Drum Mic Packages?

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Brad_C

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What do you guys think of the Shure PG Drum Mic Package or the Audio-Technica Midnight blues series. Any input would be greatly be appreciated.
 
"Packages?!? We don' need no steenkeen packages!!!" :D

Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, for live miking I guess those would be fine, but for recording I would look into something like the Earthworks package or the BeyerDynamic Opus drum package. But really I think you would be better off to put together your own set of mics.

Just my opinion. Cheers, Rez
 
Shure PG series to a set of Earthworks is quite a leap! My advice would be not to buy a package as well. You can get a very nice kick drum mic for about $150 (I use an Audio Technica ATM25) and then use whatever you want as overhead or room mics. You probably don't even need the tom mics if you take some time with the setup of your kit, the room and your existing mics. I don't think there's ever been a time I've needed more than four mics on a kit, usually it's two or three. To sum up: buy a kick drum mic, then buy some decent multi purpose mics, you'll be much happier.

cheers,
scott
 
I am using these mics for live, purposes and I want ever drum miced.
 
Brad_C said:
I am using these mics for live, purposes and I want every drum mic'ed.
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How many drums and cymbals are in your kit? This way, we'll have a better idea of what to suggest to you. Also, what is your budget? A dollar amount will help us too.
 
blueroommusic said:
Audix D-series
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Yep. Some of the best individual drum mics on the market, and not too expensive as far as mics go.

The PG series is entry level and you will outgrow them.

About earthworks... I played a gig once where we had a 112 on the kick and two earthworks cardiods as an OH pair. Fuck me that was the best my kit has ever sounded live. I've used audio technica atms live, shure betas live, and a few audix mics but God the Earthworks was a whole next level.

rory
 
I am not spending no more then 300 bucks, but what i asked is some input on the mic kits I asked about. I play on a 4 piece kit (Sometimes 5), with a ride and two crashes. I always mic all the drums.
 
I thought we were giving advise.

I think the general consensus is that you shouldn't buy either one of those kits and do one of two things:

1. Get over the fact that you "always" mic each of your drums and buy a few NICE mics, or:

2. Buy one of these kits and be unhappy with it in the near future because they don't sound good.

Thats my opinion. The PGs will work, but for how long and for what price?
 
once again...the D series...you can't go wrong, and they're pretty reasonable...they double as a pretty good studio mics as well, although I don't usually use them.

don't buy the shure package, nor the AT package...you'd be wasting your money.
 
Brad_C said:
I am not spending no more then 300 bucks, but what i asked is some input on the mic kits I asked about. I play on a 4 piece kit (Sometimes 5), with a ride and two crashes. I always mic all the drums.
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What size venue are you playing that you need to mic all the drums? Also, what style of music (I'm assuming punk by the way you're phrasing your questions and your manner of typing). Personally (and keep in mind I've never played an arena) I've NEVER use overheads and only once or twice have I placed a mic on every tom. Keep in mind I'm a very heavy hitter so I simply don't need my cymbals in the mix.

If you're only wanting to spend $300 this is what I would personally do:

Find a decent, used bass drum mic on ebay for $100 or less
Find 2 shure sm-57s...put one of your snare and one over head
Find 2 small "drum mics" on ebay...again for less than $100....and put them on your toms

For a live set up at bare bones prices I think you'll be happy with it.

In regards to the packages you listed...

AT Midnight Blues...I know ABSOLUTELY nothing about it

Shure PG series....

I have one friend who uses these mics for recording and, except for the bass drum, he gets a good all-around sound. Don't expect miracles and don't expect them to perform like mics priced at 3 times as much. As I've come to learn, you get what you pay for. That being said, if you're not playing to the president at the white house anytime soon, I think you would be perfectly happy with the PG package or the individual route that myself and others have suggested. The key to your live sound is this - make sure whoever is running sound for your band knows what the hell they're doing. The sound guy can make or break a band...especially the percussion. If you run your own sound and know what you're doing, or if you have a sound guy worth his salt, you can use any of these suggested mics and put on a great show.

Good luck!!!
 
I play shows up to the size of 1000 or more people. I play every style of music (NO I DON'T PLAY PUNK). WEll can i get some input on mics that people around here have used.
 
If you're the adventurous type, Red5 mics have gotten a lot of good feedback on this mic forum :

http://www.red5audio.com/acatalog/Drum_Kit_Mics.html

The five piece and seven piece sets fall into your price range. The kick mic has received lots of praise... do a search on this forum for Red5 mics to read more about them.
 
