Drum mic sets - people's views

[Alec]

Warning, potential long thread looming...

 

I need to pick up a drum mic set to use at various low rent live venues where I engineer that have insufficient mics to do the job decently. I know they should sort this out, but sometimes it's easier to go, knowing that you have the consumables to do the job properly.

 

Obviously, I want the world on a stick and to pay little, but get lots of functionality. For the kind of venues I'm looking at, I need 1 kick, 1 snare, 3 toms. Already have Behringer CO2s to use as overheads.

 

At the budget end, I'm tempted by the Red5 RVK5 set. All the mics I need, and real basement price £100. But how much may I be disappointed by the sound?

 

At the less budget end, there's the Shure PGDMK4 set. All looks great, but I'd need an additional snare mic, plus it's double the price £200.

 

And, of course, there are all sorts of other choices, including going up the pile even more, which I'm reluctant to do.

 

Any recomendations for sub-£250 kits including 1 kick, 1 snare, 3 toms with drum clips? I looked briefly at the Thomann cheapies, and decided that they'd fall to bits within a couple of gigs. And can any real life users comment on how I'd get on with either of the above two proposals, along with any others?

 

Plus, what are views on the various drum-clips available? The Red5 ones are all metal, agricultural, look like they won't break, but look bulky. The Shure ones are minimal plastic ones, potentially appealing unless they'll break repeatedly. Love the look of the Shure A56D, but sadly not at £50 a pop...

[Jordan]

We have used the Shure PG mics for a few years now and been very happy with the results. Even used em for recording.

[themadhippy]

Might be worth look at the studiospares stuff,the SD101 for kick, and S930's on toms,add in a 57 for snare and you should get in under budget,have used this combination a few times in the past and while not up there with 91's and 98's it does a suprisingly fine job for the price.

[Bobbsy]

Well, another kit you should definitely try to listen to would be the Audix Fusion 7 which is right there in your price range. To me, it beats the Shure slightly on the sound quality. The only thing I'd try to do would be to swap out the kick mic from whatever kit you buy and get an Audix D6 instead...and this applies to any of the kits I know.

 

Bob

[Matt Riley]

Check out the thread on PSW - here. It seems that the Equation audio kit is getting lots of great reviews and the whole set (excl overheads) is £125ish plus vat. Link to product

 

M

[Doug Siddons]

Been using the Red5's for a long time and can heartily recommend them as a starter set, the only problem with the kit is the tom clips are crxxp replaced mine with sennheiser types

[Alec]

Been using the Red5's for a long time and can heartily recommend them as a starter set, the only problem with the kit is the tom clips are crxxp replaced mine with sennheiser types

 

That's what I was wondering about... What was your prob with the Red5 clips? Too big, too fiddly, or "other"?

 

So many clip options out there. The Sennheiser ones are pricey. The Thomann style ones are cheap, but look like they'd fall off at a moment's notice.

 

Like the look of the Audix pack mentioned above, less sure about the Equation ones (hoping for some sensible, informed, Brit opinions if you know what I mean...). Both come without clips, which obviously bumps up the price a little.

 

Appreciate the input - keep it coming!

[jamie1]

The T.Bone DC1500 are very good drum mic. Comes in a set and at a good price!!

 

Have a look

 

http://www.thomann.de/gb/the_tbone_dc1500_...mikrofonset.htm

[paulears]

I've been using (and selling) all sorts of drum mics and the differences in clip design is more to do with how well they fit different drum rims. Some, like the Sennheisers are plastic and springy, so when they are on, the tend to stay in place. Other designs that are spring loaded with rubber tips, can slip off if the drum has rounded edges to the rims, despite the spring pressure being pretty high. Just vibration, really. Other types have jaws that are brought together by a screw. These, because the pressure faces are parallel tend to be a bit more secure.

 

The mics themselves do sound different, but my own experience is that unless the actual kit is a good one, then spending money on quality microphones is a bit pointless. An extra few hundred quid on the kit may produce better results with the cheaper mics, than exotic mics on the cheaper kits. Much is really down to what kind of sound you want, especially on the kick. One mic will be good for thud, others better for click - so unless you can afford to have both, you've got to make a decision. I personally like the AKG112 - mainly because it can, with a bit of eq do something with click or thud. Not perhaps as good a thud as some, and the click not so clean as others - but like a 57, it can do most things better than averagely.

 

Most of the drum mic sets people sell work fine. You can of course get better by selecting individual ones and choosing them for your own particular needs, but adding just a few quid to the price of each in a set, easily piles on £50 or so - so with a sub £100 set, there's not much difference as you step up to double that, just because each individual one just goes up in quality a small amount. Going up from £100 to 300 produces some differences worth having - but the price jump is large.

