« Good for drums  »

Great mic for drums ala toms. I don't like them for snare. Use an SM57 over this mic. Great hard hitting low end bump at 200 hz. I do have to ad top end or a boost at about 5k. They are not clean sounding mics but they work for tom toms. Specs say 50 to 16k but I doubt this mic has anything going on about 12k. For just over 100.00 I think it is good for drums. I happen to use this mic on a horn track recently and I must say I liked the track and the mic a lot. I thought it did well for the most part. I do think that for the money it is not a bad buy and for live it is great. I used it recently for a tom toms and I liked the sound over all. I felt that the only real issues I had was the high end clarity from about 8K to 12K it seemed very dull. I had to add a great deal of EQ in order to get the sound that I desired from the toms and it took a while to get the low mid bump out well. I do think that if you are in the market for a cheap tom mic that could second as a kick secondary mic or even as underneath mics. It also was good for live. I have used this mic live and it does a really good job live. I also like the fact that they are tough mics and can take a real beating for live sound. I have had a set of them for a while now at the studio that we sometimes take out for live recording and they sound good and can take a great deal of input. I have had some of my students use these in their home studios and have brought the files to the studio. If the placement was right they sounded good for the most part. On our set up in the B studio we place them a bit away from the toms. I like micing the toms a bit back and not so up front or on top of the toms. I think that it sounds better for toms to get a bit of distance from the tom. I also have used it on a kick but as a mic that is not too close to the front of the head.

OVERALL OPINION

I would buy these mics for LIVE SOUND application and for a home studio application. I would not buy these for professional recording nor would I use them unless it was my only option. I would invest in some 421's if I am serious about tom mics. I think that for the money I would consider this mic for a home studio but not for a pro studio if you are real serious about your tom sounds.