Sennheiser E914

Spectacular microphone for percussion. Get two and throw them over your kit. One is sufficient for a regular percussion setup. The E914 is also great for horns, woodwinds, acoustic guitars and orchestral instruments.

Medium-size diaphragm condensers are the ideal mics for so many situations. Typically, they can handle high sound pressure levels and have ideal pickup patterns as overheads. All those qualities equal, it’s up to a couple of features and overall tone to have “just another condenser” get marks of excellence. The Sennheiser E914 has both: cool features built into the mic and beautiful, perky tone.

The features include controls for sensitivity and controls for bass. They’re selectable by two recessed knobs on the side of the mic.

The sensitivity is selectable among 0dB, -10dB and -20dB. When I had the mic about 2” between bongos and congas, sensitivity was kept flat. The E914 delivered a beautifully detailed and dynamic signal, and I could keep my gain at a reasonable level. When I dropped the mic in front of a tenor sax, I dropped the attenuation to –10dB. My sax player likes to express his own dynamics by backing off as much as a foot for some parts, and burying the mic in his bell for others. I usually set my gain with the mic buried in the bell during sound check. The Sennheiser E914 put up an impressive tolerance, and was consistently responsive to the sax dynamics. People danced. I smiled. It was nice.

Bass control is critical when dealing with percussion. Not only does it help to reduce low-frequency anomalies, but (if you’re miking a drum kit) it helps to distinguish the kit as a whole from the kick drum’s thump, which needs its own domain in many modern mixes. The switch allows you to keep the mic flat, roll off or cut off the bottom end. From the looks of the frequency chart, the roll off starts around 700Hz at about -1.5dB/octave. The cut off starts at about 150Hz at about –6dB/octave.

The frequency chart also reveals the E914’s perky, crispy qualities. The perk is a +3dB hill around 6kHz. The crisp is another +5dB hill around 12kHz. This delivers an incredible amount of attack and clarity with instruments. Ever find yourself boosting the EQ on the upper end of your tracks? Not with the Sennheiser E914 on your side.

Its pickup pattern is cardioid. Pretty standard, but the e914’s shining moment is its ability to handle loud noises. Actually, it can handle up to 156dB with the –20dB sensitivity selected.

My application for the E914 worked very well for my percussion player. I tried two ways. The first was with the mic mounted between the congas and bongos, coming up from underneath so the mic was even with the drum skins, pointed at the sky. The second was about 20” over the congas, pointed away from the adjacent drum kit and towards the timbales. About three feet to the side was the timbale, block and bell setup. Since those particular instruments are very loud and carry pretty well, the E914 had no problem grabbing them from its position below or above the bongos. That was a great testament to its sensitivity and pickup pattern.