 

The ones I like that are cheap don't sound much different from others in that range - we're talking small differences really.

[jbaileypro]

I also use the Red5 drum mics but have not had a chance to use them live yet so I can't talk in that but I can say that they are very durable so far! I have hit them plenty of times and have had some crazy drummer on them as well! The kick mic gives a nice thud too.

 

Cheers,

JJ

[Wilflet]

Might be worth look at the studiospares stuff,the SD101 for kick, and S930's on toms,add in a 57 for snare and you should get in under budget,have used this combination a few times in the past and while not up there with 91's and 98's it does a suprisingly fine job for the price.

What do people think of the studio spares mics? Iv noticed s970 is a fairly cheap mic for snare and toms (and allegedly flexible enough for other things)

http://www.studiospares.com/Mics-Instrumen...Mic/invt/449030

what do people think?

[Doug Siddons]

Paul made a very valid comment, a decent well tuned kit will sound good whatever mic you put in front of it. As to red5's the large diaphragm bass drum mic stacks up very well against say a D112 or E602 for instance. The drum clips, unless they've changed them, have a habit of splitting apart and the screw clamp's top falls off. (Don't know the correct technical term for it but if you see the beast you will know what I'm on about) These are repairable and I'm sure if you treat them with kid gloves they will last but that isn't the enviroment we work in!

[Pete Alcock]

My suggestion is these Yoga D606 on toms. (available from CPC as part No MP33857). They're unfeasibly cheap yet sound decent, and are made of glass-filled nylon, so won't dent or fall apart with a stick hit. Best of all, you don't need lots of extra stands like you would for many of the drum mic sets, because they clamp on the rims.

 

http://www.rockfactory.co.uk/prodimages/IMG_1037.jpg

 

The thing here is that you need to grease the clamp screw when you first get them. That prolongs the life by reducing friction and wear.

 

With what you save on tom mics go and buy and Audix D6. Providing the kit is half decent and you've got good subs in your system, a good bass drum sound is almost assured. You will cherish that mic if you invest in one.

 

After that a 57 on snare, and your existing overheads. What was the budget again...?

 

Pete.

[Alec]

Appreciate all the responses to date.

 

Pete, those Yoga D606 tom mics are indeed shockingly cheap from CPC (£14.37 each inc VAT!). Hard to believe they're any good, but then their £5 lapel mics are fantastic, and I'm getting the general view that the tom mics are the least critical part of the package.

 

How well do those mountings work? They look like they're just waiting to fall off the rim mid-gig! And it's that design that looks to be on all the ultra cheap mics, which makes me suspect that it's poor. Mind you, I see these AT8665 clips look a reasonable option at only £6.80.

 

I'm quite tempted to pick up a couple of the CPC mics with the AT clips and see how they get on. All this is tempting me far more to a mix & match solution than a premade kit.

 

Appreciate Paul's input too, nice & grounded. And, indeed, with quite a few of the younger bands, you can make far more of a difference just with a bit of decent drum tuning.

 

Had been a little bit intrigued by the mini-mics, like the StudioSpares S970, but those spring loaded jaws don't look that secure to me for drums. I've seen similar, including from JTS that have a better clamp arrangement, but those mics still look like they'd suffer if hit - though maybe I underestimate their resilience. And not so keen on the trailing XLR adapter - it makes sense for brass & the like, but for drums, surely it would be better to build that into the clamp body?

 

Fab input everyone, appreciate it all.

[MarkPAman]

Had been a little bit intrigued by the mini-mics, like the StudioSpares S970, but those spring loaded jaws don't look that secure to me for drums. I've seen similar, including from JTS that have a better clamp arrangement, but those mics still look like they'd suffer if hit - though maybe I underestimate their resilience. And not so keen on the trailing XLR adapter - it makes sense for brass & the like, but for drums, surely it would be better to build that into the clamp body?

 

You seem to have guessed at all the problems I had with mics like that - though not exactly those ones. (Think they were AKG* but I'm not 100% sure :unsure: )

 

A direct hit smashed one completely, and after a while the thin cable on the others started breaking down at the point where it enters the mic/clip arrangement - not fixable. The last survivors got reserved for clipping in unusual places when there's low risk of physical damage and were very useful on many occasions. I hope they later went on to cause injury to the ###### who nicked my (fortunately mostly empty) mic box during a gig.

 

 

E2A * if they were AKG, they were an earlier model than the current ones, and the problems I had may have been sorted out now :)