Budget vs. Pro Drum Microphones!
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- čas přidán 28. 09. 2017
- Want to hear what a set of budget microphones sound like compared to pro mics? This is the video for you! I'm comparing a set of CAD mics with my other mics, to show that you can still get a great sound without breaking the bank.
0:46 Budget microphone (unmixed)
1:30 Pro Microphone (unmixed)
2:56 Budget microphone (mixed)
3:41 Pro microphone (mixed)
The CAD Pro-7 Drum microphone set is a seven piece kit which contains two small diaphragm condensers, a kick mic, snare mic, and three tom mics, and sells for about $199. Compared with the microphones I'm using (AKG 214s, Shure SM57/58s, Beta 52a, Sennheiser 421), you can hear a bit of the difference, but both options provide totally useable results! What are the differences that stuck out to your ears?
If you've enjoyed the video, please subscribe, and let me know what else you would like to see more of!
Shoot me a message if you’re interested in jamming or some session work, I’d love to help!
www.alexmaydrums.com
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I play Tama Superstar drums with a 22” kick, 12”,14”, and 16” toms, and a Pork Pie Little Squealer 13” snare. For cymbals, I use Zildjian 14” K Hats, 18” & 20” Medium Thin Crashes, a Sabian 21” AA Raw Bell Dry Ride, and an 18” Agazarian China cymbal.
Microphones Used:
AKG C214’s: Overheads
Shure SM57s and SM58s: 14” and 16” Toms, Snare top
Sennheiser MD421: 12" Tom
Shure Beta 52a: Kick Drum
*All running into a Focusrite Clarett 8pre and Saffire Pro 40 interface - Hudba
0:46 Budget microphone (unmixed)
1:30 Pro Microphone (unmixed)
2:56 Budget microphone (mixed)
3:41 Pro microphone (mixed)
This is helpful, cheers!
Add it to the description for best results.
Done! Thanks!
how you get the snare sound so fat
teach us to eq it
Saka Nur Alfiansyah paper or old drum heads
Awesome vid Alex. No BS, no jibber-jabber, just 2 straight comparisons and a short round-up. Really easy to watch and learn from. Would love to see one of the Lady DMK-7 as these are on my radar atm. Thanks
Thank you for taking the time to do this. Great drumming.
Love your cable holders in the background.
I've used several brands over the years, and always come back to CAD. Yes they are a budget mic, but for live sound and even for the studio (with a little eq'ing), I have found they have a great crisp, punchy sound. With the right placement, and if you include batter and reso positions, they do the trick. Expensive and more top of the line pro mics are great if you can afford them, or afford to get them repaired or replaced. When your kit has 18+ pieces to consider, CAD for me is the way to go !!! thanks for sharing your comparison video. Loved that you did both raw and mixed versions.
You should have way more subs. Your videos are so informative and easy to understand! I'm new at recording drums and to be honest drums in general and you've helped me a bunch recently!
Great video, thanks for posting. Really helps when determining what mics to buy when you are on a budget.
Most useful video to date. Thank you kind sir!!
Fantastic intro from Foals - Inhaler! Thanks for the video , super helpful
Sounds like the phase needs to be flipped on the budget mic overheads
The difference is very clear, i like more the kick on the pro mic mix, but i think the budget has something interesting in the rest of surfaces when it's mixed as well, thanks man!
Nicely done! Not much else to say, you pretty much explained it all in the ending. It is all about you using what you have and not needing a ton of money to capture sound. Some of the best produced albums have been recorded with budget mics or simple mic techniques. Heck all of the original Woodstock Concert was captured with only Shure SM58's.....
You really dialed in your cymbal sound/ setup, dawg. Love it! Inspiring!!
The big thing for me was you could really hear the extra snare buzz/ring with the kick hits in the cads. The pro sounds tighter and more detailed like you said.
Thank you for the vid. I am in the market for a mic kit and was hoping to do it for $200 or under. I honestly thought the comparison would show the CADS to be trash but I preferred them in the unmixed portion. Now I feel much more comfortable starting on the lower end of the spectrum.
Yeah! Did the responsible thing and bought a 7 mic cad setup saying screw it they can't be that bad after a bit of research(not a lot) Glad i found this. Because although its not a pro mic the amateurs listening will have no idea. I appreciate the video good work!
Very instructive ! Thank you, I dig your philosophy of "get the best with what you have".
To my ears, the pro mics have more definition in the low end especially the kick which is fatter also the mids are snappier more rich.
