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budget mics for drum kit overheads


S&L

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Dear All,

I'm looking for some bargain basement recommendations for acceptable overheads to mic drums (2 overheads) - pulse or similar maybe? the venues - medium to large bars. the band - pop/rock. the purpose, to add a little projection (bass drum is already mic'ed separately) and to add to singers in ear monitors. being bars the stages are small so something with a directional pattern that doesn't pick up too much spill from adjacent monitors and back line would be helpful. I'm not precluding putting a full mic set clipped to drums (which I have done for others before) but for now the band/client want something simple with fewer channels (this suits me too since that will take me up to my 16 channel limit and keep a small desk). any suggestions for mics and tricks of the trade/tips would be welcome :o)

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I'm more of a light guy but I do like the Oktava MK012 alot, it's not a KM184 but comes close in my opinion.

 

I think we may have a different idea of budget! but thanks for the input - I'm looking in the below £75 per mic region for them. I know others have reported good serviceable mics from Pulse and the like in this price range but not for this application.

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I think we may have a different idea of budget! but thanks for the input - I'm looking in the below £75 per mic region for them. I know others have reported good serviceable mics from Pulse and the like in this price range but not for this application.

I've got an AKG Perception 170 that is quite a nice microphone, robust and has a nice tone to it. I think I got it for roughly £80, but you can get them for between £60 and £80 according to Google :)

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These here are rather nice. They come from the same factory that I buy from in China, I had some white box versions as samples, and was quite impressed. I can't import them because the minimum order quantity is 100 - but can easily recommend them. Pretty light weight wise, and really good for use as either a single or twin stereo overhead. For the price, I find it difficult to beat.
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The studiospares own brand mics also look interesting. If you can get yourself to a show they've got a tradestand at, they sell them off well below the catalogue price. I picked up a pair of small diaphragm condensers at plasa. Only used them on hi hat so far but they seem pretty ok. Shame they don't make more info available - some numbers and figures would be nice. At that price, I could afford to buy 2 as an experiment. Not had chance to really see the results yet.
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I'm more of a light guy but I do like the Oktava MK012 alot, it's not a KM184 but comes close in my opinion.

 

I think we may have a different idea of budget! but thanks for the input - I'm looking in the below £75 per mic region for them. I know others have reported good serviceable mics from Pulse and the like in this price range but not for this application.

£75 /mic seems a very tight budget to me indeed.

The oktava is "only" around £250 for a matched stereo pair so in comparision to the industry standards it is a budget mike.

 

Good luck with your search!

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That really depends on your interpretation of cheap and budget. To somebody working in a well equipped studio, £250 could be peanuts and 100% budget. To somebody like a student or somebody on a limited income, it's an awful lot of money. £30-£40 a mic would probably be budget for them. To be honest, many of these budget mics are pretty useful things. A box full of budget mics is much more useful than one good one!
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www.red5audio.com - the best you can get for absolute budget money. Next step up would be a pair of Rode NT5s, step up from that would be a pair of AKG c451s and a step up from that would be a pair of Neumann KM184s ANY of those could be considered budget against something like DPAs / Earthworks / Royers / Schoeps etc.

 

It's your decision as to what 'budget' means to you

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www.red5audio.com - the best you can get for absolute budget money.

 

Nearly, but not quite!

 

CPC's FX-510L, a fraction under £20 each including VAT - a screaming bargain! Separate switchable pad & hi-pass (many budget mics allow either/or but not both). Slightly noisy if you pump up the gain, but that won't bother you for live use. Otherwise, the sound quality is really quite reasonable.

 

I've had many a visiting engineer with name acts quite happy with these and their D-606 clip on snare/tom mics (around £20 inc VAT when partnered with AT8665 mic clips that actually work)

 

I challenge anyone else to beat these for bargain basement! Although, despite their cheapness, they're really rather good...

 

And bear in mind that there's no law saying that you need 2 overheads - one well placed one can work well, especially in your kind of situation - not to mention saving a few more pennies if money really is that tight!

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thanks guys, all incredibly helpful

Paul as ever has a grip of the market I'm in and what I meant by bargain basement. my own feel is the budget is fine for this low fidelity re-enforcement application

the AKG 170, reminded me that I have a couple old D190'S I could let the band try - anyone any feel of D190's in this application - when I have used them for live mic'ing guitars I find them a little 'quiet' i.e. the gain on the desk has to be well up and then the threshold between decent sound and feedback is minimal.

the pulse fx-510L look perfect for the job and have the added attraction that CPC is only a mile from my rehearsal storage unit.

I'm also taking on board the recommends for the t bone and red5.

thanks guys!

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I've got both the Behringer C4 and the T-bone, and can't honestly discern any difference - I like the dark finish of the C4 better. I've also used the D190 for drum overheads - I think they do a good job; plenty of bite.
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