FutureMusic obtained a couple of Lauten Audio Tom Mic condensers with their new Rim Mounts in for a long-term review and came away quite impressed with their unique approach to drum recording. And yes, you did read that correctly, the Lauten’s Tom mic is a condenser, which requires phantom power, and not the typical Dynamic that is usually the go-to for hard-hitting tom recording. And yes, the folks at Lauten Audio are well-aware of the bleed challenges posed by using a condenser on a drum set. And no, they didn’t screw it up. We employed three different testers, two drummers and a percussionist for this review – their impressions in quotes below.
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Lauten is a small, family run business from San Jose, California and takes distinctive pride in bringing sophisticated and well-built microphones to the market that don’t necessarily follow the status quo. Their lineup features ten condensers, many which contain onboard sound-shaping, off-axis rejection and the ability to endure high dB of SPL like Rocky taking a beating in any of his movies.
Lauten Audio utilizes a bleed-blocking head design and their own dual-bias circuitry for a claimed 28 dB of off-axis rejection
The Tom Mic contains a 32mm supercardioid capsule house in “fire hydrant” chassis and has a frequency response of 20Hz – 20KHz. As mentioned above, the side-address pressure gradient FET condenser requires a full 48V of phantom power – “don’t starve it.” To reduce spill, Lauten Audio utilizes a bleed-blocking head design and their own dual-bias circuitry for a claimed 28 dB of off-axis rejection. Our reviewers weren’t able to achieve that number in their studios, but came away impressed with the isolation.
The Lauten Audio Tom Mic comes with an adjustable hard mount, a Cordura mic bag and an extra large bandana. Our reviewers attached the hard mount to Lauten’s “ingenious” and “over-built” Rim Mount and affixed the mics to the rims of their toms. “I was not expecting much when puling the Rim Mount out of the packaging,” confessed one evaluator, “but [the Rim Mount] was rock solid.” Another commented, “it took more time than I’d like to admit to learn how [the Rim Mount] worked” and “adjust its articulating arms for the best position, but once clamped down, it didn’t move…despite me pounding my toms in full Taiko mode.” We even had one of our reviewers test the Tom Mic / Rim Mount combo on conga drums. The Rim Mounts “work brilliantly” on non Comfort-Curve rims and “stay put” even under “heavy hitting.” The Rim Mounts provide a new, versatile option for drummers who are looking for additional options for tacking the difficult job of miking hand drums. (More on our conga drum testing later.)
Two sound shaping toggles for high pass and low pass filtering
On board the Tom Mic are two sound shaping toggles for high pass and low pass filtering. The High-Pass provides three settings, Flat, a 140Hz cut and an 80Hz cut. The Low-Pass allows for a Flat setting, a 5KHz drop and a 12KHz drop. Interestingly, the Flat setting on both the High-Pass and Low-Pass are not actually flat, but are tuned for toms with a bump at 1-2 KHz, a dip at 3KHz, another bump at 5KHz to nab the sound of the stick hitting the head, and finally a reduction from 9KHz to 14KHz to repel high-hat and cymbal spill. (See diagram below)
Lauten Audio Tom Mic Supercardioid Pattern
The filtering is really best to reduce other kit elements from leaking into the Tom Mic. According to our testers, the filtering can end up “sucking the energy out of certain tom tunings.” They also lamented that the Flat response wasn’t actually neutral and felt that Lauten’s colorization “should have had its own dedicated notch,” since “it doesn’t benefit all recording scenarios.” All felt that engineers need to “dedicate extra time for equalization” on the Tom Mic as opposed to other drum microphones in their cabinet.
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Our percussionist echoed the other evaluators in regards to the filtering and dedicating significant time to “dial in the equalization.” The Tom Mics on their own can sound “quite dull” and “lifeless” on congas with the Flat settings, but “do benefit from rolloff to reduce boominess” and a “muddy bottom.” Obviously, Lauten didn’t target conga, djembe or other percussion instruments in their design, so we’re not going to ding them for this observation. However, our evaluator did note that higher tunings on conga and djembe drums were better suited for the Tom Mic’s signature and didn’t sound so “dry.”
Lauten Audio Tom Mic Specifications:
- Side-address pressure gradient FET condenser
- 32mm Capsule
- Polar Patterns: Super-Cardioid
- Frequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz
- Dynamic Range: 135dB minimum
- Requires 48v Phantom Power
- SPL Handling: >135DB (0.5%THD@1000Hz)
- Impedance: >150 ohms
- Self-noise level: < 15dB-A
- Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 79dB
- Sensitivity: -58.0dBV/Pa (0dB=1V/Pa 1KHz)
- Connection: 3-pin XLR
- Dimensions: 127 x 60mm (mic only) 131 x 106mm (with mount)
- Weight: 348g (mic only) 450g (with mount)
» The Tom Mic’s low self noise was noted by all three evaluators.
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Conclusion
The Tom Mic with the Rim Mount is an excellent choice for drummers who are looking to go beyond the typical dynamic microphone and opt for a FET capacitor solution. The build-quality is first class and will be “able to take the inadvertent hit without having to be sent out to the repair shop.” The “spidery” Rim Mount is also a “real winner” for its ability to get into a favorable position, and stay there. The filtering is also a big bonus for eliminating unwanted spill both from cymbals and the kick drum. Highly Recommended.
Lauten Audio Tom Mic + Rim Mount Rating: 92%
Cheers:
+ Build Quality
+ Design
+ Technology
+ Innovative
+ Low Self Noise
Jeers:
– Needs More EQ Attention
– Higher Priced Than Other Options
Lauten Audio’s Tom Mic costs $398 and the Rim Mount is $99.
The Future: The Tom Mic (and Snare Mic) are great additions to Lauten Audio’s microphone quiver and will ultimately find a place in the Mic Cabinet of many studios. While our testers for the most part liked Lauten’s Flat colorization setting, they all wished for an authentic Flat setting to sculpt the sound on their boards from scratch.
The Rim Mount is an innovative design we’d like to see expanded upon for other applications. An extra large version might be a modern solution to hold a broadcast mic or for podcasters. And a removable connection could allow additional accessories, such as a camera or smartphone holder for content creators.
