T
A good microphone set for recording beginners with small budget
I used the t.bone DC 1500 microphone set for alot of recording sessions and live gigs for over 3 years!
I learned with these mics how to record a drumset and found out that you can also create with cheaper microphones an acceptable sound.
The Set comes with a hardcase and the mountings for the mics, which is a very big plus! The mics are protected and you dont need any further accessories for the mics.
the mics on focus:
-BD300-
I only tested the BD300 on bassdrums. It offers a low-mid sound with no recognizable hi-kick. But with a little bit EQing and compression on your mixer you can make the sound more attackful and warmer than the original sound.
The quality of the material feels and looks heavy and almost undestroyable. Even the thread makes a really tough look.
-CD65-
This mic is made for toms and snares. For myself I like this mic more on toms because of the mid/bass tuned sound. unfortunately I miss the clarity here. If you use it on snares it sounds very flat and attackless.
A plus for this mic is the clip mount for the drums. You dont need an extra mic stand. Also the quality of the mic case isnt that bad! It can take alot of stick hits.
- EM500-
Is getting used as overheads for the drumkit (or other instruments).
The sound is not very clearly, more mid-lowish. I would set this mic more for percussions or acoustic guitars - ist not recommended for room recordings. The good thing is that the EM500 has installed a lo-cut filter- and a -10db switch.
Also this mic needs 48V phantom power! If you aint got this in your mixer, it´ll probalby getting hard to use these mics.
All in all i can say is that you cant make anything worng with this mic, when you´re in the beginning of exploring the world of recording.
Even if someone would ask me what kind of drum micset for beginners i could suggest, my answer would be: the DC 1500!
I learned with these mics how to record a drumset and found out that you can also create with cheaper microphones an acceptable sound.
The Set comes with a hardcase and the mountings for the mics, which is a very big plus! The mics are protected and you dont need any further accessories for the mics.
the mics on focus:
-BD300-
I only tested the BD300 on bassdrums. It offers a low-mid sound with no recognizable hi-kick. But with a little bit EQing and compression on your mixer you can make the sound more attackful and warmer than the original sound.
The quality of the material feels and looks heavy and almost undestroyable. Even the thread makes a really tough look.
-CD65-
This mic is made for toms and snares. For myself I like this mic more on toms because of the mid/bass tuned sound. unfortunately I miss the clarity here. If you use it on snares it sounds very flat and attackless.
A plus for this mic is the clip mount for the drums. You dont need an extra mic stand. Also the quality of the mic case isnt that bad! It can take alot of stick hits.
- EM500-
Is getting used as overheads for the drumkit (or other instruments).
The sound is not very clearly, more mid-lowish. I would set this mic more for percussions or acoustic guitars - ist not recommended for room recordings. The good thing is that the EM500 has installed a lo-cut filter- and a -10db switch.
Also this mic needs 48V phantom power! If you aint got this in your mixer, it´ll probalby getting hard to use these mics.
All in all i can say is that you cant make anything worng with this mic, when you´re in the beginning of exploring the world of recording.
Even if someone would ask me what kind of drum micset for beginners i could suggest, my answer would be: the DC 1500!
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T
Worth it for demoing, or professionally if you can extend your budget by an extra £190
These are worth much more than the price point suggests. They sound great and in their own right you can do some great demoing just with this set.
However, with some careful adjustments, and if you can extend your budget to add 3 extra mics to the set (for approx. £190 extra), these can be used professionally for recording.
Firstly, when setting these up: I’d suggest getting an extra long extension for your headphones so you can sit in a different room listening carefully while the drummer plays. If you take the time to carefully place these mics and adjust the placements to taste, you can get a great sound out of them. These also need you to do more work EQ-ing, compressing, and either chopping up or gating (if gating, do it side chained to sample hits that have been accurately time-aligned and then muted - much more accurate) the Kick, Snare and Toms. This is it’s really worth the effort for learning a bunch of new tricks for getting the sound of each drum bang on in context.
My biggest gripe is with the overhead mics. Unfortunately they don’t seem to have enough headroom, so clip quite a bit. This is fine when just hitting K/Sn/Tm as it’s only the initial attack that gets clipped, which is quite a pleasant sound in context - but for cymbals it can create a slightly nasty effect, which in context isn’t great since the whole kit sound is getting clipped, sometimes quite badly.
To deal with this, I’d highly recommend either placing these a lot further away than you should [not an ideal solution] buying the t.bone EM 700 stereo pair (roughly £50 when I last checked + XLRs + stand, maybe £90 all in) to use instead of the overheads in this set. These have a better sound overall for OH mics, and more headroom - plus you can then use the included OH mics as a stereo room pair, in which case the clipping works in your favour and is less extreme since they’ll be at a distance. Although if you only have an 8-channel audio interface, having room mics isn’t really an option!
