Mic Clips or Clamps

MrLeadFoot

Silver Member
I am currently using OnStage clamps, which are durable and roadworthy, however, I would like to replace them with some that are more aesthetically pleasing to the eye, more flexible in positioning mics (especially on my 8" tom), as well as are easier to deal with during teardown.

These are what I am using now.
http://www.onstagestands.com/catalog/item/home/model/dm50/grp/GRP000265
These would be cool if I could turn the clamp upside down so the clamp screw is on the bottom (that way I can just remove the clamp and mic as one unit during teardown), but OnStage uses some kind of extremely strong glue (not Loctite) on the screws that go through the isolation mounts, so those screws can't be removed without literally tearing the isoloation mounts (ask me how I know).

The Avantone chrome clamps look nice, and appear to have the smallest profile, and look reasonably priced. But, do these types of clamps really stay put? I also assume that since they're metal, I should be able to bend the stem back a bit, if necessary to give me more room on my 8" tom. And, since they're small, they look like they could just be removed with the mic still on the clamp. Anyone have these that can maybe shed some light on the subject, and maybe even have pics of them mounted?
http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-AVN-PK1-LIST

The Shure A56D looks flexible, albeit big, bulky and ugly. But, I would I want to know if the mic "stem" (that looks like a right-angled hex mount) can be removed for teardown, so I can leave the main clamp on the rim. I see in the owner's manual that you can turn the stem around of the mic is set farther back off the rim (presumably for longer mics lice SM57s), but I want to know if I can swing that stem out to the side, as well, for my 8" tom, because a small 8" tom is tough enough to hit as it is, and when a mic hangs over 1/3 of the head, the target becomes quite small. ;-) Anyone have experience with these, so I can pick their brain?
http://store.shure.com/store/shure/en_US/pd/productID.104213700

Please, no one suggest those plastic snap-on clips. Been there, done that, and broke 12 of them. They are really not designed to be removed, once in place; in short order they just plain wear out and break. :-(

TIA
 
My clamp top 3 would be:
1 Beyerdynamic MKV87
59638_l.jpg

2 Shure A56D (its featherlight and you can get the hexrod out (and place it in the horizontal spacing)
shure-a56d-nosac-mikrofon-standard-1x-slika-1942581.jpg

3 Cad DSM1
cad-drum-mount-3.gif

4 Sennheiser MZH504 (not the new 604 witch doesnt have the lip to get it off the rim)
005299_Mic.jpg

This is the only plastic clip that doest break btw.

The Avantone looks like a cheaper "rip off" from a tom clamp of the mother of stand and clampbuilder König & Meyer:
75796d84a55d7e5717da35c3a7bbc6b4-productpage_orig.jpg
 
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Thanks for the very nice info, but I don't know if I can use any of the top 3. I have a Mapex Saturn with the big isolation mounts, that would for sure get in the way of your 1 and 3picks.

Not sure if the Shure will clear the isolation mounts on the Saturns. Have you seen those on a Mapex Saturn or Orion? They are smack-dab dead center when toms are mounted on a rack:

Mapex_07_TomMount.jpg


No thanks on the Senn composites. Those are the kind that break too easily right where the lower jaw meets the rest of the the clip.

Do you see anything wrong with the Avantone or the K&M? They are rim clamps which would work, provided they grip the rim well.
 
I dont see any problem with the mount at all the clamps at the list. And if getting in the way, just mount it at the lef or right of the mounting bracket.

Btw regarding the Sennheisers. you must have had some bad ripoffs. The clips are the standard in the rentalworld an in 17 years I never seen one breaking.

This can be the same with Avantone. Cheaper rip offs are made from poorer quality and can break quicker then their better constructed counterparts. Not to mention better warranty and this often worldwide.
 
I dont see any problem with the mount at all the clamps at the list. And if getting in the way, just mount it at the lef or right of the mounting bracket.

