Which bottom-feeder tom mics?

[deafen]

It turns out that I'm going to need a couple more tom mics very soon. As everyone already knows, the RS 33-3032 is on sale for $30; however, MF has a set of one AT Kick/tom and two AT Snare/tom mics for $60.

I can find very little information about the AT mics, other than the fact that they also come in a set of four that sells for much more than $60.

Has anybody used the AT kick/tom or snare/tom mics? What were your experiences?

 

[Stefan Elmblad]

Please specify which mic's you're talking about.
AT has more than one mic suitable for toms you know.

 

[Whoopysnorp]

A friend of mine has an AT drum mic kit with two of each kind of mic you mention. I think the kick/tom ones have a ball end, and the snare/tom ones don't. He uses the ball end ones on his toms, and they sound pretty decent. He lent me one of the other kind to try, but it was much worse than the SM57 I normally use, so I didn't do much with it. I don't know how it'd compare to the Radio Shack version.

 

[deafen]

Stefan,

I'm talking about the ones that are labeled "Kick/Tom" and "Snare/Tom":

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7...62146941652/search/g=rec/detail/base_id/75703

That's actually what they're called, per AT: http://www.audiotechnica.com/prodpro/profiles/KP_DRUMS.html

Whoopysnorp,

What was it that you didn't like, specifically compared with the 57?

 

[Whoopysnorp]

The AT mic seemed to lack some frequency response in the top end, making the drum sound muddier and lo-fi.

 

[mikeh]

I used the AT Kick/Tom, Snare/Tom mics twice at live gigs, useing a standard close mic application though the board recorded onto Mini Disk.

I heard the same thing as Whoppysnorp - the AT's seemed a little muddy. I ended buying some low cost CAD drum mics which I felt had a tighter sound.

I recently compared the CAD mic's to the RS 33-3032's and I thought the RS mic's held their own. So in my thinking - the CAD sounded better than the AT and the RS sounded close to the CAD, thus the RS sound better (or at least as good) as the AT

The main negative about the RS is a lacking in low end (the frequency response is rated 90hz-18,000khz) since kick drums and larger toms may have some low end in the 60-80hz range - the RS may not be a good choice for these drums - but for 8"-13" toms I think they work fine.

I don't remeber what the frequency response was for the AT mics - I just remeber they were a little muddy.