Lauten Audio Tom Mic — A Mix Real-World Review

You have to give the folks at Lauten Audio credit for having a sense of humor when it comes to designating model numbers for their products. When the company introduced its snare drum microphone in 2023, rather than assigning it some sort of cryptic model number, they simply called it “Snare Mic.”

Continuing in that tradition, the new tom microphone (introduced last year) is simply called Tom Mic. No question regarding the intended use! The focus of this review will be Tom Mic, but since the folks at Lauten were kind enough to send a Snare Mic, along with two Tom Mics, I’ll have some comments on that one as well. You can also read Barry Rudolph’s full review of Snare Mic in the March 2024 issue of Mix.

Tom Mic was designed for use on rack and floor toms in the studio and onstage, with attention paid to achieving highdefinition sound and a high degree of off-axis rejection (reportedly up to 28 dB). It’s a side-address, pressure-gradient FET condenser microphone with a 32mm supercardioid, center-terminated capsule, and requires 48VDC phantom power.

Tom Mic is a hefty little thing, constructed entirely from metal, with a solid brass head frame that should stand up to robust whacks from a drumstick (I thought it’d be too rude to do a smash test). As is the case with all of the company’s products, Tom Mic was designed by Lauten Audio in California. It ships in a cardboard box with an adjustable hard mount and a zippered pouch.

The front of the Tom Mic is indicated by the Lauten Audio badge and two three-position switches: a high-pass filter and a low-pass filter. Switch settings for the HPF are Off, 140 Hz, and 80 Hz; settings for the LPF are Off, 5 kHz and 12 kHz.

The hard mount can be rotated or removed (though there’s no need to do so) by loosening a round thumbscrew that secures it to the bottom of the mic, and the pivot is secured with a large ratchet-style lever that I found easy to grab and tighten from any angle. These features combine to make the Tom Mic easy to place, even in tight quarters. When set in position, the logo and switches are concealed from the audience and face the drummer, which may annoy some engineers.

PLACEMENT MADE EASY

The quick-start guide offers a few suggestions for placement, including body-over-the-rim with the capsule approximately four inches away from and pointing toward the center of the drum head; in a “safe zone” with the mic head peeking over the rim pointing toward the center of the head approximately 2 inches away; and underneath the drum pointing straight up, approximately 3 inches from the bottom head.

Most of my recordings were made with the first two placements. I don’t care much for miking toms from the bottom, and Tom Mic reinforced that opinion, yielding less resonance and more midrange honk with a subdued attack. Your mileage may vary.

I used the Tom Mic (and Snare Mic) on several different drum kits with equal success on stage and in the studio. The first kit was a mid-1990s Pearl BLX with birch shells, which I’ve owned since they were new and have recorded hundreds of times. The following comments apply with the filters set flat; we’ll get to the filters later.

Tom Mic produced a warm round tone with a slight hint of a scooped midrange. Compared to a (Sennheiser) MD421, the Tom Mic is a tad softer in the top without being dull, more rounded in the low end and has less growl in the midrange. In general, the 421 was more forward in the midrange and emphasized the attack a bit more.

Contrary to what I expect from condenser mics on toms, the Tom Mic reminded me more of a dynamic mic, especially in regards to one critical aspect: bleed. While I like using condenser mics on toms, I find that (especially on stage) the sensitivity can be a double-edged sword: You get plenty of detail and fidelity, but along with that comes a ton of leakage from cymbals and whatever else happens to be nearby. Not so with Tom Mic.

I didn’t have a scientific way to verify Lauten Audio’s claim of 28 dB off-axis rejection, but I felt like Tom Mic captured less bleed from cymbals than most condenser mics when placed in a similar position. If meters are any indication, then leakage was easily down more than 20 dB. When I placed Tom Mic on a floor tom in close proximity to a ride cymbal, leakage from the ride was apparent only when the drummer was bashing away at the cymbal; leakage from the hi-hat in the rack tom microphone was non-existent.

WHICH SWITCH?

Using the Tom Mic’s HPF and LPF switches is where things get really interesting. First, the HPF. Set to the 80Hz position for a 13-inch rack tom, Tom Mic sounded beautiful. The HPF cleaned up some of the proximity effect (which is already well-controlled) and improved clarity without gutting the low end. I felt that the 80 Hz filter was subtle enough to be useful in keeping the boom of a sloppy tom under control, and maybe reducing some kick drum leakage.

The 140 Hz setting for the HPF magnifies this property but can thin the resonance from large toms if needed. The LPF really opens up some possibilities. As you’d expect, switching it to 12 kHz takes the edge off of the top end, but along with that comes an improvement in the rejection of cymbals. While this loss of top end is obvious when you solo the Tom Mics, you won’t miss it when you add the overheads, which will provide plenty of attack and air to complement the fundamental tones captured by the close-up Tom Mics.

Switching the LPF to the 5 kHz setting puts you firmly in “Ringo tea towels on the toms” territory without the hassle of trying to place towels over or under the rims, or messing with EQ. In total, the two switches provide nine different voicings, and kudos to Lauten for making these settings clearly audible and not some subtle wishy-washy gimmick. Changing the switches produced some low-level “tick” noises, but not the pronounced “pops” that some condenser mics emit when a rolloff switch is engaged.

It’s worth noting that although Tom Mic does not feature a pad switch, the output level is more in line with that of a dynamic microphone and shouldn’t present a problem for most mic preamps.

ADDING SOME SNARE

I also had the opportunity to try Snare Mic, a FET condenser model with a 32mm cardioid capsule, requiring 48VDC phantom power. Construction of Snare Mic is similar to that of Tom Mic, but Snare Mic is a traditional end-address package.

Lauten Audio suggests placing Snare Mic in a somewhat unorthodox position whereby the mic looks over the rim, but is parallel to the top head—as opposed to the traditional “point it at the center of the drumhead” position. Indeed, this placement somehow seems to capture more of the bottom head and opens up the top end while providing plenty of meat (low-mids). I’d be happy using this in lieu of adding a microphone for the snare bottom.

The quick-start guide for Snare Mic shows a switch “preset” called Bleed Decimator, with the HPF set to 140 Hz and the LPF set to 5 kHz. If you solo the Snare Mic while using these settings, it sounds kind of dull, but add in the overheads and you’ll never know the difference—except for the fact that leakage is significantly reduced.

I really enjoyed my time using Tom Mic and Snare Mic. I found them both to be versatile and capable of producing professional results with minimal fussing. The filter options are truly useful, and hearing the results of using the LPF to reduce bleed while allowing the overheads to supply the top end for snare and toms was a bit of an ear-opener.

Construction is first-rate, and the mic bodies are compact enough to stay out of the way. Rather than try to imitate a sound that’s already been done, both mics offer a unique voice with plenty of options for fine-tuning timbre in different applications. They’re a bit more expensive than some of the usual suspects available for snare and tom, but well worth the price difference. I recommend you check out Tom Mic and Snare Mic. You won’t be disappointed!