Drum Mic Sets

[GendoPose]

Hi All,

I'm looking at a first set of drum mics here and I'm having a bit of a struggle between 2 sets.

Firstly, I know they're not going to be the greatest quality, seeing as they're a first set and I'd rather not spend too much on what essentially is a project studio (plus I don't have the money to splash out unfortunately..)

It's between these 2 kits;

Superlux DRK K5C2 - Thomann UK

OR

https://www.thomann.de/gb/samson_8kit_drumset.htm

I know technically the Samson will be better, but I think at that price, would you really hear the difference in quality? I'm more than happy to spend the £100 more on the Samson, I just wanted to know if I'm really getting that much more for the extra money.

Any other suggestions while I'm still looking?

Thanks all!

 

[Jake_JW]

Do you have any other mics at all or are these the first ones you are buying?

I have been in the unfortunate position of using the Superlux set before and I cannot recommend them. Even the clips are shoddy - they transmit a lot of mechanical noise through the drum kit and make the mics hard to gate sometimes, and the mics themselves do not sound good. Avoid.

If you are recording drums and haven't done it a huge amount before, I would reccomend starting with as few mics as possible - Kick, Snare, 2x Overhead mics and seeing how far that gets you rather than buying a large amount of low quality mics up front and not using half of them or having to replace them soon because they are very low quality.

As a general approach buying an Sm57 (or two, if the budget will stretch), a couple of condenser mics for overheads (Se Electronics and Rode have some cheap mics -you can probably get a pair for around £100) and a kick drum mic would be a better option than either of these kits, and you could use the mics for other recordings too.

£200 is not a lot of budget for mics and you will get what you pay for in this price range.

 

[GendoPose]

I've only got an SM57 and a PreSonus LDC, so not really enough to do much with.

I've miked up kits before, using a set of Shure and a set of AKG mics, so I roughly know what I'm doing, I'm just looking for myself now!

I'll see what I can work into the budget, I imagine 3 57's, a D112 type thing and a pair of condensers would do the job.

 

[Jake_JW]

Sounds like you're on the right track - I think the drum mic sets are very much a beginner solution - £200 for 5+ mics is great value but a massive compromise in quality (and possibly reliability, the snare mic from the superlux set I used broke within a year).

If you have an SM57 already you could get a pair of condensers (or a second one of the model you already have) and a Kick mic of some sort and be ready to roll. I normally use SDC's for drum overheads, but some people use LDC's, it's all down to preference.

There's nothing to say that you have to buy all the kit up-front, you might well save yourself money by buying the minimum mics (3 or 4 decent-ish mics) and then seeing how it sounds, and adding mics later on when you've found what techniques and experimented with mic placement until you know what you want.

 

[scorpio01169]

I've heard some pretty good drum recordings with the Samson drum mics. I have the Samson 7 drum mic kit, I use for mic'ing under my snare and toms. I use a Shure sm57 to top mic my snare and Sennheiser e604s to top mic my toms.

 

[Bill L]

I've only got an SM57 and a PreSonus LDC, so not really enough to do much with.

I've miked up kits before, using a set of Shure and a set of AKG mics, so I roughly know what I'm doing, I'm just looking for myself now!

I'll see what I can work into the budget, I imagine 3 57's, a D112 type thing and a pair of condensers would do the job.

I'd suggest a good kick mic (you mentioned the D122, so you're good there) and a good set of over heads (condensers). You already have a 57 for the snare. Then you can look at good individual mics like the Shure Beta 56a (or other brand) for the toms/snare. Side note: I use a kick mic when micing a floor tom over 16". I usually mic all the drums and more often than not end up using just the kick, snare and over heads. Here's a clip where I didn't feel like setting up a bunch of mics (private party, not a full gear gig).

https://soundcloud.com/bill-l-1/06-dont-do-it-mix-1-edited

This is from a gig in a very small room. The drums were recorded with 2 mics; a Shure Beta 52 on the kick and 1 Oktava MK-012 over the kit.

**Please pardon the performance. It was the first time all of us had played together (and in fact the first time a couple of the guys had heard some of the songs. Including this one.)