Cheap Drum Mics

brayski

Junior Member
i am going to buy drum mics soon and i was wondering what would be a good choice with a low budget
 
+1 on the CAD. i used to work at a music store and we sold them like crazy. we set them up in some recording situations, and for the money they're pretty good. grab some condenser mics, you'll be glad you did. very sensitive.
 
+1 on the CAD. i used to work at a music store and we sold them like crazy. we set them up in some recording situations, and for the money they're pretty good. grab some condenser mics, you'll be glad you did. very sensitive.

You just spiked my interest and I've heard this before, my question is. Why do you need a very sensitive microphone to mic a drum kit? The spoken word, the tic of a clock, but why drums. The reasoning always evaded me.

Not flammig, but I hear this a lot.

Dennis
 
I like my Nady mics. I use them on the toms and overheads but I use an sm57 on the snare and a Beta 52A on the kick. Works awesome.
 
You just spiked my interest and I've heard this before, my question is. Why do you need a very sensitive microphone to mic a drum kit? The spoken word, the tic of a clock, but why drums. The reasoning always evaded me.

Not flammig, but I hear this a lot.

Dennis

Drums are the loudest of all instruments and much simpler than string or air instruments, but they still have as much subtlety as any other instrument. A good mic will pick up the subtleties that a drum produces, regardless of the volume it is being played at. Inside a drum or cymbal sound are very delicate tones, as well as very overpowering ones.

Out of curiosity, how have you heard puzzlement over this? From other musicians?
 
I like the Packs from Nady. They work well! I bought the Pack that contained 4 tom/snare mics and one kick mic. I've been using them for two years now. No problems! The bass drum mic is real good. They came in a nice padded case.
 
Last edited:
The cheapest I would recommend going would be Shure 57s on the snare and toms, and Beta 52 on the kick. For that price, though, you could get some Audix D-2s, I-5s, and a D-6. Or, you could go for used mics, which would be much cheaper. I would stay away from CAD mics for studio work.
 
Drums are the loudest of all instruments and much simpler than string or air instruments, but they still have as much subtlety as any other instrument. A good mic will pick up the subtleties that a drum produces, regardless of the volume it is being played at. Inside a drum or cymbal sound are very delicate tones, as well as very overpowering ones.

Out of curiosity, how have you heard puzzlement over this? From other musicians?

No. I've been in the broadcasting, recording and sound reinforcement business for close to 45 years and just wanted to see what other people's views are on the subject. Most people confuse microphone sensitivity with microphone frequency response. Although they go hand in hand, they are not the same. Drums don't have any more subtle and nuances in frequencies than that of the human voice. When you get the hodgepodge of different notes or frequencies when you're playing the kit, most of those subtleties are lost in the mix, especially with the influence of snare sympathetic buzz. If not controlled by corrective tuning, gating or parametric equalization, can mask much of those subtleties.

Microphone "sensitivity" would not be a factor in miking drums anyway. Sensitivity all has to do with the voltage being produced by the microphone for a given sound pressure on it's diaphragm. Most condenser or capacitor microphones have a higher sensitivity, or output because of the electronics or the impedance converters built into the micropohne which are phantom or "T" powered from a battery or external voltage, thus produces more output to the microphone pres in the console. There are some dynamic microphones such as the Sennheiser MD441 that has a very high sensitivity and will interpret the input sound pressure just as well as more expensive condenser mics but with a lower noise floor than that of less expensive condenser microphones. Good condenser mics are great. They exhibit a nice wide flat (peak free) frequency response, responds to very fast transients, very low noise floor and usually have a high SPL rating. A lot of the better dynamic microphones also have most of these attributes.

I use four or five condenser microphones when miking a kit. Two overheads in an XY configuration, a high hat, sometimes but rarely a Neumann U47 FET for the bass drum and if in a studio setting, the room mic. The rest of the mics on the kit are dynamics or "moving coil".

I personally own close to seventy five microphones in my collection from 60 year old RCA ribbons to Neumann U87's and TLM 170 R's. They're something that intrigued me since I was a small child. It's now 2 AM here on the East coast, so if I deleted anything major or mis-typed, sorry about that.

I don't want to ruffle any feathers, this is just from my experience.

Dennis
 
I once borrowed an expensive set of drum mics from a friend. I can't remember what brand that they were. I set them up on my kit and I adjusted the eq many different ways. I couldn't tell the difference in the sound between the expensive mics and my cheap Nady's!
 
I once borrowed an expensive set of drum mics from a friend. I can't remember what brand that they were. I set them up on my kit and I adjusted the eq many different ways. I couldn't tell the difference in the sound between the expensive mics and my cheap Nady's!

In this case the bad news is a nady product was the best in the signal chain… LOL
 
In this case the bad news is a nady product was the best in the signal chain… LOL
Exactly! If you don't own the highest quality mixer and other expensive software and equipment, there is no sense using expensive mics.
 
I've got an sm57 for my snare and an audix F12 for my bass drum and two large diaphragm condensers that I use for overheads and I get a pretty good sound and the cost was 250$ total new. Im actually trying to sell my Sm57 and my F12 as i really dont need them anymore and only used them once. If your interested and local I'll gladly sell them to you for 100$ or to anyone else interested. New they go for 150$ together or close to that.
 
You just spiked my interest and I've heard this before, my question is. Why do you need a very sensitive microphone to mic a drum kit? The spoken word, the tic of a clock, but why drums. The reasoning always evaded me.

Not flammig, but I hear this a lot.

Dennis

think about the dynamics of drumming. ghostnotes of a snare, the subtle stick strokes on a ride, etc. a condender will pick these up beautifully. you can always use a gate/compressor to control it to your liking. but using them overhead or on a snare will lead to more definition, for sure. i've been told a cheaper condenser will kick a more expensive dynamic anyday. not sure if THAT's true, but you get the point.
 
think about the dynamics of drumming. ghostnotes of a snare, the subtle stick strokes on a ride, etc. a condender will pick these up beautifully. you can always use a gate/compressor to control it to your liking. but using them overhead or on a snare will lead to more definition, for sure. i've been told a cheaper condenser will kick a more expensive dynamic anyday. not sure if THAT's true, but you get the point.



I agree with the use of the condenser mics for the cymbals, but then you talk about ghost notes on a snare, I'll go one further how about when brushes are used. Condenser microphones three to four feet above your snare won't do much to contribute to the nuances from the snare that far away, especially when the cymbals half that distance between the two are being played. That's why those little dynamics, (SM57, Sennheisser E904, ect.), that are placed one to two inches away from the snares batter head come in handy and in the studio that Sennheiser MD 441 dynamic on the snare side.

Dennis
 
I've been using the cheap CAD mic's for a couple of years and have been very pleased with them. They have played everywhere from the studio to outside gigs and I have no complaints.

I know that there are much better microphones, but I have been able to get the sound I like out of these just fine. Of course I have worked in an aluminum extrusion plant for the last 24 years and my hearing is not what it used to be (yes, I do wear proper PPE at work!).
 
Back
Top