Austrian Audio OC818 microphones were recently put to use on British singer-songwriter, Sam Smith’s tour as overheads.
Smith’s FOH engineer, Jim Ebdon, started his career in audio straight out of school whilst working at Surrey Sound Studios, where The Police recorded their first two albums. He later progressed to working as a studio engineer, then as a live sound engineer for high profile artists such as Maroon 5, Annie Lennox, Sting and Aerosmith.
Ebdon states that while he has always been a fan of what he calls “the other brand of microphone,” he thinks that Austrian Audio has the upper hand: “This [OC818] is just that one step ahead,” he enthuses.
Commenting on the Sam Smith tour, Ebdon is full of praise for the OC818: “We’ve been using them on the Sam Smith tour as overheads, and we have had great results. It just works; I can knock those overheads out of phase and the fatness that comes into the drum sound is incredible!”