I have been going rounds about what types of mics to buy for recording drums. I know some are better for recording, and some for live applications. I would like to stay at $500 or below, any ideas? (I'm looking for 7 mics)

Thank You,
Jason

bandneil wrote:I have been going rounds about what types of mics to buy for recording drums. I know some are better for recording, and some for live applications. I would like to stay at $500 or below, any ideas? (I'm looking for 7 mics)

Thank You,
Jason

random cheapies:

aT 2020 OH?
Sennheiser 609 silver - Toms, snare
Oktava mk219 - Toms, snare, OH
oktava 012 - toms, OH
used ATM25 - toms, kick
Audix i5 - toms, snare
blue ball - kick, snare, oh
used d112 - kick, floor tom

Really, just try them on different things. Getting a "designed for kick" mic for under $100 might be a little tricky.

i am have stupendous luck with the following:

pair of CAD e200s as overheads. these are out of print and can be found pretty cheaply from what i remember. i think i got my pair for $250. they are multi-pattern with pad and low cut. these are very good sounding mics and extremely versatile.

random chinese condensor on kick. gives you a great wooomph-y sound that fills in what the overheads miss. i was just using an AT2020 and while it sounded good, it clipped when the kick was hit hard. i subbed the e200 here with the pad on and it didn't. i'd look for a LDC with a built-in pad for kick.

sm57 for snare. duh

this would all add up to around $400-500 depending on what kind of deals you can find. it's just 4 mics, sure, but it works very well.

grec wrote: Getting a "designed for kick" mic for under $100 might be a little tricky.

I have noticed Sennheiser e602 kick drum mics going for around $100 on ebay lately. Great deal, if you ask me.

areopagite wrote:sm57 for snare. duh

duh

2x Random Chinese cardiod condensers for OHs,
2x SM57 - one for snare and one for bassdrum (no, really, try it, it's really quite surprising).

Oh, and tune the drums...
That's worth a few hundred pounds of my money.

Thanks for the advice, anyone heard about those Samson drum mic kits that are going for around $300?? I've heard both good and bad.

bandneil wrote:Thanks for the advice, anyone heard about those Samson drum mic kits that are going for around $300?? I've heard both good and bad.

It's about time someone brought up this Samson company.

I have not tried their drum mic kits, but I have looked at their stereo pair of pencil condensers on bsw or sweetwater and wondered if they sounded even OK at $200 for the pair.


$300 for more than 2 mics means ... well, presumably, you get what you pay for.

For $500 you could also get the Audix DP-5 drum mic set on eBay.

Here's one for you.

Some people really like the D6 on bass drum, and I much prefer the i5 to the SM57 on snare. The i5 is also built very ruggedly, and will take a stick hit much better than the SM57 will.

The Samson CO3 is exactly what i'm talking about vis a vis cheap OHs.
Plus, it's got switchable pickup patterns for a nice bit of natural reverb from the room if you can't add it later.

If someone can host it I can provide an .mp3 of some drum tracks using 2xSM57s and 2xCO3s...