Review: Beyerdynamic Opus Drumset

Beyer has waded into the fray with a sturdy-looking, heavily-sprung moulded plastic clip that neatly houses the integral XLR plug – no extra fragile wires trailing around the kit for me to step on and destroy! A great design I reckon. I’d been keen to check out these clips since a recent chat with an in-house tech in the UK (while I was on tour there recently), and both the Opus87 and 88 were worth the wait. Did I say ‘heavily sprung’? Well, believe me, I mean it! I don’t expect these to come off on the middle of a gig… ever. They will clamp onto anything from about 13 to 32mm wide, and pipe up to about 25mm. They grip so well, that just a bit of tape on a vertical mic stand is enough to allow secure and substantial connection – impressive.

The Opus87 has a gooseneck and the 88 a right-angle attachment that swings through about 270° – the capsule itself does not rotate (use the gooseneck if you want to rotate the capsule). Otherwise the capsules seem identical. Except for the fact that one of the review models was missing its foam – it had a cracked blue retainer (presumably from a stick hit), so some spare foams and retainers would be worth investing in as well – the caps are available as a spare for around four bucks.

I’ve got to admit to a bit of condenser weariness these days – there are so many makes and models on the market, and even though these Beyers are a good quality product from a very reputable brand, their attractiveness (to me) lay mainly in their rugged construction and compact package. I’m a sucker for sintered caps, and the ones on these mics look tough and unobtrusive. The mics themselves sound smooth and classy, and I was able to get a good, rocking, full kit sound using a pair of the MC930s as overheads – which incidentally have two small switches in the body for –15dB pad and bass roll off.

Lastly, we come to the kick drum mic, the Opus99, which comes supplied with a compact stand made out of two screw-together pieces (a T-bar and a pole) that, I must say, is not the most versatile stand I’ve ever encountered. The Opus99 looks pretty cool; almost like a truncated EV RE20 dressed in black with chrome mesh. The cradle is of the tubular rubber type. I have to say I was not overly impressed with the performance of the kick drum mic, mainly because it assumes that all bass drums come with a ready-made hole for a mic. It didn’t respond well to ‘no hole’ bass drums – it was difficult to find the sweet spot and this problem was compounded by the ST99 stand. For outside kick drum miking duties the stand really needs to be set aside and replaced by a regular one – no big drama really. But for mine the Opus99 is not quite the mic I had anticipated it being. It did not respond well to EQ and I’m sorry to say I would rather the old ’88 any day…

The standout mic (for its sound and mechanical functionality) was definitely the Opus87 – I would love to have a few of those in my kit, that’s for sure… and an M201 is really very desirable as well – even a couple of the M930’s wouldn’t go astray. Oh, I can’t decide! I feel a bit like a kid in a lolly shop; there’s just so much to choose from! Given that the Drumset comes in a customisable set determined by you, chances are you’ll be able to mix and match just the right collection if you play your cards right. Beyer mics are quality products and apart from my preference for my trusty Beyer M88 on kick drum, all of these mics sounded pretty good to me.

The grip of the mic clips is vice-like. The arm of the Opus 88 swings a good 270°.