Drum Mics from Thomann.de...

WetDaddy

Hey everyone,

I'm in two minds about these:

(a) http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/thoiw6_t-bone_dc_1000_prodinfo.html
(b) http://www.netzmarkt.de/thomann/thoiw6_shure_pgdmk6xlr_prodinfo.html

The most obvious difference is the price and the lack of overheads in the first set. Having said that, the kit I have really isn't that good, so I'm keen on paying a lot less money and using some run-of-the-mill Sennheisers (or else a fairly decent Sony stereo mic) as overheads.

Anyone any opinions? My intention is to get fairly rough, pre-produced songs down for showing people the kind of music I want to play, be they prospective band members or engineers who I plan on doing *real* recordings with.

Think the T-Bones would do the trick?

Thanks in advance.


-Seán


Edit: Just realised that the T-Bones don't include XLR cables, so I know that'll set me back a bit. Anyone any idea where to get cheaps ones? Perhaps online?

bombidol

Thomann sell XLRs for cheap too. the T.bone Drum mics are supposed to be excellent for the price. i know 1 or 2 punters who swear by em

musician.ie

I'm very much of the opinion that the overheads are the drum sound. The individual mics should only be used to adjust balance between the drums, or maybe do something creative (e.g. gated verb on the snare). The exception would be the kick drum which benefits from a specialised kick mic that will reproduce the low freq signal accurately.

In summary - good overheads well placed
Decent kick mic
Dynamics for the rest
An even drummer who can present a balanced mix to the overheads

bigbro

Depending on your style, music genre, recording equipment, multi-track capabilities / requirements and personal tastes, you may find that a pair of overheads alone might actually capture the drum sound you want most effectively. The Mic sets on Thomann that you've listed are (IMHO) very much more geared toward live sound reinforcement rather than recording.

Your room will actually dictate your microphone requirements hugely. If you have an acoustically appropriate room, a spaced pair of large diaphragm mics will work exceedingly well for drums. If you're playing Rock style music, you may with to close-mic the Kick to reinforce the low end - possibly also the snare. Depends on your sound/style/preference.

On the other hand, if your room is not acoustically conducive to a nice drum sound, you'll have to dry it up as much as possible and close mic the drums. I often do this anyway for rock/pop style percussion - whereas with Folk I tend to try and avoid close mic'ing as much as is feasible. In the close-micing case you'll want one (or more) mics on the kick, snare (possibly top and bottom), hi-hat, and each of the toms. Crash and china's tend to cut through on tom mics - though a pair of overheads is optimal.

Aaaanyway If you provide some more information I'll certainly be happy to help you some more - and I'm sure others will too.

A second point which I'm sure anyone else who does live or studio playing will agree on is to NOT skimp on XLR cabling. Especially with a drumkit, cables tend to get stood on, crushed and cut under stand-legs, wound around things, pulled mercilessly, etc... Cheap XLR cables will cause you hours of frustration as they break, crackle, work intermittently and display all manner of other frustrating failures. Last I looked Thomann were doing a good selection of XLR cables. Get decent ones. With Neutrik ends. Take care of them and they'll last you for a lifetime. Alternatively, get bits and solder your own - though you should be fairly competent with soldering before trying that

Usual disclaimers apply... YMMV... etc.

Hope this helps.
Best regards,
-->Gar