I was just wondering what everyones favorite drum microphones are.

The 606 and 609's are great on toms.

i really like the eathworks TC40K's, they sound good on almost any drum and they work well as room mics

What about overhead configurations? This is one area that I'm always changing around. Not only mics, but where they're placed as well. What gets used alot for this at Electrical?

It depends on a lot of things. For me, the character of the cymbals and room are the big factors. If I'm in the live room of studio b I'll want a focused cardioid spaced pair to minimize pickup of the rooms reflections. The mic's would be hovering over any two clusters of cymbals. I'll then use dedicated room mic's for ambient conrol. The Schoeps 221's, Lomo 19-18's, and AT 4051's work well in this setup for a bright, clear, and direct overhead option. If the cymbals are almost to bright, Coles 4038's, Beyer 160's, and Neumann/Geffel CMV 582's (cardioid capsules) tend to tame it down. If I'm in the a dead room, I'll use either one of my favorite mic'ing techniques; M-S, or Blumlein. They would be above the drummer's head (looking down), or in front of the drums just above the top of any rack toms, about 2'-3' away. My mics of choice here are the AKG C-24, or SM-2. We have the stereo Royer mic wich Steve uses like this but I find it too dull. Any chance I get, I'll use M-S. It can sound so perfect to me.

How are you dealing with the extremely high output of the TC40k mics when using it for drums? We have phantom power patch points on the patchbay so we can feed it to a line level unit.

I like the 421 as a batter side, and inside kick drum mic.

Hey Greg,
what mics do use for your M-S pair? I have been experimenting with M-S quite a bit lately. Rather than using the typical cardiod mid and fig8 side, Ive been using an omni for my mid mic, and have also experimented with hypercardiod as my mid-mic. For an ambient stereo pair I placed a TC-30K on the floor in front of the kit as my mid mic, with an old russian tube mic (Oktava MK-13) resting above it as my side mic. The result was a nice dark sound that did not interfere with my overheads.

mike

First, I just want to make a little note and apologize for starting this topic off by replying to myself. I was just setting up the forums and needed to test it. It was a lonely world back then.

Second, I just want to mention that on my last project I used a spaced pair of STC/Coles 4038's as overheads, fairly close (12-18") to the cymbals and was really happy with the sound. Especially when there was a lot of cymbal bashing going on.

Actually,
I find 451's good enough for all overhead situations...I do experiment with their positions, but I use them almost all the time...Sometimes I replace third 451 on hi hats with plain c-1000. I have no other reason but to achive great separation, when I need it.
I tend to use Rode NTV as a mono room mike, or I'll put PZM mike from AT also to be used as single mike=mono.
I like mono sound of drums, when most of it is really mono...it sounds more realistic to me...I get confused when tom rolls hit from far left to far right, it sounds to me as two things: a car passing by and limping horse running around...It was very popular in glam-rock recordings, I know!
441 I use for toms, and somehow I prefer them to 421 which are equally good.
For bass drum I would like to own EV PL20, but for now I use all kind of mics that I can get hold to...from PZM's to beyer m88,d112, even d12 for rare opportunities.Sometimes I combine those with small condenser AT used normally for TV applications (to sit on some assholes tie).
It usually brings some "freh air" to the sound of bass drum.
Ofcourse, you need to find good pre's for those aswell.

I like the Beyer M88 on Kick, but that can sound too bouncy if placed inside, the 421 is also charming but the D112 is predictable. On a snare I really like the 441 or the M201. On Toms, AKG's 451 or 391 are great especially if the drummer is using coated skins. I dig the Blumlein configuration for micing the room using a matched pair of 414's.