The CAD mics sound more "airy" but for a budget kit it sounds quite OK !
In the end, it really depends on what you wanna do and also a solo snare or kick might sound very good by itself but in the context of a mix it's a whole different thing where often...less is more.
This is helpful, thankyou man
Mic placement is key
Placement, tuning, room, drummer.
Microphones, preamps :)
No shit 🤦♂️even a first year engineer could tell you that.
@@scottyweimuller6152 NoShIt
Yo, man, most people aren't engineers and don't know that, so this comment might be useful for some people.
@@hannes1734 have fun rage typing kiddo? Thanks for wasting your time commenting me. 🤣
Interesting that you mixed from the drummers perspective, hats panned left etc. Good sounding kit!
I have a set of those CAD mics. They sound pretty damn good. I think the overheads are fantastic. They sound pretty crisp and clear, and I like that they have a built in high pass filter. Means I don't have to process them as much. I like the snare mic, too. Quite punchy. The tom mics are a bit too midrangey, but when you EQ them out they sound much better. The weak link for me was the kick drum mic. It was a bit too muffled for me. It took a lot of EQ to sound good but I did get it to sound good in the end. Even though I had to add in a fair amount of treble to get a nice click it had the girth that I want in it. I thought this was a great comparison. The pro setup did sound better, but the CAD mics really held their own and definitely feel like 20% as good as the pro mics like the price would suggest.
IMO Kick mics are where you notice the biggest bang for your buck. You can get an ok sound through EQ but better mics make a difference especially if you’re going for a more natural sound.
Same impressions here,
Great video man!
Very good video :)
Thank you
The cad mic sounds good, especially if you’re a non pro drummer. I’ll be able to sound a whole lot better than unmiced for sure thanks for the video. And thanks for looking out for the little guys
Man your mixing skills really did wonders for the budget mics. Kick seemed to be lacking lows to my ears
I like the air out of the budget mic's mixed,. more interesting tom sound,. the nicer mics sound flatter or more filtered more tapering and more muted,. less full drum sound,. better at picking up the tonal vibration rather the material itself,. both work but for different styles of music,.
I just ordered the CAD Pro 7 Mic Kit today... I got them on sale New for $140.00. I appreciate your video. Definitely can hear the Quality difference between the CAD Mic's vs Professional Mic's. I think I will stay with the CAD Mic's for the money. But the professional Mic's sound clearer, thumpy, and crisp
My setup is quite the mixture of different brands. My kick mic is a Sennheiser e902, my tom and snare mikes are Audix F series, and the overheads are Behringer C-2s. It's what I have available so it's what I use.
Great video thanks!
Great content and evaluation, Alex. I appreciate the logical approach to this comparison. New to audio equipment. And now that I'm playing more, I've started buying mics. I'll say it's hard to spend 50% more when you're only getting [subjectively] 10% better sound quality. Of course if I'm being paid to record, I'd think differently.
Cool stuff
I really liked the overheads on the CADs.
That was much more dramatic than I thought it would be. Those AKG C214’s alone make so much difference IMO. I think that everybody who is trying to record drums on the budget should get at least decent pair of mics for OHs.
Great informative video!
If I had my ways (according to my savings), I would mix both budget and pro mics: pro(ish) mics for snare & overhead, budget for toms & bass drum. then let the processing help out w/ the kinks :D
The main difference I noticed was with the over heads. I found the budget overheads made the cymbals sound kind of hollow, even in the mixed version. The expensive mic’s are better but not that much. I think I could have fixed the budget overheads by placing them differently. Maybe not. Nice video
I agree. It just sounds like the overheads were up louder in the budget version.
Great video! Even the raw sounds very usable hearing what they each sound like.
Goes to show 1. Tuning, 2. Mic Placement, 3. Drummer (bad drummer on $100k ain’t going to sound good). 4. Mic selection
Personally I like the budget mics more. They just sound more natural which sounds better to my ears.
This is an amazing starting point especially for the price! I'm thinking these plus a d6 or e602 would be sweet
Thank you for your post!!! When you mentioned processing was there any compression and if so do you use plug-ins or physical hardware? Or is the processing with the equalizing only? I also like the verb you are using! AND I dig your comment about using what you got.
I honestly use the two top snare mics together xD the cheap one had some crack and the pro some body to it. really cool experiment !
I'll have to try that out, thanks!
I use this all the time : sm57 with a akg 451 taped on it.
