tom/hi hat mics?

Nick G.

Senior Member
so i have 3 spaces left on my mixer and i dont have any mics on my toms or hats yet
currently i have 2 se1a's, 1 akg d112, 1 sm57

i currently have a 2 up 2 down set up

ive seen some people micing 2 toms with one mic which seems like it might be a nice idea :)

what mics would you recommend for the toms and hi hats?
prefer to not spend more than £100 per mic but i will if you guys feel it would be worth it

im going to be record some fun drum covers/orignals for youtube and my band (individually)
if that helps with what i should choose :)

sizes are 10/12/14/16


cheers
 
Nick, I'd go for a good pair of overheads, especially for recording. Close mics will work, but you don't typically get a full drum sound spectrum. A well placed pair of overheads will certainly remove the need to mic your hats, & will provide a nice balanced capture of the whole kit except the kick drum. Using one mic to close mic two toms is tricky and rarely very effective IMO.
 
Nick, I'd go for a good pair of overheads, especially for recording. Close mics will work, but you don't typically get a full drum sound spectrum. A well placed pair of overheads will certainly remove the need to mic your hats, & will provide a nice balanced capture of the whole kit except the kick drum. Using one mic to close mic two toms is tricky and rarely very effective IMO.

Agree, this is a good recommendation.

For close miking, I have five Audio Technica ATM 35 mics. They are condensers and require phantom power. They clip on the rims and provide amazing quality and can handle high volumes and work very well for hats, toms and snares.
 
£100 per Mic is just about the minimum you should be spending.
 
Agree, this is a good recommendation.

For close miking, I have five Audio Technica ATM 35 mics. They are condensers and require phantom power. They clip on the rims and provide amazing quality and can handle high volumes and work very well for hats, toms and snares.
Thanks DMC. For most applications, especially for the capture of a good sounding kit that requires little post recording processing, I'd go overheads every time. Even better, some nIce overheads & a boundry mic, if you've got a good sounding room.

Nick, if you really must go close mics, I can think of no better for the money than EV PL35's. They're my choice almost irrespective of price, & you should be able to pick them up for around £70 each. Look them up. Cool angled design, very transparent (so little proximity effect), hypercardoid (so great off axis rejection), & very natural sounding. Includes very nice tom mounts too. Just as good on snare as they are on floor tom. Will piss all over your 57 IMO.
 
I'll grant you the SEs, although I run the equivalent AKGs day-to-day, if i'm doing anything higher-end, I'll swap out to borrowing University Studio Mics. SM57s are cheap, but not suited as general-purpose mics and I really do not like the D112. Personally, rather than spending £200+ on those microphones, I would've just bought a pair of higher-quality overheads - or perhaps a single overhead and stuck to Mono. Yes, I'm old-fashioned, but I find the minimalist approach works well.

I once recorded a 30-piece brass band to a high standard with just four condensers. Two of them were multi-pattern, which helped, but it's all about placement, placement, placement. Rather than buying more microphones (you already have more than enough) experiment with what you have and really master it. That will enable you to really have a handle on what you are doing when you buy more microphones in the future and you will start to see the difference between a £100 Condenser and a £1,000 Ribbon.

Incidentally, this is a major part of my degree and I've heard far too many mediocre recordings from people who just assume more microphones means a better sound. Simply not true.

Attached is a sample of the brass band recording I did this past December. Nobody in this band is older than 16. Four condensers.
 

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And all these years I was under the impression that Shure SM57s were one of the best "go to" dynamic mics, for their price, there were. I use them on rack toms and cabinets all the time. Smooth frequency response, able to digest high SPLs and another great feature, affordable for most. Being manufactured for over 40 years, they must be doing something right.

Dennis
 
Sure, fine, but would you use them for everything? Of course not! If in doubt, a quality condenser wins EVERY time.
 
Sure, fine, but would you use them for everything? Of course not! If in doubt, a quality condenser wins EVERY time.



