Drum mic for Low, thunderous Tom.

[zekmoe]

I'm looking for a drum mic that's particularly good at a low, booming, floor tom. Bassy and thunderous. I have some Senhieser clip ons (predecessor of the E604s), but they don't seem to do it for me. Any suggestions? Clip on's preferable, but not required. This is it's only use for me. Doesn't need to be versitile. It's a home studio with a set up drum kit that doesn't change. What's a good low voiced tom mic?
Thanks

[A.David.MacKinnon]

421, Beyer M88, D112, AT Pro37, Nady/Apex/Tape Op ribbons, AKG d19. So many to choose from. Pretty much anything that works well on kick will work well on floor tom. I prefer a full range mic (like 421 or M88) to something with a sculpted eq (like the D112).
Do a search for tom mics. We've discussed this before.

[cgarges]

FET 47.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[8th_note]

There's a current thread over on Gearslutz where a guy posted sound clips from a tom mic shootout. The CAD m179 came out very well. Here's the link:

Tom Mic Shootout

[dtrider]

If you don't have a 47 and the tom has a head on the bottom you could try setting a d112 or something similar up underneath mixed with whatever mike is on top. It just gets the body of the tom and not much stick attack and sounds pretty boomin.

[zekmoe]

Hey thanks. I read the thread on the CAD m179 and that seems like it would be ideal, especially for the price. The drums have heads on both ends, and I'm not really a drummer, so I'm going for the good sounding, pre set up kit for rehersal recording mostly. Any idea if the CAD m179 can survive an errant drum stick hit? My Senheisers have survived many, and the rubbery plastic they're made of looks pretty new after all these years. How's the structure/surface of the CAD's?

[Mane1234]

Sennheiser 602's or Audix D6's make pretty good choices...I've gone back to using D2's on the rack toms and D6 on the floor tom...

[fossiltooth]

The RE-20 has become my go-to floor tom mic recently.

I wouldn't say it is intrinsically "thunderous" in and of itself itself. The quality I think of as thunderous comes from tuning more than anything else.

I'd stay away from the comparatively clicky boom of something like a d112 or d6 for capturing this kind of sound, but that's just me. You can't go wrong with a 421 on any tom, but I've found myself treating the floor tom more when I use a 421 and a beefy floor tom is an important part of the arrangement.

Just one man's opinion. Your taste in textures may vary.

[Shawn Simmons]

What preamp are you using on the floor tom?

[jaguarsg]

KSM 44 - pretty good on just about everything.

[I'm Painting Again]

patch a compressor in the floor tom chain..that will make it thunderous if used correctly..

[zekmoe]

Mostly I'm using the board pre-amps (Soundtracs Topaz 24). I have some low end outboard ones, which honestly for my medeocre skills, have given me better results. My outboards are ART Pro and Dual MP, JoeMeek VC6 (I think) and a Presonus one. For me at least, I've had better results to date with the board pres.
I have an RE-20, but have been using that strictly as a bass amp mic.
Do you gate the toms? I always get that breathing effect of the open gate/more of everything/closed gate/ sound collapses. I've never gotten just the drum I want thru the gate.

[inverseroom]

I had the Studio Projects C1 for years before finding its true calling on toms. A nice big boom!

[drumsound]

When I was looking for monstrous floor tom recently I've added a bottom mic to the top. It makes for a great big tone. Make sure you check the phase of the 2 mics.

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