Additionally, if you have the budget, I’d highly recommend getting an SM57, SM58, or SM58 beta (my preference) to use for the top of your snare, with one of the included mics for the bottom. This will give you a better sound overall and free up a mic if you’re a three-tom drummer!
Overall, as I said, this is a great set in its own right for demoing - but if you spend a bit extra to add to the set, spend more time getting the setup just right, and get the EQs/etc right, you can use this same set to sound surprisingly professional. I’m happy with this purchase!
However, with some careful adjustments, and if you can extend your budget to add 3 extra mics to the set (for approx. £190 extra), these can be used professionally for recording.
Firstly, when setting these up: I’d suggest getting an extra long extension for your headphones so you can sit in a different room listening carefully while the drummer plays. If you take the time to carefully place these mics and adjust the placements to taste, you can get a great sound out of them. These also need you to do more work EQ-ing, compressing, and either chopping up or gating (if gating, do it side chained to sample hits that have been accurately time-aligned and then muted - much more accurate) the Kick, Snare and Toms. This is it’s really worth the effort for learning a bunch of new tricks for getting the sound of each drum bang on in context.
My biggest gripe is with the overhead mics. Unfortunately they don’t seem to have enough headroom, so clip quite a bit. This is fine when just hitting K/Sn/Tm as it’s only the initial attack that gets clipped, which is quite a pleasant sound in context - but for cymbals it can create a slightly nasty effect, which in context isn’t great since the whole kit sound is getting clipped, sometimes quite badly.
To deal with this, I’d highly recommend either placing these a lot further away than you should [not an ideal solution] buying the t.bone EM 700 stereo pair (roughly £50 when I last checked + XLRs + stand, maybe £90 all in) to use instead of the overheads in this set. These have a better sound overall for OH mics, and more headroom - plus you can then use the included OH mics as a stereo room pair, in which case the clipping works in your favour and is less extreme since they’ll be at a distance. Although if you only have an 8-channel audio interface, having room mics isn’t really an option!
Additionally, if you have the budget, I’d highly recommend getting an SM57, SM58, or SM58 beta (my preference) to use for the top of your snare, with one of the included mics for the bottom. This will give you a better sound overall and free up a mic if you’re a three-tom drummer!
Overall, as I said, this is a great set in its own right for demoing - but if you spend a bit extra to add to the set, spend more time getting the setup just right, and get the EQs/etc right, you can use this same set to sound surprisingly professional. I’m happy with this purchase!
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A
Great product for the money
Just now we got to the recording of drums, the quality of the microphones is excellent, on the drums "Pearl session studio select" and snare "Tama SLP maple" the microphone for the bass drum transmits sound divinely, tom and floor Tom are perfectly readable, as well as excellent low frequencies even without processing, as for snare lacks clarity and high frequencies, but if you put it on the bottom of the drum to remove the sound of the string, it transmits it perfectly and also adds a lower volume. The overheads have frequency trimming, which helped a lot to get a bright sound of the cymbals. As a result, I am very pleased with the purchase for a small studio with a small budget, this is a great option, but I advise you to buy another Shure sm57 for snare for this set.
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s
Wow, amazing value for money, great quality and sound at a brilliant price!
I bought these as a cheap second set of mics, just to use live, while switching use of using my 'decent' mics (AKG D112 kick mic, Rode NT overheads, Shure SM57 and SM58 on snares) in my newly set up studio.
I am frankly amazed at this mic set. from the moment I opened the nice padded carry case and picked them up - the tom and snare mics feel nice and reasonably heavy and robust, as good quality, vastly more expensive branded mics are. The clips are good quality and nice and secure when attached to the rims. The kick mic is extremely heavy and robust, feels great quality It also happens to fit through a kickport (which I was dismayed to find the industry standard AKG D112 wouldn't fit through!) which was very useful for me as I'd just fit one to my kick drum! The overheads by comparison are very tiny (the smallest I've seen) and lightweight, nicely unobtrusive over the kit. They would also make a nice unobtrusive hi hat mic...
