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[Mfasa1]

   Looking to buy set of tom mic's using 604's now Distortion on lower toms. lOOKING AT AKG 418'S Read somewhere were they are fragile. Dont wanna put out the investment if that is the case. They sell them saying they can with stand  stick hits. And if not anybody have any suggestions what mic's would be sound investment. I have d112 love it and it was one of first ones it is 18 yrs old no problems...

[Chris Cowley]

Try out Shure Beta56s.

Their designed for toms, but I use them on everything I can (I've got about 10 of them) - guitars, snare, brass. One sounded great on a banjo tonight!

[Brad Harris]

I've got a bunch of them.

They can withstand a few direct hits, not many though. They are tiny enough that you should be able to put them out of the path of a stick (even on a tuning peg if necessary).

The only thing that I don't like about them is the cable, its just too long for my preference (I usually always use a mic cable between it and a snake anyways).

To get them to stay on drum rims better (if you have any problems), is to shave down the inside prong? so that it sits lower to the head resulting in a stronger grip by the spring. If this made sence, excellent, otherwise I have no idea what I'm sayin! ;P

[Stephen Askins]

Hi,
  a Club I worked for had a few of the AKG 418's that got progressively destroyed over a short period of time.  I would only recommend them if you were working with the same drummer every night who is a good player.  The club then switched to the Sennheiser Drum Mics (sorry, cant remember the model no.s) and these were much sturdier and imho produced a better quality of sound.

Regrds

[Mike T.]

You say "distortion on lower toms." That does not sound like an e604 problem. I use them frequently. I prefer the Audix D-4 on floor tom, but the e604 is pretty good.

Are you absolutely certain that you're not driving your board channel into clipping?

Mike T.

[Alan!]

I recently switched from using 4 akgc418's to only 2 sennheiser604's. The akg's were one of the best sounding tom mics that i've heard (and i still use them on sax and smaller toms sometimes), but they are very fragile, and can be killed easily by a stray stick or a foot!

I would recommend the c418's for the studio, but not a "changeover intensive" festival or club.

The 604's on the other hand would go anywhere. I swear i could jump on those things.

I would agree with the above poster that distortion may be somewhere else in your gain stage, not at the mic.

Alternatives are the Shure B98, B56; Sennheiser 409/509/609/606 (all the same, usually just for floor tom); and various others - do a search on LAB.

[Tim Padrick]

The 418s sound very good (better than a Beta 98), but will break if hit enough (unlike a Beta 98).  I use Audix ADX-20D (MicroD), as sometimes the cymbals are too close to the rack toms to get most dynamics in there (even a D4 with a right angle XLR is often too big).  I do use the D4 on the floor though.  D6 on kick.

[Mfasa1]

 Thanks for input. I am very gain stage oriented. My problem with the 604's or older 506's are that the wind screen pops off and capsule falls out and they are distryoed that way. My company has about 15 of em and I am willing to say 9 are without wund screens and 4 the capsules fell out and no longer work. May have been one of bad ones. My Boss bought all new ones for me and  they sound real good. problem is old ones went south quick and I wanted a good  set of drum mic's foer myself. Thanks DAVE

[Simon Lewis]

We bought the "big kit" set from AKG, and had a 418 destroyed alost straight away by an over-enthusiastic drummer.
The repair cost was about the same as a replacement, and took about 4 weeks by the time the paperwork had been chased.

The remaining 418s have either been beaten to death or had their overly long cables chopped in the aluminium mic case.

These mics are used in a teaching environment, so there's plenty of (initially) unskilled users, but despite our best endeavours, the 418s get killed.

I'll replace the 418s with Sennheisers, but I'm tempted to buy those Chinese drum mic copies ( about $15 each!!) for use by inexperienced students, until they can demonstrate their ability to handle serious kit....


Simon Lewis

[Owen Holmes]

Simon Lewis wrote on Wed, 09 June 2004 17:16

for use by inexperienced students, until they can demonstrate their ability to handle serious kit....

Charming!

I agree with most - good sound, break too easily. The 604's are robust, and sound alright as well. Personally, I own MD421's, probably because I'm old fashioned. Plus you can point them at anything and it'll sound great. I like versatile mics.

Owen

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