KMR 81i

Common name: Neumann KMR 81i

Production Status: In production

The KMR 81 is a medium-length shotgun microphone manufactured by Georg Neumann GmbH in 1983. This microphone is a real reference in the pro audio industry, introduced at the 1982 AES convention. It uses a pressure gradient interference transducer with an MCF (Pe/G) diaphragm (KK 81 capsule). It is engineered for medium distances, with a lobe directional pattern suitable for a 90° pick-up angle, in which the frequency response is virtually constant. This provides a consistent tonally balanced sound source pickup. For example, an actor on stage moving within a 90° area can be picked-up with just the level changes but no tonal variations. The microphone has a -10 dB built-in pre-attenuator switch and a low-cut switchable 200 Hz filter. The KMR 81 is available in both nickel and dark matt finish. It was originally manufactured with a Tuchel 3-pin or XLR-3 connector (“i” version). Today is only available for sale in the “i” version. Although engineered to be used mainly for movie and broadcast applications, the KMR 81 can also be very helpful in some other applications e.g. like as a spot microphone for a soloist in front of an orchestra or to pick up sound sources in noisy environments. The microphone is very light and well-balanced allowing it to be easily used for hours with fish-poles. The frequency response is flat up to 2 kHz, with a treble boost for higher frequencies compensating for HF attenuation over long-distance pickup.