If you are only going to spend $300 max then either of those will work. However, if you ever plan on taking recording seriously, then you will definately end up replacing those with better mics. If you are too impaitent to save up some money for some decent mics then hopefuly you will at least be able to sell those cheap ones and get some of your money back. If I were in your situation, knowing what I know now, I would save some more cash and get something like a D6 to put on the kick and a couple of decent overheads.

I am close micing every part of the kit myself, but only now that I have collected good mic's. I've got md421's on each of the toms and they're nice to have but if I were to have some bad luck and had to start pawning off my stuff, they would be the first things to go because I can get by with a couple of decent overheads. But it's your money...
 
Oh, I now see you're using them to mic a kit during live performances. Your posts are difficult to decipher.
 
the inhabitant said:
Oh, I now see you're using them to mic a kit during live performances. Your posts are difficult to decipher.
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I am sorry about that, yeah if I do studio work I just get a lend of mics from my studio buddies.
 
Brad_C said:
What do you guys think of the Shure PG Drum Mic Package or the Audio-Technica Midnight blues series. Any input would be greatly be appreciated.
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I can give feedback on an Audio-Technica Midnight blues series mic that I have; the drum mic packages might be a different deal altogether.

I rushed into buying an AT MB4000C because it's all I could afford and I just had to have a small diaghram condenser for acoustic instruments. After using it for awhile, I decided I didn't like it as much as even my SM57, it's too thin, 1 dimensional, not good for vocals, too bright for acoustic or mandolin.

Now that I have an SM81, I doubt I will ever use that AT mic again, unless I am absolutely down to my last mic for recording or at a gig.

It is really true; save up, it's worth it. I have a hard time with delayed gratification, but saving for an SM81 and an RNP were absolutely worth waiting for.

The MXL603S condensers are great for acoustic instruments and Harvey Gerst likes them for overheads. They are less than $100 each I think.

I am in the same situation for looking for drum mics. I am probably going to get a Beta 52, a couple of Harvey recommended Behringer ECM8000 omnis for overheads and use my SM57 and beatup old SM58 for snare and toms.

bilco
 
bilco said:
The MXL603S condensers are great for acoustic instruments and Harvey Gerst likes them for overheads. They are less than $100 each I think.
bilco
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They are nice overheads, the only problem is that they're sensitive. But on the plus side MXL is kind of out of vogue with some people and you can pick em up cheap used.
Back to a suggestion on drums mics: drum mics are pretty indestructable. If you're just starting out take one of two roads: piece it together like a few people have sugested, or two, buy the cheapest drum mics you can find used. At least if you outgrow them, you won't be out too much money and you can sell them for what you bought them for (I had a set of CAD microphones, they're dirt cheap and they're not too bad, had them for two years and just sold them for about what I paid for them). But if you're playing gigs to 1,000 people you should go the nice route of things of piecing it together, but you should really have a talk with the venue owner why they're not supplying sound.
 
Get a decent bass mike. A 57 for the snare and two condenser's for overheads. Played arenas with this setup. Set you bass and snare levels then adjust the overheads until the toms sound good. Truly works great.
 
I own the Shure mic package with the 2 PG81s. Not nearly as bad as people may say.... the PG81s are definately useable as overheads, although I find myself using them as room mics and using Oktava MK 012s on overhead instead. This will probably change when I score a pair of ribbons for room mics, but for now the PG81s are fine... the PG56s actually do very well on toms with very little effort. Not quite the Beta 56s, but they are the best part of the package. Not so great on snare though, but they will do just fine if you stick a smallish condensor right next to it for some more snap. The PG52 kick mic is mediocre, but you can get good results with some effort. I currently use an RE27 on kick which rules, so the PG52 is basically now my secondary kick mic (in case of drum kits with two bass drums, I will mic the stronger kick with the RE27, sample it and load it into Drumagog, and use the PG52 on the other kick as a trigger for the RE27 sample.)

Can you do better than a Shure PG mic kit? Hell yes... but for the dough you can mic up a whole kit and get passable results. Used in conjunction with a couple other better mics and you're golden. I realize I will outgrow them at some point, but I'm not made of money, and no band I've recorded has complained yet. When I tell other audio people what mics I used they are somewhat suprised at the results. As long as you keep the mics in good shape (which shouldn't be hard as the build quality is really good), you should be able to sell it used after a couple of years and make at least 60% of your money back. So all things considered its a good investment in my opinion.
 
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