free advice: DRUM MICS

Post by **dots** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:23 am

so the new (soon to be former) band is going to be recording some tracks for posterity, and a mic upgrade was badly needed to get the drum sounds to be less shitty.

we ordered the cad pro-7 set from musicians friend (click the link at the bottom of the forum, and enter item 270749). seven mics, in a case for $200. the tom and snare mics all clip onto the side of their subjects nicely, and the kick and overhead mics have accompanying stand adapters. the overheads require phantom power for use (i don't even know what that is, technically, but my firepod has it i guess), but other than that, setup was literally a plug and play affair.

everything ran into the afore mentioned firepod (an 8 channel firewire device for windows based recording apps) which ran to my laptop running sonar 7. i do give presonus partial credit for equipping the firepod with a pre-amp on every channel as i'm sure it warms up the sound effectively, but the difference in clarity is fucking brilliant. we'd been using a bunch of vocal mics (shures of varying models, an akg, and some other brand whose name escapes me) because that's all we had. even though we were just doing scratch recordings for laughs last night, you could solo up the snare AND HEAR JUST THE SNARE. . . well, there was a little bleed through -- enough to know we'll have to layer our recordings -- but the playbacks had all our jaws on the floor. it sounded like we were listening the drums being played live for us.

anyway, i highly recommend this mic package. great price, great results.

mickie08 · Post by **mickie08** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:25 am

they are great for the price. I have one of their kick mics.

Sloan · Post by **Sloan** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 5:20 am

I completely got that drum mic set for recording some black metal demos that never got finished. They're still in TN because I have lots of other mics to use instead, but I like the clips on the mics because they're metal rather than breakable plastic.

When you plan your next drum mic upgrade, check out the Audix stuff. I've got an i5 and a D6 that I love.

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:56 am

D6 is dopeness, I've heard it sounds like the egg mic....

btw, phantom power is an extra 48 volts that is need in condenser, ribbon and one dynamic mic... preamps power regular dynamic mics and instruments to boost them to live level... Line inputs are technically there for line level outputs, but sometimes people plug instruments into lines... I've heard that it's supposed to sound better when you plug an instrument into a DI box and then into a preamp (unless your preamp has a DI input already).

And Presonus = awesome! I wish I had a firepod, but I'd prolly never use all the channels, hehehe

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:25 am

www.mojopie.com

good cheap recording gear reviews.

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 11:14 pm

Ninja Mike 808 wrote: btw, phantom power is an extra 48 volts that is need in condenser, ribbon and one dynamic mic...

You would use phantom power with a ribbon mic if you wanted to ruin it. Ribbon mics are so fragile, if you send 48V through the ribbon, you'll probably fry it.

The reason for phantom power is that condenser mics work as capacitors. They require the voltage to charge the two nodes that create the signal from the mic.

More Cowbell · Post by **More Cowbell** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 11:26 am

Jesse wrote:
Ninja Mike 808 wrote: btw, phantom power is an extra 48 volts that is need in condenser, ribbon and one dynamic mic...
You would use phantom power with a ribbon mic if you wanted to ruin it. Ribbon mics are so fragile, if you send 48V through the ribbon, you'll probably fry it.

The reason for phantom power is that condenser mics work as capacitors. They require the voltage to charge the two nodes that create the signal from the mic.

I have a ribbon mic and have supplied 48v without problems.

Jesse · Post by **Jesse** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 1:39 pm

A new one, I take it, Cowbell?