[drumn00b]

Hey, what does anyone think of this mic kit:
Buy CAD Pro-4 Drum Microphone Pack | Percussion Microphones | Musician's Friend
I may get some, and these look OK, but I don't know much about drum mics...

[Louie J.]

It looks like a good starter kit. I bought something similar to this when I first started and then upgraded later. It looks like it got fairly good reviews from those that have bought it. The fact that you get a kick mic with it too seems like a good deal.

[Luke]

Recording with a mixer is a pain thats what I'm stuck with for now until I save up $400 for a presonus firewire interface. Also I've noticed that sound quality gets reduced a lot when it's fed through a computer line-in or mic input. Also being able to isolate tracks when recording drums into a computer is a HUGE help. As for that mixer you would need more XLR inputs. I'd recommend to get a mixer with at least 8 XLR inputs. (10 or 12 might help in the long run) If you really need to record now and can't afford the mics yet you could probably record ok sounding drums with an overhead and a bass drum mic.

[The-Shark]

Originally Posted by Luke

Recording with a mixer is a pain thats what I'm stuck with for now until I save up $400 for a presonus firewire interface. Also I've noticed that sound quality gets reduced a lot when it's fed through a computer line-in or mic input. Also being able to isolate tracks when recording drums into a computer is a HUGE help. As for that mixer you would need more XLR inputs. I'd recommend to get a mixer with at least 8 XLR inputs. (10 or 12 might help in the long run) If you really need to record now and can't afford the mics yet you could probably record ok sounding drums with an overhead and a bass drum mic.

Luke is bang on. The problem you have is that what you probably want to do, you can't with the money you have available. To get a reasonable recording of your kit you could simply place 4 mics around your kit into a small good quality mixer with a line out into a good, but cheap, PC sound card such as the M-Audio 2496 audiophile. I did just that for a couple of years but the problem is that you only get one chance with the levels of each mic. I really wanted to isolate each drum and be able to tweak the sound afterwards within a DAW. Along came a multi-track, this was ok but the quality was lacking (it was an old tape unit). Along came a 32 track mixer with firewire interface. The firewire acts as a sound interface (no need for a separate sound card) and the DAW (reaper, logic, and so on) recognised the mixer and splits up each channel on the DAW multi-track and allows you to tweak the sound later. It costs a lot though and if you consider the good quality cables and mics, lots of RAM in a fast PC, decent mixer, and so on, then you have to consider your diminishing savings.
You can however get a fairly decent sound with the 4 mic kit into say a small Behringer Mixer, sending the line out to a good sound card line in - you can also then run it into a DAW and have a lot of fun. I have even mixed down an album track this way and no one knew that I did it on such a low budget!

TS

[Louie J.]

Originally Posted by Luke

Recording with a mixer is a pain thats what I'm stuck with for now until I save up $400 for a presonus firewire interface.

I ditched my Behringer Mixer for a Presonus Firestudio. Best decision I ever made. However about two or three months after I bought it, I saw it on sale for about half price. So...good choice, bad timing.

[The-Shark]

Originally Posted by Louie J.

I ditched my Behringer Mixer for a Presonus Firestudio. Best decision I ever made. However about two or three months after I bought it, I saw it on sale for about half price. So...good choice, bad timing.

Shame about the price drop! but great choice as you say, are they still over 500 dollars US retail?
I used a Firestudio a few times here which was also chained into a mixer for extra drum mics and was really impressed. The Mic preamps seemed really good. I guess this still is "bust" for cdr116's budget.
The Behringer's are not bad value for money but I found them a bit noisy and wouldn't choose them for recording finals. As usual, all down to the budget .

[Louie J.]

Originally Posted by The-Shark

Shame about the price drop! but great choice as you say, are they still over 500 dollars US retail?

They are anywhere from 5 to 6. Depends on the model. They had a green tag special at guitar center and were selling them for three hundred not long after I bought mine at regular price. It made me sick.

[tamazildjian]

I have used an Alesis Multimix 16 Firewire. I think you can do up to 14 track recording with that.

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