I'm thinking the cads are great for spot placement on toms. I'd blend them in with some better overheads that also help the crispness of the cymbals. I would just swap the cad snare for an sm57 and the cad kick for an e602. Maybe one of the cad pencil mics for hi hat spot. Just for options.
Nada mal los micrófonos "baratos", pero los "caros" tienen un sonido con un sabor quizás más refinado. Pero creo que todo depende también del tipo de canciones o género musical que quieras grabar. Ambos me parecen excelentes.
Very informative video..
I learned EVERYTHING I needed in this video. I’ve recorded multiple albums in studios with my old $350 5 piece shure kit.
One studio made me use theirs insisted they knew what they were doing. The track recorded with 12 microphones that were all $500-2500 in price was the worst sounding tack I’ve ever played on.
The 5 mics I paid $350 for in a kit along with the 2 Condenser mics I got on sale for $80 each(usually $125). … just… come on. It’s clear as day.
Cheap equipment with talent behind it being made and especially being worked on in the studio is such a better experience than spending the cost of your entire kit on mics that youre terrified will fall or get hit and if your engineer doesn’t know how to MAKE TRACKS SPICnSPAN CLEAN???? You should get rid of whoever is finalizing the songs instead of getting mics that from what I’ve noticed will last 50% the lifetime of the VERY BOTTOM COST mic bundle at your local guitar center.
Trust me. I hit heads for a living.
Now that is how you pan drum mics I like this review this is excellent I have a pair of PreSonus DM-7 but haven't had the pleasure of using them yet. Maybe you could do a review of them too
hey thanks for the video! just an idea for you, try the md421 on the bigger lower toms, it might suit them better :)
Great vid and obviously the pro mics sound more precise making your work come across without the stick contact so you hear more instrument ... to help me better judge next vid switch from budget to pro without the pause or delay go straight from one to the other !!! thanks ... GOD BLESS !!!!
The CAD mics sound surprisingly good for the price, but you can't use them in a professional studio. They are perfect for demos and stuff. I couldn't tell what they are missing until I heard the better ones, much clearer and more full sounding. Great video :)
Cool experiment! I believe its all about the sound that you are going for. The 200 dollar set sounds less "produced", although i have to say i found the snare overproduced in comparison to the rest with the cheaper mics what threw me off a bit. In that sense the pro mics were a more balanced produced mix.
The way your drums are tune especially the toms are quite difficult to judge from here. I like the pro on the snare quite detail on the ghost notes, didn’t like any of the kicks. Thanks for sharing.
Interesting. I have always wondered why these are the standard mics for recording drums. Now I know. The 421’s have so much more girth. The 57 has just that right sound for the snare, the kick sounded less...I’m not sure...tubby? The OH’s were the cream on the dessert.
Also interesting that they sounded a lot closer until you processed. Then the differences really jumped out.
I guess it’s time to start saving...
Hey AlexmDrums! Could tell us how you set up the beautiful acoustic treatment layout in that studio of yours?! I love it man. I wanna make my basement sound just like that
The real test was I listened to this the first time and forgot to look at the screen. I didn’t notice any difference. Later when I paid attention I noticed only the pro snare mic was better. Solution, get the budget kit and an SM57.. call it a day!
I run the cad snare on my 10" tom and mic my snare with sm58s. That leaves the 3tom mics for my 12 14 16. When mixed right they're extremely capable mics.
Same... I haven't used the snare mic for the snare in a long time. I am considering changing the over heads tho.
Nice video!
I also got a CAD Pro-7 kit, and I'm very satisfied with it.
I just liked too much your drum tunning, specially the snare! Do you have any video about your tunning techinics?
Greetings from Brazil!
I don't unfortunately! Maybe I'll have to make one in the future. For my toms, I typically keep the batter head pretty loose, just tight enough to get a tone. Then, I tune up the resonant side head a few steps higher so that it has some resonance to it.
On my snare, I have the snare side head really tight, and my batter head medium to medium-high tension depending on the song, with a two ply head. A lot of the tuning comes from keeping the tension even from lug to lug, and rimshots on the snare.
I’m stunned at the sound difference from the snare alone.. it sounds absolutely more tight and crisp. The sound material on the walls, would you say they make a huge difference? Also how many channels do you run? I’ve got 4 toms, 2 snares, 8 cymbals, and of course my bass drum. I’ve been told I’ll need 10 channel audio interface and some have said I can use a 2 to 4 mic setup. I’m new to doing my own recording but I’ve been playing for over 15 years. Just usually I’ve had a sound engineer to do the work for me. But now I’m wanting to start something at home and of course want the best sound I can get but not going overboard
Listening to this I would not hesitate to use the cad mic on the snare top and use whatever your using as a pro snare mic and use it as the snare bottom and mix those 2 together. I really liked the cad snare sound.