Sound wise I was immediately impressed with this set! The kick mic is awesome, it has a larger diaphragm and more bottom end than most (I have achieved a very beefy sound through my band's 400w front of house PA speakers at gigs without using the extra subwoofer speaker!), and I think equally on a par with the AKGD112 (although it is not quite as defined so you may need to EQ it a little more to get a 'clickier' sound. The tom/snare mics sound great on toms, nice and warm but with plenty of punch still, although not comparable to an sm57/8 when used on snare if you're after a meaty crack (but you can hardly expect that at this price can you).- live, you can still get a pretty good sound from these on snare especially if you clip it to the underneath pointing right at the snare wires! The overheads are good too, and have unexpected roll-off toggle switches on the side. Again not as impressive my Rode NT's at recreating the cymbals but I think each of my Rode's cost as much as this whole set. These overheads are certainly usable and again unexpectedly good at this price point.
Overall I couldn't recommend this set enough to anyone wanting a decent sounding, good quality, comprehensive whole set of drum mics for live use (I am yet to record significantly with these [they sounded great unmixed but haven't spent time mixing with them] but reckon they'd be fine for project studios, demos, maybe not professional recordings for commercial release - maybe see other reviews from people who've recorded with them ) at a frankly crazily low price - basically for the price of one or two decent mics you can get this whole set. They're so cheap, you could just buy them for the great kick & tom mics!
I am frankly amazed at this mic set. from the moment I opened the nice padded carry case and picked them up - the tom and snare mics feel nice and reasonably heavy and robust, as good quality, vastly more expensive branded mics are. The clips are good quality and nice and secure when attached to the rims. The kick mic is extremely heavy and robust, feels great quality It also happens to fit through a kickport (which I was dismayed to find the industry standard AKG D112 wouldn't fit through!) which was very useful for me as I'd just fit one to my kick drum! The overheads by comparison are very tiny (the smallest I've seen) and lightweight, nicely unobtrusive over the kit. They would also make a nice unobtrusive hi hat mic...
Sound wise I was immediately impressed with this set! The kick mic is awesome, it has a larger diaphragm and more bottom end than most (I have achieved a very beefy sound through my band's 400w front of house PA speakers at gigs without using the extra subwoofer speaker!), and I think equally on a par with the AKGD112 (although it is not quite as defined so you may need to EQ it a little more to get a 'clickier' sound. The tom/snare mics sound great on toms, nice and warm but with plenty of punch still, although not comparable to an sm57/8 when used on snare if you're after a meaty crack (but you can hardly expect that at this price can you).- live, you can still get a pretty good sound from these on snare especially if you clip it to the underneath pointing right at the snare wires! The overheads are good too, and have unexpected roll-off toggle switches on the side. Again not as impressive my Rode NT's at recreating the cymbals but I think each of my Rode's cost as much as this whole set. These overheads are certainly usable and again unexpectedly good at this price point.
Overall I couldn't recommend this set enough to anyone wanting a decent sounding, good quality, comprehensive whole set of drum mics for live use (I am yet to record significantly with these [they sounded great unmixed but haven't spent time mixing with them] but reckon they'd be fine for project studios, demos, maybe not professional recordings for commercial release - maybe see other reviews from people who've recorded with them ) at a frankly crazily low price - basically for the price of one or two decent mics you can get this whole set. They're so cheap, you could just buy them for the great kick & tom mics!
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A
The easy, all-around mic kit!
If you are a drummer wondering what mic kit to buy first, this is the one!
With the t.bone DC 1500 mic kit you will get a set containing 1 BD-300 bass drum microphone, 4 CD65 dynamic snare/tom microphone with rim attachments and 2 EM500 overhead condenser microphones with clips included: that's right, it's 7 microphones! All the microphones respect the standards for frequency and dynamic response, are easy to mount and stay in place. For each microphone, a specification sheet is included. As an added value, you get a sturdy all-comprehensive case with the package, perfect for carrying your mics around while touring. Actually, these mic kit could be the ideal touring companion, but don't be fooled by the price: these mics could surprise you even in the studio! They deliver a clean, powerful and manageable signal that sounds balanced even with a flat-EQ setting. So, if you're wondering what mic kit you should buy first, this is the one! And thanks Thomann for making it happen!
With the t.bone DC 1500 mic kit you will get a set containing 1 BD-300 bass drum microphone, 4 CD65 dynamic snare/tom microphone with rim attachments and 2 EM500 overhead condenser microphones with clips included: that's right, it's 7 microphones! All the microphones respect the standards for frequency and dynamic response, are easy to mount and stay in place. For each microphone, a specification sheet is included. As an added value, you get a sturdy all-comprehensive case with the package, perfect for carrying your mics around while touring. Actually, these mic kit could be the ideal touring companion, but don't be fooled by the price: these mics could surprise you even in the studio! They deliver a clean, powerful and manageable signal that sounds balanced even with a flat-EQ setting. So, if you're wondering what mic kit you should buy first, this is the one! And thanks Thomann for making it happen!
