be true if you where trying to use many of the vintage ribbons of the 30′s and 40′s but I find modern ribbons to much more rugged in terms of the level they will take.”

Mike Sponarski: “I’ve been using ribbons for the past three months of constant touring in North America and throughout Europe in all types of conditions: indoors, outdoors, with different weather conditions and at various altitudes.

The ribbons travel in the regular mic case along with the other mics. The case is a proper padded road case but the ribbons receive the same treatment as the Beta 57s and ’58s that are also in the case. There have not been any performance or damage issues at all. The only incident that has occurred was once when an over-exuberant stagehand over-tightened the thumb screw on the shock mount and snapped it. I just rigged the shock mount to fit into another clip and carried on.”

Which ribbon mics are you using?

Roger Lindsay: “I’m using the ’353 on lead guitar and ’313 on pedal steel, a combination that’s produced exceptional results for both players.”

Julian King: “With regard to the modern ribbons, I have used the El Diablo (now KSM353) quite a bit. I have also used the Royer and AEA ribbons as well as the Cascade Fat Head. None of these are the “perfect” mic for everything and frankly, it is my experience that such an animal does not exist.”

Eric Schilling: “I am using KSM313 mics on brass and KSM353s on electric guitar.”

Any tips you can offer our readers?

Roger Lindsay: “These new ribbon mics are such a leap forward and offer such outstanding performance that I would advise anyone who is truly serious about their guitar sound to beg, borrow, or if it’s the last resort…steal them! They’re that good.” (Editor’s note: We appreciate Roger’s enthusiasm for the new KSM mics, but suggest you beg, borrow or buy.)

Julian King: “I like to use the ribbons in conjunction with a ’57 and blend the two to fine-tune the texture of the source. I have also found that the ribbons are very directional and a slight misalignment or movement of the source can cause problems in clarity.”

Eric Schilling: “Try using ribbons in places you might normally go for a condenser. You will be pleasantly surprised to find you will get the same detail you get from a condenser but with a overall warmers sound.”

Find out more about:

KSM313 Dual Voice Ribbon Microphone

KSM353 Premier Bi-directional Ribbon Microphone

Our Panel of Rock-Solid Engineers

Julian King

Since 1968, professional recording engineer and producer.
He’s worked with SugarLand, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Kellie Pickler, Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, Robin Zander and many others.

Roger Lindsay

Since 1969, professional audio consultant, live sound engineer, event audio coordinator. Currently touring with the Pretenders, he’s worked with Prince, James Taylor, Pink Floyd, Van Morrison, Deep Purple, Ringo Starr and more “great artists than I can remember.”

Eric Schilling

Eric got his start in audio at the age of 15 in 1977. He is a recording and sound engineer for television and the music industry. He has lent his mixing talents to projects for Gloria Estefan, Natalie Cole, Madonna, Frank Sinatra, David Bowie and Elton John.

Mike Sponarski

FOH engineer, production manager and tour manager since 1989. Susan Tedeschi, Derek Trucks, Norah Jones, Cowboy Junkies, Esperanza Spalding, The Chieftains, Julio Iglesias, A Fine Frenzy, Over The Rhine, and Rik Emmett are among his clients.