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SAMAR AL95 Overhead Video Demo

If you've been a subscriber of ours over the years, or seen any our YouTube videos, you'll see that we're big fans of shootouts for ribbons as overheads. We're always on the hunt to get the best out this part of recording drums.

We knew that the SAMAR ribbons where an amazing microphone after demoing on acoustic guitar and guitar amps, but when we got a chance to try them on a drum kit we couldn't believe it. So we spent a day creating some videos of the SAMAR AL95s against the studio classics Coles 4038.

Watch and listen to this video to hear how incredible the SAMAR Audio Designs AL95s are at recording a spaced pair of Overheads on a vintage drum kit.

We discovered the AL95s stand up against the industry standard Coles 4038 with ease. We even feel they just beat out the Coles, providing a tighter stereo image, a tighter mid-range (yes), and they have 'that' Overhead sound you get with 4038s (after they've been through some Pultecs - the common trick for 4038s). You'd be lying if you said you never EQ'd Coles! 

The tighter stereo image makes the snare and kick drum more in phase, and they sound tighter and punchier especially once processed. A matched pair of AL95s are 50% of the cost of a pair of 4038's. We think this is a total no-brainer and felt the need to make this demo so you can hear the quality for yourself.

In this demo, we cycle through the Coles and AL95s playing the same drum groove so you can hear how incredibly close the AL95 is in the low end, yet more defined in the mids, and open up top.

Recorded into Pro Tools HDX using Lynx Aurora converters and 4 x Heritage 8173 preamps with NO EQ or Compression 48KHZ. Volume matched for accuracy.

Please use headphones for the best experience.

Buy matched pairs of the AL95 in NZ at  https://www.stlproaudio.co.nz/samar-audio-design-al95-ribbon-microphone/

Thanks, STL Pro Audio