sennheiser e604 on floor tom

baerstev

New member
Hello,
I have gotten some good advice from this forum in the past and would like to thank everyone who has offered advice...

I have a 16" floor tom, which I need to buy a microphone for to record with. The sennheiser e604 seems to be a very popular choice for rack toms, but I am wondering if anyone has any experience using these with floor toms? Does this mic not do so well with the lower frequencies? According to many people the md421 would be the best choice, but I just can't fork out that much money right now. I have an Audio Technica AT4033 that I could use (anyone ever used this on a floor tom?), but I would prefer to leave it in the vocal booth and purchase an inexpensive mic ($120 tops) for the floor tom if I can find one, so I can leave it set up all the time for that moment when inspiration strikes... but maybe one that has satisfactory quality can't be found for this price, and I'll just have to use the AT4033?

Any feedback, comments, suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
I've used the e604 on rack and floor toms with good success, I think it picks up the lower frequencies just fine, if anything, it sometimes lacks some of the attack or upper midrange frequencies that I have to boost with eq. I think it would be a fine choice and sounds thicker on snare than a 57.
 
Many LDC's would sound better on the low toms (floor). LDC's seem to be better at capturing the warmth and body that smaller diaphrams lack.
 
LDC's usually sound great on toms. However, depending on the way the kit is set up and the way the drummer plays, you may find that the bleed form things like the ride, crashes, and even kick and snare is so great that it defeats the purpose. A 604 should do just fine. If not, the drum probably needs retuning or the drummers technique is just that bad. You could also try using a kick mic.
 
Thanks all 3 of you for the advice... tonight since I didn't have anything else I tried recording with the AT4033, and yes it did sound full, but the bleed WAS terrible-the ride and the kick were much louder than they were in the overheads. I think I will probably go ahead and get that e604. Thanks again.
 
I use the 604s on all the toms, all the time. If it doesn't work, the drums sounded bad in the first place.
 
Back
Top