That fill at the beginning of the pro mic section sounds like the drum intro to Inhaler by FOALS
what plugins did you use? nice tone
Accurate analysis on the Cad Pro condensers: they have a bit more wash sizzle, though sound is accurate and quite good for live play. For recording, the professional mics are calmer; i.e., more coherent/focused, and finely detailed--less tizz. The settings done here is masterful. What surprises me is the CAD bass mic was, unlike common opinion, credible. I picked up this budget kit for little cash awhile ago and will see how this audiophile ear rates them.
is there a link to where I can buy the budget ones by any chance? Great Vid btw
I was very pleasantly surprised by the CAD mic's. They're not as crisp as your pro mic's, but for something that's in the budge price range I'm impressed by them.
The money available dictates the choice. That simple. Good video.
Anyone noticed how much more body the crashes had coming from the CAD overheads? Wow! The pro overheads made the crashes sounded very thin..... The CAD snare mic also has a sick crisp!! Both kicks were meh....but could be the kick itself... Surprisingly, both tom mics sounded almost identical! I think that a stand alone OH for the hats and maybe different mic positioning/tuning/compression for the kick, would put those CAD's up there with other higher quality mics. Great vid!!
theres a set of the cads on sale in a used shop around where im at, and i really wish i wasn't mega broke. off work for 3 months due to surgery which is super fun
Definitely budget for the win as far as value! For pro mics you don't get much more body for the cost. Mixing is key!
What do you use to mix the drums? how do you accomplish a punchy snare on the cheaper mics
I play live just about every weekend, the sound engineer we have (also our guitar player/ vocalist) uses the generation of CAD mics that were before the ones you have. They sound killer on the drums. Not kidding. I was extremely impressed with the drum sound, the right amount of transient stick attack, and tons of fat bottom end on the toms and kick. Kick has no hole in the front head. Drums are my brand new Ludwig Classic Maple. I've never owned a set of Ludwigs as I'm usually a Yamaha Birch Absolute guy since 1979. I do have to mention the kick mic was a Beta 52 and we use the CAD kick mic on the 16x16 floor tom. Just a kick ass sound. But, he also knows what a drum is supposed to sound like which is refreshing not having my kit sound like I'm smacking a bunch of phone books. Nice demonstration. I need to add, I used to have a slew of Audix mics 2 D6, 2 D2, 2 D4, i5, D1, and a pair of SCX-1 overheads. The CADs do a great job for a fraction of the price.
What do u use to mix and process the drums? I play straight thru board live and wanna get the mixed sound before running out the board
Different mics
Different performance
Different mix approach
Nothing bad with it ..but to me one is not better than the other. What does sounds bad for some ppl for others sounds good.
And most important is the results in a actual mix context. Ive recorded drums using just a pair of cheap condensers on OH's, Sure beta on kick and Sm57 on snare and sometimes it works for some songs ..sometimes it doesnt. So in reality it depends on the context being used. Great video btw👍🏽
I definitely like the pro mics better overall, highs are a lot more transparent, definitely good for rock! But the cheap mics have a nice washy quality to it that I wouldn’t mind using for projects like synth pop or bluegrass. Price wise, those cheap mics are a good value.
Can you do more videos like this but blind test? Because I feel like seeing which ones were budget mics or pro mics influences my perception of it.
So do think if having, say a set of cymbals that sustains less like classic darks maybe sound better. Let me reframe that. Do you think some cymbals may actually sound better through the budgets as well as others may sound better on the higher ends mics?
For me you can add a little bit of reverb and other ambience efx because, it sounds good also without efx, but, if you add them it might be awesome!!!
For me it's very dry sounding
Bro that snare mix! How did you mix it like that?
I'm not a drummer but I recently bought the CAD set for my studio kit and was worried about quality... Not anymore after watching that... Thank you... With the mixing capability I have; I can make them sound incredible. Guess it's time to take them out of the box !!! Lol
Absolutely! With a little bit of mixing, you can get the budget mics to sit right in a mix.
After pro mics were mixed you could hear a lot of wash from them. Also probably a lot to do with compression and not really taking a lot of time to focus on it for a quick video. I have the CAD mic set and they all seem extremely quiet even after gain staging. Makes it hard to get them at a good record > in level without picking up so much floor noise.
