MIKTEK PMD4 DRUM MICROPHONE KIT

This is the first time I have got­ten my hands on any micro­phones made by Mik­tek and I have to say, I am might­ily impressed by the build qual­ity and the sound you get from these Amer­i­can made tanks. Hail­ing from Nashville, the team at Mik­tek Audio should know a thing or two about mak­ing and cap­tur­ing great music, so it just stands to rea­son that their four piece drum micro­phone set is going to get a few of you excited.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
Pack­ages in a more than sturdy road case you get three Mik­tek PM10 super car­dioid dynamic micro­phones for use with snares and tom drums and one Mik­tek PM11 dynamic micro­phone for use with your kick drum. Along with these, you get three tom mount­ing arms for plac­ing the PM10s right up close to the skins with­out the need of addi­tional micro­phone stands get­ting in the way. These micro­phones look great, they are ruggedly con­structed with some clever inter­nal shock mount­ing to reduce unwanted noise com­ing through the shells and into the cap­sule. This is an absolute must for all tom mounted drums, but a design fea­ture that isn’t always cre­ated to deal with the prob­lem at hand. Mik­tek have ensured this is dealt with, so the only sig­nal you get is com­ing from the air in front of the cap­sule and not the hous­ing behind it.

AND THE SOUND
There are a few words that come to mind instantly: clear; crisp; punchy. These three words sum up the sound of the Mik­teks pretty much in a nut­shell. They han­dle excep­tion­ally high SPLs, which is a must for drum micro­phones. I didn’t feel the need to pad any of the input chan­nels on the con­sole for fear of unwanted dis­tor­tion from the cap­sules either. They take the full brunt of the drum’s attack and deliver it to you PA or record­ing rig just as you would want them to be heard. The ini­tial tran­sient attack of the snare is spot on. It jumps right out of the mon­i­tor speak­ers almost before the drum is even hit, so you do not lose any­thing in the punch of you drum hits.

The PM11 is a great sound­ing kick micro­phone too. It cap­tures plenty of low end, but doesn’t over­look the snap of the beater on the skin, still able to give you a really sharp attack when placed right up close to the skin inside the kick drum. The com­bi­na­tion of the PM10s and the PM11 really work quite well together and it is easy to see why you would want to buy these micro­phones as a kit, for once you got to using one you would want them all. These micro­phones rep­re­sent just what most sound engi­neers are look­ing for in a drum micro­phone kit. A sturdy build, direct con­trol over the sound and a really solid repro­duc­tion of what the drum is putting out. Give them a try and have a lis­ten to your drum kit in a whole new light.

BY ROB GEE

RRP: $759
Dis­trib­u­tor: Fed­eral Audio
Web­site: www.federalaudio.com.au