Cheap Drum Microphones Changed How I Think... 

A very old Portuguese sound engineer always taught his students: "You can ALSO make good recordings with good microphones"

I recorded a Crate amp. Notoriously hated brand, went bankrupt a while ago. Everyone had a Crate practice amp back in the early 2000's, and I never remembered them sounding good. But on this one occasion, for this one song, we quad-tracked drop-E rhythm djent riffs through it with an SM7b offset towards the edge and it was just perfect. It fit into the mix like a puzzle piece and had some really special character to it. It's one of those really unique tones that I'll never forget, and won't even try to replicate.

Happy new year! I really enjoyed our conversations at middle farm, and I’m really happy to contribute food for thought. You’re easily the most laser-focused producer I’ve worked with, quite the opposite to my more scattershot brain! My “give everything a shot” approach comes from my learning history- I studied at a uni way back in 2004, and recorded EPs with U87s on everything and they didn’t come out great (my inexperience), and later had no money to invest in big name brands, so would try anything affordable to attempt to get close. I learned that there’s some amazing gear at every price point (and also some real garbage at every level!) and that often the lower priced product from a company with a point to prove can be way better than the big names that rest on their laurels and trade on their history rather than the here and now…. Enough rambling- have a good one, hopefully see you soon 🤘

Great video! I'm so glad that we all explored something new in the process. I found myself surprisingly open to new ideas during the whole session.. I have a tendency to stick with only what I know, and I'm really glad that I just went with the flow. It was an awesome experience tracking with you man. Thanks for being involved!

Speaking of “cheap” mics… that same Oktava you’re using for your voice took me through hundreds of recordings without missing a single detail ever for the past 15 years👏 Thank you for delivering great recordings man! 🙌❤️

Rode Nt1 in the late 90s had this kind of impact. a lot of people were initially like, 'nah' but everyone who used it were like 'huh ok thats actually really good' every now and then somebody makes something good and engineers are just super slow to adjust the trust-zone

Great video George! I can say that putting an SM137 on a Marshal 4x12 with a small 25W Mesa Mark V in a sort of off-axis position with a ts9 in front sounded much better than I ever thought it had any right to. Another example was a tutor at my university putting an SE4400 as a kick out mic, which gave us some of the thickest sub I've ever heard with little to no processing. All in all, plenty to try out and see what works nowadays. At least I see it that way:)

We're huge fans of Lewitt, they're a game changer for home studios like us!

You have to remember when brand name bias appears in your head that all the vocals on Boston's first album were recorded with SM57s

You always get the snare on point. It almost always has a barking sound which I love! Nolly was always high on my list for drum mixes but you have quickly gone past that! Keep up the amazing work.

thank you so much for putting out such incredible consistent content george :)

Great video! Recently, I did an EP for an extreme metal band with an extremely low budget. For vocals, we used an SM57 and a borrowed Shure PGA48. Plugins were all Reaper stock or freeware, and the band loved the results. Now I want to try more cheap mics lol

Something like 10 or 12 years ago, I picked up a drum mic pack by Electro Voice. It was $400. I just needed something to get by and the plan was to replace them one by one with "better" mics. Here i am over a decade later and I'm still running the same mics. All I have done to change things was expand on my set to have a more full featured mic set. So now I have large diaphragm condensers for over heads, room mics, close mics for ride and hats, close mics for shells. All of this includes the original mic kit I purchased all those years ago. None of them have been "replaced" but some have been moved for other uses. Like the kick mic i now use for floor toms (also works on bass guitar) and have an audio d6 for kick. The kit came with 1 pencil condenser that was likely meant for over heads, I use it for micing hats. I ended up picking up an audix pencil condenser for acoustic guitars and I also use it for close micing rides. Point here being, I thought I was purchasing something cheap and temporary and it didn't take me long to realize, I get really good results out of them. I expanded on what I had and ultimately made my "cheap temporary" purchase way more valuable. Important to note, just because something is marketed as a kick mic doesn't mean thats what you have to do with it. Try that "snare mic" on your toms or guitar cab. Try that "overhead mic" as a room mic or close mic a cymbal or acoustic guitar. Learn your gear, experiment with it, and watch the cost or the name associated with it becomes 100% irrelevant.

