beyerdynamic M-201

I am a professional session musician.
I use this mic a lot beacuse it has a pure sound.
I work with digital DAWs. (Nuendo, Protools).

This mic is used by Kevin Shirley for recording Dream Theater, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Joe Satriani, etc. But is very good mic for other things.
With electric guitars, it has bottom and crispt sound. Clear.
This mic has low gain, but if you have a good preamp... and its sound is for this reason too.
If you want a pure acoustic sound, this is your mic.
Acoustic guitar, violin, percusions, guitar amps,...
The acoustic guitars sound as the old acoustic guitars sound. The way in a acoustic guitar must sound in a record.
Hihat? The perfect mic for clear and hard sound.

I've been making music for years and years.. recording I've probably been doing fairly seriously for a couple of years and live sound I've been doing for about 4 or 5.

I've experimented with quite a few different mics on snare.. and was never realy happy till I used an m-201 and not only that but the bleed from the hi hats when you use one doesn't sound terrible like it does with a 57. These also make pretty decent hats mics..

I havent had the chance to try them out on anything else as every gig I do they end up straight on the snare and hats.. I've heard they're nice on toms and guitar amps.. but I can't back that up..

I'm a professional musician, composing, arranging conducting and performing mostly in the classical and wind orchestra genres but also play bass in a rock band. I do location recording of (mainly) classical concerts and am moving into PA for outdoor orchestral and wind/brass band events.

I usually record concerts to DAT or to computer; being classical I usually use a two-mic setup - often spaced omnis or ORTF or NOS cardioid pairs. For PA I use whatever works well and won't get trashed in the situation at the time.

I monitor on Mackie HR824s and a variety of domestic hi-fi for reference (mid-range B&W as often as not).

The M201 is a hypercardioid dynamic mic. I use it for instrumental miking and for vocals when our rock band rehearses as it is pretty resistant to feedback. It has plenty of output for a dynamic mic and is clear and natural sounding. Compared to a traditional vocal mic (SM58, say) it's a bit more clinical, but the feedback resistance is great and with appropriate EQ it sounds fine on pretty well any voice. Vocals come through very clearly and changing back to a more traditional mic usually loses penetration, even if the vocal become more 'characterful'.

Instrumentally it will handle brass and percussion excellently and is OK on woodwind and strings, though I'd use a condenser mic for these if I can.

If I got to a concert and my phantom power died, I'd use them as a stereo pair but would expect to lose output and have to get a bit closer, which might be a problem with hypercardioids. All ways round, though, I wouldn't be embarrassed to bring them out in any company.

I have a pair of these (more on their way) and chose them for their natural sound and feedback resistance - our rock band rehearses in the worst possible room for feedback.

Beyer mics are generally extremely well-made and while these are not the cheapest mics I doubt if I'll ever stop using them or that they will break down.

The only drawback (if it is actually a drawback) is that they are such a plain shape - a black cylinder about 22 x 130 mm. For instrumental miking on a cramped stage as I get with orchestras and wind bands, they are reasonably small but I will be getting some even smaller condenser mics as well.

A classic mic in my opinion - usable, durable and flexible.