Audix D2's/Sennheiser e604's: A Cheap Solution to Micing Toms for Recording?

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I'm looking to possibly get a set of tom mics for recording, not live sound. I'm looking to go cheap, budget of around 300-400 bucks. Are the Audix D2's or the Sennheiser e604's a good choice for a studio tom mic? Any other suggestions?

Another note, I'll be running them right into a mixer, then straight into Garageband from there. No interface being used. I've always recorded my drums this way, with a kick, snare, and overhead mics and I've gotten great results. Would throwing tom mics in using the same process be a good buy?

Thanks.
 
Well...it depends on if you think that your current recordings are lacking something...Short the snare mic you have the same setup as they did for bonam...and that is the some of the best sounding drums on record...but if you think that the toms need more and you have alot of inputs...then just do it.

SM57s are pretty much all I use for snare...toms...and they are useful in other places as well...you can spend more for those others but they wont give you the same versatillity.
 
I can't recommend the e604's enough. I recently bought 3 ($200 bucks for the set on craigslist!), and am amazed at the difference. I was previously using sm57's for toms and they always came out with too much mid, and not enough of anything else. I'm now getting better sound before compression/eq than I was after the final mix with sm57's.

I'm just running these through an Aardvark Q10, which is similar to the firepod-- an outboard soundcard with 8 built in preamps.
 
Audix D2 is a nice addition to any mic locker; it's a real sleeper for electric guitars. But yeah, it makes a pretty nice tom mic also. It's got a tighter polar pattern than SM57s or MD421Us or most LDCs, so if you're having trouble with leakage from cymbals or other drums into the tom mics, these can be a good solution.

Then again, OP doesn't have any tom mics at the moment, so that point is moot.
 
i sort of think that if you are doing a simple quick and dirty drum approach like you are describing that you should keep it simple. if it were me at least. adding in tom mics just means that you have one more thing to worry about. what with all of the bleed and such. my tom tracks are usually only open when the tom actually plays because the bleed sounds bad.

anyway the point is that since you are not recording all of your drums to separate tracks my first instinct would be to stick with the 4 mic approach.

but yes those are two very popular mics for recording toms. they are also robust enough to take out for live gigs if the need should arrive and they are not nearly as large as an sm57 so they will fit into the kit a lot easier.
 
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