$750 drum mic budget- opinions needed!

[Sonixx]

Sonixx - Those Fat Heads are figure-8 ribbon mics... that's a little out of my comfort-zone for overhead mics in a room with a low ceiling.

There's more options than over the kit placement.

Ribbons do really good things to cymbals. IMO the econo Fat Heads will give you significantly better results over alternative econo SDC or LDC.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I agree that skimping on SDC's to afford mics for the toms was a silly notion. I mean, how much would I have to skimp in order to get 3 more mics? Am I seriously considering MXL 991's? No. I'm done with that. If I end up choosing between Rode NT5's or more Studio Project's C4's, then I can't really make a bad choice.

While I've not used them for OHs, don't sell the 991 too short in general. We've got one of those on our hi hat and it works great for us for that purpose.

But IMHO miking the toms at all is a luxury that's not always necessary at all (depending upon what's expected for the genre of music recorded.) I'm one of those old school guys who thinks that for 80% of cases, a great set of OHs, a good kick mic and a 57 on a well-tuned snare is all one really every needs to record quality drums, and half of those times even the snare mic can be optional. Get the OHs right, and everything else will fall into place much easier. Yeah, we got our drums separately miked in the studio, but that's mostly because a couple of the other guys there like it that way. Let me loose with a good drummer and often enough I could just mute half of those mics and get just as good of a sound.

Personally, you couldn't give me an LDC less that $300 that I'd want to use as a go-to choice. We have that MXL V69 Mogami that ain't half bad that we used for vocals, but now even that's gone into semi-retirement and alternate uses since we got the AT 4050 for the booth. But nothing I have heard less than the V69 has struck me as really all that worth it. It's little brother, the V67 is OK, but I'd rather save the money towards something better than tie it up in an inexpensive LDC - and one that often won't hold it's value as well as a better one would when it comes time to upgrade or swap.

But that's just one guy's opinion. A whole lot of HR folks are going to disagree with me strongly on that one, which is fine. It's just one opinion.

G.

 

[Jeff_D]

A few things to add... I have a pair of Octava MK012s that I like alot, but they seem to be more than the C4s (they were alot less expensive when I bought them 8 years ago). Consider an Audix i5 instead of the Sm57. Also, if you're looking for a set of tom mics on the cheap, look up the ES57. Its supposed to be a knock off of the sm57 and they go for about $30 a piece. I have 3 for my toms and they are actually very usable.

 

[hawaiianshirt]

I've used that GLS 58 copy on my bands' live set-up, based on reviews I found on this site a while back. Well worth $30! They were like a 58, but brighter, hotter and cheaper. Out of the 4 that I've bought, I think I had one fail. But this band seriously abuses microphones.

Jeff_D, any samples available of how the ES57 sounds on toms? Anyone ever try it on a snare?

Thanks again for all the suggestions, everyone. Good advice and good choices are finally sinking in to my thick skull!

 

[buzzard bass]

I've had 6 of the GLS mics come through this place in the past couple of months, 4 57's and 2 58's. All were amazingly solid, simple but great packaging, no little bags, bubble wrap, but a heavy cardboard box. No damage to ANY of them. Why so many? I got a 58 and 57 to check them out, they're so cheap, liked 'em. Got a pair for my brother in Canada, then another 2 57's since I only had the one instrument mic.

 

[Jeff_D]

Jeff_D, any samples available of how the ES57 sounds on toms? Anyone ever try it on a snare?

This is my bands mySpace page.
http://www.myspace.com/situationred
Listen to "Stab My Back". Especially at around 1:08, 1:40 and again at the last 15 seconds or so. The drummer rolls across the toms at the end. IIRC, the tom mics are just gated to keep the noise down when he wasn't hitting them, so, really no effects on there- well there might have been a limiter across the whole drum bus. From what I can tell, the es57s are brighter than my SM57- a good thing in my opinion. Those recordings also have an AKG D112 on the kick, and I think we had a Senn e609 on the snare and MK012s spaced apart as overheads.

To me the es57 are a no-brainer for tom mics on a budget.

 

[hawaiianshirt]

Jeff_D, I dig your band!

I ended up following Glenn's advice. There was a new pair of Rode NT5's on eBay for $372. I'm a sucker for free shipping, so I pulled the trigger.

So for those of us keeping track - that's $372 on overheads. Sennheiser e902 on kick ($200). sm57 on snare ($100). That brings me up to $672. That leaves $78 for beer and a test-run of the GLS ES57 on snare and toms.

I'll hold out on the sm57 and the e902 for a few weeks, because I'm guessing that MF is due for another one of those 10% off "everytin you want" sales right after Christmas. I still have to get my panel absorbers and cloud hung up before I start recording, so I've got a little time.

Thanks again for the food for though, all.

 

[Supercreep]

Welcome to HR.

 

[Jeff_D]

Jeff_D, I dig your band!

I ended up following Glenn's advice. There was a new pair of Rode NT5's on eBay for $372. I'm a sucker for free shipping, so I pulled the trigger.

So for those of us keeping track - that's $372 on overheads. Sennheiser e902 on kick ($200). sm57 on snare ($100). That brings me up to $672. That leaves $78 for beer and a test-run of the GLS ES57 on snare and toms.

I'll hold out on the sm57 and the e902 for a few weeks, because I'm guessing that MF is due for another one of those 10% off "everytin you want" sales right after Christmas. I still have to get my panel absorbers and cloud hung up before I start recording, so I've got a little time.

Thanks again for the food for though, all.

thanks. Sounds like you're off to a fine (re)start. have fun _\m/

 

[WillDeepEnd]

IME, anything other than indie/softer stuff: You will. need. tom. mics.

 

[bassman1441]

Have done much with nice mics for recording, but for live stuff a Beta 91 inside the kick and a Audix D6 right in the port sounded amazing. Can't go wrong with an SM57.

 

[moresound]

A few years ago, I had these to record my drums in my basement project studio:

1 pair Studio Projects C4 (overhead drums) - $400
1 AKG D112 (kick) - $250
1 SM57 (snare) - $100

But then I lost the space to record (enter apartment living). I started a band with some old friends. I donated all that stuff to the band's PA, since it was just sitting in a box. Now I have space to record again, and the band is making money. So they've agreed to replace my mics with new ones.

I LOVED the C4's... but that's over half of my budget. I was happy with the SM57 on the snare. The D112 gets a "meh". It sounded good, but I don't believe it's worth $250.

Drum package recommendations? Cheaper overhead recommendations? Don't change a thing? Any opinions would be helpful.

Thanks! Cheers!

OH so I forgot to re-welcome you back to the forum as well!

And where in western Mass. are you? I must be close to ya.

 

[hawaiianshirt]

Thanks for the welcome, all.

MS, I'm in Easthampton now. We bought a house with a basement so- so I can dust off the old Fostex D2424LV and replace my mixer and mics. I'm going to start putting some panel absorbers and bass traps together tonight, actually. Totally psyched to get started. I have a few years worth of new songs to record. And I have a lot of older stuff to re-record. I know a bit about equipment in this price range and how to use it. And I know a bit about putting a song together. But I never really understood the basics of acoustics when I was recording before. I didn't understand that you really have to know the room before you should point microphones in it. That is painfully obvious to me now that I listen to all my old demos. I'm dying to take another whack at it.