Definitely not, for live vocals the ingenious R&D department at Shure invented the SM58 just a year after the SM57 with a more effective blast filter for up close and in your face lip touching action, lol. Although I personally have about 20 SM57's, my other 55 or so microphones, I actually lost count, get used for their very own distinct attributes. I enjoy using condenser mics as well as my ribbons. It's always the right microphone for the job at hand.

79. I forgot about the two Audix I5s and two Shure Beta 57s I purchased a couple of months ago.

Dennis
 
And all these years I was under the impression that Shure SM57s were one of the best "go to" dynamic mics, for their price, there were. I use them on rack toms and cabinets all the time. Smooth frequency response, able to digest high SPLs and another great feature, affordable for most. Being manufactured for over 40 years, they must be doing something right.

Dennis
I agree Dennis, the 57 is a great "go to", I just think the PL35 is tailor made & more suited to percussion. Much easier to place, hypercardoid, so superb off axis rejection makes it a really great live mic, & very little proximity effect. The 57 is good, but there's other good stuff out there too. As always, it's a personal preference thing.
 
Has anyone here tried those Earthworks microphones? We have the three pack here of those here at Disneyland that we use for educational workshops and we did the recommended set-up of two overhead and one in front of the bass drum, and it sounded absolutely awesome! We had them all patched into a Yamaha O1v 96 console and I was very impressed! Of course, it helps to have a nice sounding kit, but these mics do not lie!
 
I remember a guy here who swore by Earthworks and posted samples up. I was quite impressed!
 
Thanks DMC. For most applications, especially for the capture of a good sounding kit that requires little post recording processing, I'd go overheads every time. Even better, some nIce overheads & a boundry mic, if you've got a good sounding room.

Nick, if you really must go close mics, I can think of no better for the money than EV PL35's. They're my choice almost irrespective of price, & you should be able to pick them up for around £70 each. Look them up. Cool angled design, very transparent (so little proximity effect), hypercardoid (so great off axis rejection), & very natural sounding. Includes very nice tom mounts too. Just as good on snare as they are on floor tom. Will piss all over your 57 IMO.

I once recorded a CD where the engineer just used a couple of mics at 10 and 2o'clock, about 6 feet in the air and about 8 feet away from the set each. Nothing was close miked. He used very good quality mics and it sounded great.

Zambizzi here put up a recording of his set using a couple of SM57s as overheads. I was amazed at how good it sounded. I'm sure good condensers will sound better, but I was really surprised at how well the humble SM57s served as overheads.
 
I agree Dennis, the 57 is a great "go to", I just think the PL35 is tailor made & more suited to percussion. Much easier to place, hypercardoid, so superb off axis rejection makes it a really great live mic, & very little proximity effect. The 57 is good, but there's other good stuff out there too. As always, it's a personal preference thing.

Does the SM57 really need to be as long as it is? If they made a "runt" version for instruments and drums, it could be placed with clips and be much easier to use where the mic doesn't need to be hand held.
 
Does the SM57 really need to be as long as it is? If they made a "runt" version for instruments and drums, it could be placed with clips and be much easier to use where the mic doesn't need to be hand held.
Got it in one DMC, that's why I use EV PL35's. Super compact, angled body (so no sticking up XLR leads) and with a really good dedicated rim mount if you want to use it. I also happen to think it's a much better percussion mic for the reasons I outlined earlier. EV stuff is always good, but this product they've really thought through. Now definately the under $100 go to mic IMO.
 
Does the SM57 really need to be as long as it is? If they made a "runt" version for instruments and drums, it could be placed with clips and be much easier to use where the mic doesn't need to be hand held.

Only because of the transformer being in the bottom of the casing. Some people actually eliminate the transformer saying it gives the microphone a more open sound. Some lower quality transformers can influence the quality of sound in a negative fashion. They should invent a transformerless version similar in size to a Sennheiser E904.

Dennis
 
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