Also, are you cutting out all the cymbal bleed in between tom hits? Or do you leave it as is? Sorry for the lengthy comment and questions, I’m a beginner and trying to learn as much as I can haha.
My band did a show years ago where they were using CAD mics on the drums. I’d never heard of them before but I thought they were way more expensive than they are from how the engineer made them sound. I’m still saving money for the “pro” stuff just for potential resale value but I would happily use CAD on drums again. Tuning, room and placement make the biggest difference. It’s just as easy to make a $3000 mic sound like garbage as it is a cheap one.
Really interesting how you're using different mics on all the toms, too... So cool! 58's on the 14 and 16, right?
Also, I think there is a typo in the description -You wrote "shure beta 52a: 16 floor tom" Did you mean to write "shure beta 52a: 22" kick drum"?
@@boobo3763 Correct! SM57s/58s on the floor toms, because to my ear, the 421 sounded best on the rack tom. The SM57 and SM58 are the same microphone internally, the SM58 just has a grille on it, while the 57 doesn't. I did another video on them comparing the 421, and the 57's had more low end from the floor toms.
Good catch in the description, I've got it fixed now!
have you tried the presonus DM-7 mic kit ? goes for $300 -- for that price point, i personally have not found anything better! let me know what YOU think.
Thank you
Gotta say, those Cads sounds pretty punk rock! Punk rock high school bands. Go for the cheap mics for sure. Mic technology has come so fucking far! 😎
Great job man! I've recently bought the CAD Stage 4 drum mics for working in a function band and they seem great so far!
Was that intro fill Inhaler by Foals by the way? ;)
It was! I've been waiting for someone to catch that!
Biggest thing I noticed in the unmixed examples is rejection of room noise in the pro mics, they definitely seemed to clarify the instrument more.
But almost everything can be a tool in your arsenal 🤘 experiment 💪
Snare sounds thicker with the pro mic kit. I don't notice a major difference in the rest. Budget mic kit will suit the needs of many like me😇. A good video nonetheless ... Thank you❤️...
I like the CAD mics just fine.
Where do you mix thi sounds?
How do you get this low chunky snare Sound?
honestly, I prefer the unmixed budget mics
I can definitely hear a difference, but it isn't profound at all. I'm just starting to learn to record/make vids, so I'm not ready to invest crazy $ in mics. I'm getting a bit outdated, so learning Pro tools isn't something I plan on doing. I had returned the Focusrite 8 channel Scarlett for a Tascam 24 channel potable studio. I'm not sure how great the quality will be, but I'll figure it out, and make due. Anyone have any experience with the Tascam, or portable studios?
I think the budget mics were hyped in the high mids and didn't have a clear defined sense of the space that came through with the pro set. It's not that the first set sounded "bad" but I would probably choose the latter if I had a choice.
Budget mics sound insane! What did you use to mix the sound?
Thank you! Just some EQing and compression, all done in Ableton Live.
that's a pretty bad ass snare sound. I'm interested to see how you process that
Thank you! I pulled up the session for this and had a look, and it's fairly minimal. I EQ'ed out about 2db ~300hz, compressed it a little with the Ableton compressor, then boosted 3db at 8k and compressed some more using the waves SSL E Channel strip.
@@AlexmDrums they sound great man
See here’s the deal. Of course the pro mics are gonna be better. But for the price, and the fact that if you know what you’re doing you can get them sounding pretty good, I vibe with the cheap ones
Absolutely right! I'm a huge proponent with working with what you can afford, and what's available. If you have a good ear, you can almost always get a great sound as long as you're willing to work on it.
Is that an SM57 on that floor tom ? I'm unconvinced that low end is being picked up by the 57....
The real winner here is the mixing of those budget mics. Especially the snare sounds amazing! Better than the pro mics mixed IMO. What did you do to make it so good?
Yea I actually liked the budget snare sound better too.
what about the kick?
The cads are great... i have them... a friend of mine that have a pro sound company use alot of cads... alittle tweaking, most people dont know the differance and they really dont care........
they both sound good but i think its of the gear being used. if you have a good tama or dw kit with he cads it woud sound good but a cheap no name kit wouldnt
Obviously there was a difference but it’s not a huge difference, the CADs still definitely seem to produce a very nice quality of sound and can definitely be utilised to mic up kit. Not that bigger difference when you compare the price difference, if you’re on a budget these will definitely do a fine job.
Both sounded satisfactory. Mixed pro set sounds a little better.