10/27/2025
It’s been a while since we’ve done a but this tiny titan (Yamaha MZ 205 Be) came in yesterday and immediately won my heart on snare, beating out the vintage Shure 545 Unidyne III that was doing a great job until now. Yamaha has once again proven that they excel at everything. This is a rare beryllium capsule snare and tom mic that was designed to be compact for use on drums where there’s not room for standard mics (small body, side access XLR jack, heavy brass angle and spin adjustable mic clip 😍). Super clear fast transients from the lightweight capsule, wide open, full sounding body, it just sounds like the snare that’s under it. Bonus points if you can identify the side address condenser which beat out my AKG 451b recently. I haven’t featured that one yet, but it’s another fairly rare and wonderful sounding mic that I recommend for all sorts of recording.