$5 craigslist Drum Mic ID Help

Wish

Wish

Never Sarcastic....Honest
I scored this drum mic from craigslist this morning for 5 bucks. The guy didn't know who made it or anything about it. I've been looking for a snare mic to replace the crappy Shure BG1 I was using....waiting for a 50 buck used SM57 to pop up on cl...that was the plan anyways...but I saw this today and figured for 5 bucks....what the hell. It looked like a snare or tom mic to me from the cl pics.

So I contacted the guy and picked it up about an hour ago.

It's unbranded....I took the grill off...there was a number on the capsule, but no manufacturer ID.

I've tested it out and the mic works perfectly. I haven't tried recording drums yet....hopefully later today.

So does anyone recognize the mic? I did a little bit of looking on the internet, but I didn't find anything that looks like the one I've got.

It's almost gotta be better than the BG1 I would hope.

Here's a few pics.
 

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You are right...I saw one on my local craigs list for arround $10...Harvey liked them so I bought a few when they went on clearance.
 
Let me get this straight.

You bought a $5 mic to replace your really crappy one?
 

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Yeah...that too. I do think it's gonna be better than what I was using, so what's the problem? Why the hate? :confused:

It has Harvey's recommendation fer chrissake....so it can't be that bad of a mic for the price point.

I got a good deal for 5 bucks.....

Calm down.

:)
 
I did a little recording test with my new 5 dollar mic.

Here's the set up and the caveats.

Cheap drum set which I picked a few months ago on craigslist for $140 complete with cymbals/hardware...small bedroom studio - probably 11' by 13'...no real sound treatment to speak of and drums jammed into the corner.

I am recording to a Roland VS-840 and limited to 4 tracks recording simultaneously.

Mixer - Behringer UB1204FX

Mics
--------------------------
Snare - my new $5 Radio Shack mic
Kick - Audix F14 ($50 that I picked up new about a month ago)
Kick 2 - DIY sub mic using a 5.25 inch speaker from a JBLSR25 nearfield monitor
Overheads - MXL 603's

Geez, the guy is questioning me about buying a 5 dollar mic?!?!?!?? Take a look at the rest of my gear....haha....I'm a low budget kinda guy....but it serves my purposes. :D

As I'm limited to 4 tracks during recording, the 2 kick mics go to a single track and then snare, and 2 overheads go to the remaining 3 tracks.

I've got the overheads set up in the recorderman method basically. The over the shoulder mic is a bit off on placement....due to the fact that the drums are crammed in the corner, so I had to compromise a little on that one.

I am more of a guitarist than a drummer...so I kinda suck at drums.

The mix is pretty raw....kick and snare panned straight up and overheads panned wide left and right. No EQ or compression....just the tiniest bit of reverb across the whole mix, and I just adjusted the levels the best I could in about 5 minutes.

Overall, I am not displeased with the initial results. I think I need to go back and adjust/fine tune some of the mic levels going in....and maybe fiddle with some of the mic placement again.


I'm new to recording the drums, so I definitely have some work to do in learning about mixing. I don't like the sound of my toms....I need to learn how to tune drums too. I'm not sure if tuning is my problem on those though.

But I thought you guys might like to hear where I'm at. Whaddaya think? Pretty crappy? Has potential?

What do I need to do to make it better?

Radio Shack Snare Drum Mic Demo

Here's also a few pics of the set up so you can see what I've got going on.
 

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And in my mind, that closet behind the drum set is a bass trap. It's full of clothes, about 5 guitar cases, and all kinds of other miscellaneous crap.

I'm thinking all those big bass waves go in there and disappear.

;)

I don't really know if I get any benefit really by leaving them open...I'm hoping for a few less early reflections at least I guess. If the doors are open, the sound can't bounce back right there.

Anyways....that's my story and I'm sticking to it. :)

Is there any theory behind that, or am I just deluding myself?

:rolleyes:
 
Well...Id say that its a bit of a start...I was not a fan of that on snare...you should buy a nice SM57.

How does it sound to you?
 
For not knowing what I'm doing, and spending minimal money on a couple new mics since I bought the drum set...I am more than pleased with the sound I can get by throwing a few mics up.

For drums before I bought the acoustic set, I had been using a Drumkat Dk10 drum pad (with bass and high hat pedals) midi'ed into a Boss DR-770....and while that was convenient for recording directly, it never sounded real....cymbals sucked....same exact sound...high hat sucked....open or closed....no variation.