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J
T-Bone DC 1500
Very good quality for the price, these have been used in a studio setting for several years ans they have done well for us good all round sound output. we recommend these.
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A
I was skeptical as to how the Microphone set would compare against the more expensive brands, but I was knocked over by how great this mic set sounds.
My personal favourites are the overhead microphones. I usually couple one of these with a large diaphragm for recording the guitar. They have a really crisp high end, which makes them perfect for picking up treble frequencies.
You would be hard pressed to find a fault in the crisp tones during a drum capture. I have had no wish to change this kit or replace any of the mics with higher end gear.
The bass drum mic looks familiar, but also sounds like the D112.
The only problem that I have found with this kit is with the insert jack on the overheads. It feels like I'm going to break them when inserting an XLR. But, they haven't broken yet.
Great Sound and features 9/10. Seriously consider this drum pack before you look at buying more expensive gear.
My personal favourites are the overhead microphones. I usually couple one of these with a large diaphragm for recording the guitar. They have a really crisp high end, which makes them perfect for picking up treble frequencies.
You would be hard pressed to find a fault in the crisp tones during a drum capture. I have had no wish to change this kit or replace any of the mics with higher end gear.
The bass drum mic looks familiar, but also sounds like the D112.
The only problem that I have found with this kit is with the insert jack on the overheads. It feels like I'm going to break them when inserting an XLR. But, they haven't broken yet.
Great Sound and features 9/10. Seriously consider this drum pack before you look at buying more expensive gear.
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I
Overall - good mics for starters and for the money
I am working with a band in "online" project. Each band member records their work at home, then band leader is making the final mix. This is the reason I have purchased this set, to record my drum parts in my home drum studio.
As I am diving for the first time in drum set recording, overall I am satisfied.
Pros and cons:
- Bass drum mic is very solid and heavy. Brings the impression that is high end mic. I still struggle to record the best sound of my kick drum. I am playing metal and prog rock and could not make the bass drum to "click" on the tracks. Could be me, could be mic, could be the drum tuning. Still cannot tell for sure, yet.
-Overhead mics - I love them. The sound taken from them is nice and clear. The only thing which bothers me is that in the overall recording, my AAX metal crash somehow disappear in drums mix, which is strange. This cymbal is the loudest in my set. Still working on the best placement of the OH mics, it could be it, not the mics.
-Toms and snare mics - my toms sound fantastic on the record. On the snare I am missing more attack, but overall it even takes the specific snare ringing. I bet my snare will sound better if I place a mic on the reso head.
So far I found 1 main disadvantage of this mics. The rim attachments cannot be removed and therefore the mics cannot be mounted on standard mic stand. For me this is uncomfortable, because of the placement of my toms, I have to make strange hand curves not to hit microphone of my snare, when i am playing fills on my 10" tom.
Conclusion - best mic set for the money. I am sure at some point I will move to move expensive and quality microphones, but for the time being they are perfect so far
As I am diving for the first time in drum set recording, overall I am satisfied.
Pros and cons:
- Bass drum mic is very solid and heavy. Brings the impression that is high end mic. I still struggle to record the best sound of my kick drum. I am playing metal and prog rock and could not make the bass drum to "click" on the tracks. Could be me, could be mic, could be the drum tuning. Still cannot tell for sure, yet.
-Overhead mics - I love them. The sound taken from them is nice and clear. The only thing which bothers me is that in the overall recording, my AAX metal crash somehow disappear in drums mix, which is strange. This cymbal is the loudest in my set. Still working on the best placement of the OH mics, it could be it, not the mics.
-Toms and snare mics - my toms sound fantastic on the record. On the snare I am missing more attack, but overall it even takes the specific snare ringing. I bet my snare will sound better if I place a mic on the reso head.
So far I found 1 main disadvantage of this mics. The rim attachments cannot be removed and therefore the mics cannot be mounted on standard mic stand. For me this is uncomfortable, because of the placement of my toms, I have to make strange hand curves not to hit microphone of my snare, when i am playing fills on my 10" tom.
Conclusion - best mic set for the money. I am sure at some point I will move to move expensive and quality microphones, but for the time being they are perfect so far
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C
Excellent solution
Great mic set with good sound. I record with it all the time.
Excellent set, good value for money
Excellent set, good value for money
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Gf
Very decent mics, very good for the price, I love them, have a nice sound and very authentic
Love the mics, the kick mic is the best one, the snare/tom mics are very neutral when placed, gotta love the overheads, you can really use them very good if placed intentionaly right. really will not ever do these mics away, very handy with mounting and the quality is pro, when tweaked pro, even better.
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