Btw regarding the Sennheisers. you must have had some bad ripoffs. The clips are the standard in the rentalworld an in 17 years I never seen one breaking.

Sennheiser e604 (e904) clamps are fine, never had an issue with them. Great clamps, great vibration isolation and mic placement. Highly recommended.
 
Here's an update. I tried some more mounts, including the Avantone. I must say that I really liked how the Avantoneclamps to the rim. It stays put VERY well. The trouble with the Avantone is that it encroaches too much into the playing area of the drum due to the design of the mic mounting rail. And, there's nothing you can do about that. The K&M's design of the rail is much better, and after considerable research and testing, I happened upon the perfect clamp for my needs, which made all this effort worth it.

What I found has a small footprint, is strong yet lightweight, has great mic positioning adjustability, and is easy to put on and take off which makes for easy setup and breakdown. Although I only needed 4, I figured it I'd be stupid not to have a spare after all the effort I put into this endeavor to find the perfect clamp (for my needs), but in the end they were so attractively priced I ended up buying all 10 they had left, figuring someone might want the other 5. At $12 apiece they're less than half the price of the K&M, cheaper and better designed than the Avantone Pro-Klamps and the onStage DM50s I was using, and without a doubt a better than all those darned plastic ones I tried, and cheaper than even some of those I might add!

Here's my review and comparison to some other clamps, in case anyone is interested:

First, these are metal, not plastic. They clamp to the drum rim/hoop and no part of the clamp touches the shell. The clamping mechanism is fitted with rubber pads so they won't scratch the drum rim, either. These clamps take up a very small footprint and work on virtually any drum, even toms with big isolation mounts. And, these babies stay put! (See results of my tests farter down in this post.)

Design
Similar to the K&M 24030 clamps linked to below:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/km-microphone-holder-for-drums/450489000000000?src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=142526628

Material and Construction
Aside from better horizontal positioning of the microphone rails, interestingly, their construction and materials (screws, rubber pads, and even the metal and chrome plating) of these clamps are the same as the Avantone Pro-Klamp linked to below, which leads me to believe they were manufactured in the same plan as the Avantones:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--AVNPK1

Tests
Below are the results of the tests conducted for fit and function:

1) Many clamps cannot be mounted in a desirable position on drum kits with big isolation tom mounts because the mounts get in the way of the mic clamps. But, these clamps were easily able to be mounted at any position along the entire circumference of drums with such mounts, without any problems at all. (See the Pics section below.)

2) Clamps like the OnStage DM50, Latin Percussion Claw, and MANY others, utilize a a top-to-bottom clamping design in which the top of the clamping mechanism is placed on the top of the drum rim, and the bottom of the clamping mechanism hooks under the bottom of the rim. The mechanism is then tightened, supposedly "sandwich-ing" the clamp to the rim. While this is a great concept in theory, unfortunately in real life, if you look closely at such clamps when mounted, you'll see that the design of the bottom hook tends to contact the underside of the outer flange of the drum head instead of the rim, so the clamp ends up putting upward pressure on the drum head instead of clamping onto the bottom of the rim. Not only is that not good for the drum head, this ends up pulling the drum out of tune! If you use a 2-ply head, looking at the head from the top, you can actually see the oil between the two films literally moving as you tighten the clamp! Fortunately, these new clamps are designed to clamp onto the rim from inside to outside, instead of top to bottom, and once they were test mounted, there was obviously no such presssure on the drum head.

3) Standard drum mics (with integrated mic clips) were then mounted onto the clamps, and the drum kit was played for a considerable amount of time to test how well the clamps would stay put. And, these suckers stayed put!

4) Upon removal of the clamps, close examination of the drum rims revealed no scratches anywhwere to be found.

Pics
Things to note in the pics:

1) In pic 2, note how small the foorprint is with these clamps.