So I bought the acoustic drum set because it was another smoking deal I couldn't pass up. :p

Then I had to figure out how to mic it....as I sure didn't have enough or the right kind of mics for that. At that time I had a Rode NT1, 1 MXL 603, and a Shure BG1.

I bought another (used) MXL 603, the cheap Audix F14 kick mic, and now my Radio Shack mic over the past 2 months.

So....for not knowing a thing about recording drums.

And not knowing a thing about mixing drums.

And having some pretty low end equipment.

And not really having high expectations....this home recording thing is only a hobby for me.

I think it sounds pretty good.

If I knew what I was doing.....it might sound even better.

It's all good.
 
And instead of saying "I think it sounds pretty good." above....what I should have said was:

I think it sounds better than I was expecting based on all the obstacles and limitations I am working with.

Another thing is - the mix. I'm thinking if there were other instruments in the mix, my approach to mixing the drums would probably be different than the sample mp3 I posted above of only drums. I need lots more practice at mixing the drums.

Anyways...I was expecting more comments on how it sucked...hahaha. I'm kinda disappointed. :p

:D
 
Wish14 said:
Geez, the guy is questioning me about buying a 5 dollar mic?!?!?!??
Click to expand...

No, I wasn't hating on you. I was only making a funny about the price. You did good. I would have bought it too in a New York minute. Hell, I have bought a few things dirt cheap over the years. In fact, they usually end up being the most productive deals of all.

The recording sounds decent for all you have to work with. I've heard recordings from people with way more/better gear that sounded far worse. It's a strong start. And keep searching for bargains. Some folks build their entire studios that way.

I'm sure the closet is helping some. Leave it open if your recordings have too much of that "room sound."

The speaker mic is a good idea too, however, they tend to have a "one note" sound equal to the resonant tone of the speaker. If you tap on the speaker cone and listen for the pitch that it gives off, that is the dominant fundamental sound that your track will have. If you upgrade to a larger speaker, with a lower pitch, then your kick drum will take on that new tone. In other words the speaker really "colors" the track.

Keep on tweaking everything until you start getting results that you love. Then the hobby will become more satisfying to you.

P.S. I'll give you $6 for that mic. :D
 
I think the whole thing sounds great considering. You spent less on your whole setup than most people do just on overheads, so way to be frugal. I can tell it's a cheap kit and an untreated room, and if the mics are good enough to tell me that then your next step should be to upgrade your room/kit. I always try to replace/improve the weakest link in my chain, and from what I can tell right now the mics ain't that.

That snare mic sounds well worth the $5, depending on your style of music.
 
For what it is, I think it sounds fantastic. Mix it a little more, and you got yourself a really nice drum sound for a ridiculous amount of money.
My biggest surprise was that such a cheap set sounds this good. The mics are far less important than the actual drums played...
 
RawDepth said:
The speaker mic is a good idea too, however, they tend to have a "one note" sound equal to the resonant tone of the speaker. If you tap on the speaker cone and listen for the pitch that it gives off, that is the dominant fundamental sound that your track will have. If you upgrade to a larger speaker, with a lower pitch, then your kick drum will take on that new tone. In other words the speaker really "colors" the track.
Click to expand...

That is interesting about the dominant fundamental note of the speaker mic....I'll have to check that out.

So does that mean that this dominant fundamental note might clash with the guitar chords in (or key of) a song? So some chords should be avoided? Or conversely, would some guitar chords (key of song) work better with the fundamental tone of the kick mic?

It does kinda make sense...but how much does the kick really influence the "key" (that's probably not the best term to use here, but it's the best I've got) of a song?

It's an interesting concept....I didn't even consider anything like that.
 
Nah, I wouldn't worry about clashing. The kick is so many octaves below the guitars that it (the clashing) seems to go unnoticed regardless of what pitch it has. Besides, it is not really a sustained note.

When listening to that speaker track alone it will probably just sound like you tuned the kick drum head a little tighter. It may clash slightly with the other kick mic track or it may go well. You decide.

The kick can be any pitch you want. It is mostly a matter of personal taste. (There is one pitch where the wooden shell will resonate best, but that is a tuning issue, not a miking issue.) If the speaker you have makes it sound good then go with it. I just meant that you can get more of that deep, rich, low-end out of it with a larger speaker. ...Because it would be more sensitive to the lower frequencies that the drum gives off. Tapping on cones gives you a hint at that sensitivity point.

In this business, experimentation gets the worm.
 
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