Mics for recording

Crash_thrash said:

I did not mention or questioned your drumming at all. In fact i have only respect to your drumming. You have misinterpreted my writing. All i was saying was, that if you had only the choice of the second setup -the one proposed by the producer- your engineer would have made it work.
Yes apparently you will not be able to finish on the first places of the Tour de France with a mountain bike but it is doable to run it with one.

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You questioned my take on the outcome.
My problem with your point is you weren't there. Of course we all tried to 'make it work'. The wholesale changing of the mics was a power play though, nothing to do with making a great sounding album. The producer freaked out because we had the audacity to achieve a nice basic drum sound with many of the usual suspects around the kit - Shure 57, Senn 421's, Neumann U87's etc.
My criticism is why TRY to be different (for no good reason) and end up with a less good outcome. That IS the point.
I always say this about drum grooves, fills, kit set ups, studio gear. The 'usual suspects' are what they are because they have proven to work over many decades.
Yeah, you can put a D12 on hi-hat and place a small condenser in the bass drum, but chances are it won't sound as good, that's why it is an unusual (super rare)choice of mics in the majority of recordings.

John B said:

I've heard that the only reason the 421 got used on toms is because it didn't sound particularly good on anything else. I had a pair and tend to agree. As far as toms go, the 421s are kind of wacky placement wise. Never used one on a bass drum though. And that integrated mic clip thing...yuk.

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I don’t like the 421’s in general. Had a few over the years.

Give me my Beta 98 Amp’s any day.

I'm not joining the fray. I just wanted to add this. Ronan Chris Murphy did this for his online drum recording course. If you are unaware of his work look him up. I would highly recommend his online course for anyone starting out recording drums. It is less than $50 now. I paid more and would do it again in a heartbeat. Check this out: