Drum mics: Tried and true contenders, suggestions?

J.DavisNJ

J.DavisNJ

\m/
Nov 8, 2005
3,401
0
36
NJ, U.S.A.
Hey dudes,

I'm looking ahead a few months to when I will record my new band. This will be my first full band recording and I need to start planning my arsenal.

I basically need a lowdown on what are the tried and true drum mics. I will be starting fresh and will need to buy for the entire set. I'm not set on buying one of those "packs", but am more willing to piece it together based on your suggestions.

So, have it, if you will. I'm all ears! What are essential? What is suggested?

Small diaphragm condensors for overheads? I was considering some Oktavamods.

SM57 will work for snare, but what else?

How about toms? Aside from 421s, what is also commonly use?

And then we have kick drum! Audix D6, what else?

-Joe
 
Definitely mic the snare bottom if you can I'd say; Lasse likes 2x 57's top and bottom, but I know a lot of people like a brighter and/or more detailed mic for the snare bottom, such as an SDC of some sort; still, I wouldn't try to reinvent the wheel (or spend needless money!) so I'd just go for two 57's, or perhaps an i5 on top and a 57 on bottom (I don't like the i5 on guitar cabs, but I can imagine it's less emphasized mids would work well on snare). Toms, well yeah, there's the 421 route if you're made of money, but I'd go for some Audix D2's, or even the mics from that 7-piece Samson kit that Felix and Mark (Jones) get such great results from!

As for the Kick, honestly, just trigger it dude, you can get a fat rock sample (cuz I assume that's the style of the band your in :D) and even preserve dynamics if you want, and there's no reason to spend all that money on a kick mic when there are so many good samples out there! (and when the sound of the kick obviously never changes from hit to hit since it's operated by a mechanism that always hits in the same place). Oktavamod MK012's would be badass for overheads for sure, and maybe a couple of standard MK012's for cymbal spot-mic'ing. And some sort of larger diaphragm mic for the floor tom would be good, maybe get the 421 for that, so you get that epic sub-drop sound! :headbang:
 
Sounds like you got a pretty good idea already.

57's, senn e604 and 421s are popular for toms. Supposedly from what I hear is that the 604s respond well to high impedance, which most interfaces (i.e. profire, firepod, etc) provide.

Love the D6 (takes quite a bit of gain though)
 
Metaltastic said:
Definitely mic the snare bottom if you can I'd say; Lasse likes 2x 57's top and bottom, but I know a lot of people like a brighter and/or more detailed mic for the snare bottom, such as an SDC of some sort; still, I wouldn't try to reinvent the wheel (or spend needless money!) so I'd just go for two 57's, or perhaps an i5 on top and a 57 on bottom (I don't like the i5 on guitar cabs, but I can imagine it's less emphasized mids would work well on snare). Toms, well yeah, there's the 421 route if you're made of money, but I'd go for some Audix D2's, or even the mics from that 7-piece Samson kit that Felix and Mark (Jones) get such great results from!

As for the Kick, honestly, just trigger it dude, you can get a fat rock sample (cuz I assume that's the style of the band your in :D) and even preserve dynamics if you want, and there's no reason to spend all that money on a kick mic when there are so many good samples out there! (and when the sound of the kick obviously never changes from hit to hit since it's operated by a mechanism that always hits in the same place). Oktavamod MK012's would be badass for overheads for sure, and maybe a couple of standard MK012's for cymbal spot-mic'ing. And some sort of larger diaphragm mic for the floor tom would be good, maybe get the 421 for that, so you get that epic sub-drop sound! :headbang:
Click to expand...


Thanks for the suggestions man. Yeah, I should definitely stay away from the 421s for now so save my wallet lol.

I'm still pretty set on micing the bass drum. I really want to experiment with it all! I will definitely still pick up some triggers though for convenience.

-Joe
 
We are getting good results, with a 57 on top and a 58 on bottom, also 57 for toms, really clean and detailed, but that`s because we just have 57 at hand.
 
kick - d6 +subkick
Snare - vintage shure 545 top, sm57 bottom,
421/441 on toms.
4040's on hats and ride
NT5s on OHs
ribbons on room
d112 in vocal booth slammed thru 1176

is how i usually roll
 
Don't forget SM7 on hats by the way! I love multi-purpose mics, and the fact that the world's greatest aggressive vocal mic is also apparently awesome on hats pretty much defines it!
 
Get a trigger for the bass drum and probs snare as well, its nice to have a really accurate track for samples. You'll need a top and bottom mic for snare as people have said, SM57 is the obvious choice, but I've heard the beta 57 is cool on the bottom cus its brighter.

Joe
 
a VERY cheap but actually not that bad at all kick drum mic is the studiospares sd101. It's always nice to have the option to blend some original signal in with your samples
 
SM57 for the snare top, pretty much anything for the snare bottom.

I personally love Sennheiser e604's for toms: http://www.ahjteam.com/upload/bigtoms.mp3 (dry, processed, effected)

For the kick I would say Ddrum trigger. But if you want to mic it, I would say that use Sennheiser e901/902, Shure b52, or Audix D6. I'm not saying the others aren't making good mics, but those just work quite well for metal. AKG D112 for example just doesn't give you the snap even if you place it right in front of the batter, but it works splendidly for rock and all the lighter stuff.

I have tried variety of different mics for kick in the past 10 years while doing live-audio (b52, b91, pg52, d112, d12, md421, d4, d6, sm57, e602, opus 51, opus 99, e901, e902, all the t.bones and some that I don't even remember...) and I ended up buying a Sennheiser e901 myself because I mainly mix hardrock and metal and it fits those genres like a fist in the ass: http://www.ahjteam.com/upload/2008/kicktest-02.wav (e901 + subkick, with only some eq added)
 
ahjteam said:
SM57 for the snare top, pretty much anything for the snare bottom.

I personally love Sennheiser e604's for toms: http://www.ahjteam.com/upload/bigtoms.mp3 (dry, processed, effected)

For the kick I would say Ddrum trigger. But if you want to mic it, I would say that use Sennheiser e901/902, Shure b52, or Audix D6. I'm not saying the others aren't making good mics, but those just work quite well for metal. AKG D112 for example just doesn't give you the snap even if you place it right in front of the batter, but it works splendidly for rock and all the lighter stuff.

I have tried variety of different mics for kick in the past 10 years while doing live-audio (b52, b91, pg52, d112, d12, md421, d4, d6, sm57, e602, opus 51, opus 99, e901, e902, all the t.bones and some that I don't even remember...) and I ended up buying a Sennheiser e901 myself because I mainly mix hardrock and metal and it fits those genres like a fist in the ass: http://www.ahjteam.com/upload/2008/kicktest-02.wav (e901 + subkick, with only some eq added)
Click to expand...

Hey thanks for the suggestions...much appreciated. I dig that tom sound, but not so much into the kick.

I should mention that we play a mix of hard rock, stoner rock, metal in the vain of Clutch, Sabbath, Viking Skull. I like clicky kicks, but also like some air to them as well!

-Joe
 
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