Sennheiser MKH 50 Mic Review

for Recording Drums

Introduction:

If you want to record drums, you need to have a set of microphones, an interface, and a DAW on your computer to do so. While most drummers get a microphone set to do this, you may find yourself wanting to upgrade your mics as time goes by. 

To get a better drum kit sound, the best microphones to upgrade are your overheads. They pick up all the details of your kit, so having high-quality ones will give you amazing results. 

In this review, we’re going to look at the Sennheiser MKH 50 microphone. We’ll see how well it works as an overhead and discuss whether it’s a worthy upgrade. We’ll also briefly touch on how well it works when used on other parts of the drum set. 

Key Features: 

The Sennheiser MHK 50 is a small-diaphragm condenser microphone. It’s an incredibly high-quality little mic that has some amazing features. 

One of its standout features is its ability to reject lateral sounds. Although it’s a condenser, it does an amazing job of blocking off any bleeding sounds, and that’s what makes it an interesting choice for drum sets

The mic is made with symmetrical transducer technology, and it has very low self-noise. 

It has a switchable roll-off filter, along with a pre-attenuation pad. 

When you purchase the mic, it comes with a high-quality shock mount and windshield, giving you more versatility in your setup options. 

This is a professional microphone, and it’s something worth considering if you want incredibly detailed drum kit sounds. 

Build Quality
98%
Performance
99%
Price to Value Ratio
92%
PROS: THINGS WE LIKED
  • Small and easy to place
  • Very detailed sound quality
  • Amazing construction quality
  • Versatile
  • Low self-noise
  • Great rejection of sounds coming from the side
CONS: THINGS WE DIDN'T LIKE
  • Very expensive
  • You’ll need to buy two of these to have a full drum kit overhead setup, making it even more of an expensive purchase

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Sennheiser MKH 50 Mic Review:

What To Expect from This Mic

 

Quality 

The quality that you get from the Sennheiser MKH 50 is a lot higher than what you get from most other popular overhead drum mics. Those are only a fraction of the price, so you can imagine how much better this mic sounds in comparison. 

The mic has a very flat response, which makes it quite easy to mix. That’s a great quality to have, as it allows you to get whatever drum kit sound you desire. The audio that it picks up is very true to what your drums sound like in front of you. 

The mic also has an impressive amount of lateral rejection, meaning that it won’t pick up sounds that you don’t want it to. That aspect is a bit weird when compared to overhead mics that pick up everything. However, we’d say that this works perfectly when you combine it with close mics on all your drums. 

Construction

The Sennheiser MKH 50 is designed using symmetrical transducer technology. It’s an excellent technology that ensures that the mic works very well, has low self-noise, and picks up sounds cleanly and accurately. 

The two physical construction features that can be very useful are the switchable roll-off filter and pre-attenuation pads. The roll-off filter helps with proximity effects, and the pre-attenuation pad becomes vital for recording drums. It drops the dB input so that you don’t overload the mic. Drums are very loud, so that pre-attenuation pad is needed. 

The frame of the MKH 50 is very solid and durable. It’s a microphone that you can take with you anywhere and not worry that it will get damaged. It’s also more than capable of handling a few stray drumstick shots. Not that you should aim for it! 

Performance

The performance of the Sennheiser MKH 50 is great. As we said earlier, it’s a bit weird to have an overhead microphone with so much bleed rejection, but you’ll find a sweet spot when you combine it with close mics. 

It doesn’t only work well as an overhead mic. You can easily put it on any drum, and you’ll get fantastic results. It even works relatively well as a kick drum mic. You just need to boost the lows in your mix. 

Price Value Ratio

The biggest drawback of the Sennheiser MKH 50 is its high price, especially for drummers. It costs over $1000 for just one of these, and you’re going to need two of them if you want to have a complete overhead mic setup. 

That price is pretty much unattainable for most drummers, especially when you can buy a full decent mic set for only $500. 

So, this is primarily a mic that will be purchased for professional recording studios and live venues. Otherwise, it’s a mic that will be purchased by drummers with very high budgets.  

Things To Consider:

Sennheiser MKH 50 Mic for Studio Recording

This mic is a fantastic option to have in a recording studio. It’s always good to have mics that will bring something different to the table, and the lateral rejection and low self-noise of the MKH 50 make it a good one to have in your collection. 

The flat sound it brings makes it easy to mix, so you’ll have no problems getting a drum kit recording to sound amazing when using one or two of these mics. 

Sennheiser MKH 50 Mic for a Live Gig

The lateral sound rejection of the MKH 50 works even better for live gigging settings, as you won’t get any bleed from the instruments around the drum set. 

You’ll also get an amazing drum kit sound when you combine two of these to use as overhead drum microphones. 

However, it’s such an expensive mic that many drummers may not feel comfortable taking it out on the road, which is perfectly understandable. 

Sennheiser MKH 50 Mic Review
  • Build Quality
  • Performance
  • Price to Value
4.3

Conclusion

Overall, the Sennheiser MKH 50 will work wonderfully for recording drums. However, it’s too expensive to be a more convincing purchase than other popular drum kit mics. You can buy a matched pair of Earthworks mics for the same price, and those would be a much better option for drums. 

This mic is essentially a luxury option that studio producers may want to own or anyone who doesn’t mind spending a lot of money on single microphones. 

Brett Clur has a Drum Performance Diploma from Trinity College London  has been playing drums for over 20 years. He is passionate about advanced concepts and uses his years of experience to teach his students about them. While he is a full-time drum teacher, he is also working on growing a YouTube channel where shares his insights. You can see him playing there, or on Instagram where he posts daily videos.

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