2) In the last two pics, one of the clamps is mounted side by side with an Avantone Pro-Klamp for comparison. Note how the Pro-Klamp forces the mic to be positioned inconveniently well into the playing area of the drum, while the new clamps do not, and in fact offer plenty of room for more outward placing, which is great if you're using longer mics.

3) Although it's hard to tell in the pics, if you look closely at one of the pics linked to below, you can see the clamp installed on my 8" Mapex Saturn tom that has one of the most obtrusive isolation mounts in the industry, and there's no problem.

Drum_Mic_Clamps.jpg


Mounted_on_8.jpg


Compare_to_Avantone.jpg


Compare_to_Avantone_from_side.jpg
 
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Hey there,

Sorry if I missed something in Mr. Leadfoot's very informative review. Are these no-named clamps still available? If so, from who?

Thanks in advance,
Gabbo57
 
I didn't know these existed. I was actually going to buy the K&Ms, when I stumbled upon these at an importer. Because they normally don't even get this type of merchandise, they had been sitting on them for quite some time. They didn't know much about them, or even remember where they got them. I assume that they received them by mistake. Nevertheless, they looked exactly like what I was looking for, and although I didn't get the opportunity to try them before buying, because they were so cheap compared to the K&Ms I took a chance and bought all they had. And, I sure am glad I did, because they're working out perfectly for less than 1/2 the price of the K&Ms. You gotta love it! :)

Like I said in my "review" post, there is no name anywhere on these clamps, so I wouldn't know where to point you to look for them, sorry. It was not my original intent to sell the extras I bought; I was only updating the others who contributed to this thread on what I found. But once I got a chance to use them, I can see they're going to last, so I have posted the extra 5 I got on the For Sale sticky in the General Forum. If you want them, let me know.
 
Did you not see my post with the pics? There is a big difference between the clamps I found than both the clamps you posted. Both clamps you posted have rails that angled vertically rather than horizontally, which allows for no inward/outward adjustment whatsoever. The first clamp you posted has a mic mounting rail that is exactly the same as the Avantone Pro-Klamp. And, it looks like the second clamp is actually positioned in the pic 90 degrees off. Rotate that pic counter-clockwise 90 degrees, and that puts the clamp in the position in which you would actually use it. But, note that the rail would be straight up and down, which is WORSE that the first one you posted, because that clamp will put the mic so far into the drum playing area, you're not going to be able to play the drum at all. Here, I did it for you:

uprightK_M.jpg


That's why in my post I referred to the K&M 20430 which has a horizontal rail like the one I found. Take a closer look:

MP34442-40.jpg
 
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[strike]My mistake. You were right about the KAM (first one) its the same as the Avantone.

But not when it comes to the K&M 24035 (second picture) Its not completly vertical but the opposite, its horizontal (there would be no reason for it to be vertical, like you said)

So the 24035 has more freedom in further away mounting.[/strike]


Yeah I see. My bad ;)

km_24035bxxx.jpg
 
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No worries. :)

I wonder what those were made for. I guess you could put them on one drum, then mount the mic backwards and point the mic at another drum? :)

Seriously, though, look at the vertical part of the clamp mechanism that would fit on the INNER side of the hoop. That thing is like twice as deep as the other K&M. It looks like that piece would prevent the clamp from being seated all the way down on the rim, because that part would surely be stopped by contact with the drum shell, you know what I mean?
 
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Hello,

I am owner of the K&M 24030 and the Beyerdynamic MKV 87.
The first one works pretty well with 'normal' microphones like the Shure SM 57, the last one works only for very small microphones (for example the Beyerdynamic M 201 TG).

Cheerio
Juergen

PS
The bigger one of the K&M clamps (24035) is made for use on the rim of the kick drum.
 
The bigger one of the K&M clamps (24035) is made for use on the rim of the kick drum.
I was thinking that myself, but clamping onto some kick hoops in that manner would crush the hoop, especially with the amount of torque you might have to use with an arm attachment of some sort to get proper mic placement, you know what I mean?
 
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