Basic drum mic setup; advice needed
Decided I need to start mic'ing my drums at gigs. Based on some live recordings, the hats and cymbals cut pretty well, but the bass, toms and snare could use some help. I'm on a budget, and I hate setting up PA systems, so simplicity is the key. Keep in mind, I play 1-up/1-down. Right now, I have the following that I can use;
(1) GearOne kick drum mic w/short stand (not great quality, but not bad)
(3) Steinhauer condenser mics (pretty good quality)
(1) 24V Phantom power supply to run the condensers
(1) Shure 57
(3) Shure 58
(9) Digital Reference vocal mics (the cheap ones, but sound OK)
(2) available channel inputs on our powered mixer I can plug into
(0) extra mic stands available
I'm sure I could make something work with what I already have, but I could spend around another $200 if needed. I'm thinking of buying a CAD Pro-4 mic kit (1 kick mic, 2-tom mics, 1-snare mic). If I ever play my 5pc kit, I could use my extra kick mic on the floor tom, so I'm covered there. I think the CAD mics with built in clips would be much easier to set up than trying to use regular mics on stands...plus we never have enough room on stage anyway.
My questions are; What do I need for mixing? Do I buy a simple 4 or 5 channel mixer (fairly inexpensive) and then run the output into one channel on our powered PA? Do I need any FX on the mixer, or just basic level control? I assume I can use the built-in FX on our PA on just one channel and not on the other vocal channels, but I'm not sure. Do I even NEED any FX or EQ on the drums? Do I want the drums coming back through the monitors or will that mess with us on stage? Any insight would be appreciated!
-Brian
"Too many crappy used drum stuff to list"
Play the SONG......not the DRUMS!!!
"I think that feeling is a lot more important than technique. It's all very well doing a triple paradiddle - but who's going to know you've done it? If you play technically you sound like everybody else. It's being original that counts." ~ John Bonham
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