sneaky sneaky on the colours, contrast, and sharpness 😉 great video, thanks! I wonder if it is partly due to the sunk-cost fallacy: the phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it.

it always a good day when George uploads a new video 🤩🙏 cheers

Great video as always. And this drum sound is amazing and it's so cool that its mostly natural, or rather little processing. Very cool!

Line Audio CM4s are fantastic SDCs, for about £100. So good on many applications, but I really like them on overheads. And they're tiny too, which makes them very useful. Slightly above the Lauten's price bracket, I really like the Audix drum mics too. Especially the D4, which is also nice and deep but melodic on bass cab too. But with the D2 makes a good tom mic pair. I think I prefer them to the more standard Sennheiser MD421-II, which has an awkward physical design, clip problems and costs over twice as much. The Audix D6 is nice for modern kick, and dubby / subby bass too, nice to have alongside the more classic sounding Beta52A, and I prefer it to the D112 for deep kicks. And the Audix i5 can be more articulate on bottom snare (or guitar amp) than an SM57. Above that price range, Lauten's drum mics are really nice too, especially the snare mic sounds particularly good - would like to buy one.

I was surprised by the GGD drum libraries. I actually like the first Matt Halpern library the most but tried it last. A few weeks ago you said on Instagram that you like this library too. That made me really happy☺️🤘🏻 Happy New Year, keep doing your shit😉

I had the same realization recently with cheap guitar pedals. Especially after watching a lot of the JHS streams, where they do the $30 pedal VS $4,000 pedal. While this is leaning a bit more into "clone certain product" territory, I was astonished to hear a $20 Behringer pedal sound exactly the same as a $600 boutique Boss pedal.

fuck man, your content is unbelievable, i hear your work and am always blown away, that mixed with how down to earth you are, might be the reason why you create perfect content for the ones who need it the most(the 95% of us who either have trauma or fear trapped in us so we have issues around earning money and becoming someone but we just love making and recording music) most people i know make incredible music with cheap gear but interestingly a bias gets created on the opposite side, for example the kinda people who aren't interested in pricey gtrs but have never tried playing one, or for that matter never played a gtr that is intonated n stays in tune haha either way the more bias i have the less fun I'm having, thanks again george great topics

Great video! Some years ago, I purchased a couple of Audio-Technica AT2041SP kits. I used them for a few sessions and thought they were decent overall. I didn’t use them for several years as I wasn’t doing much recording. I recently started using the AT2021 SDC’s again to record acoustic guitars. I was pretty impressed with their performance. They are quiet, fairly sensitive and not overly bright. They don’t have any pad or roll off switches which somewhat explains their lower cost. I also recently picked up a stereo pair of GAP FC14’s. Again, on the budget side. Again, I was impressed with their versatility. These do have pad and roll off switches. To me, these seem a bit flatter sounding than the AT’s but overall decent. Being retired and on a limited budget, I can honestly say that there is some junk out there that I would not buy. There is really good budget gear that’s being produced that won’t break the bank.

It when after years of using great mics, going through my mic locker and finding the maudio Sputnik (my first tube condenser) I haven’t used in like a decade or more. I said to myself, why not. Threw it up. Realized that it sounds fantastic and now want to throw it up in vocal shootouts with my “nice” mics. I am now taking inventory of all my gear I never really use anymore.

Great topic of conversation!! Lewitt makes incredible gear!

I knew when I started listening to sleep token those were fully natural drums. And then I found your reddit Q/A. And then I fell in love. Keep it up man you're an inspiration.

Great to see you back on here man and thank you for another video! All the best for 23

Thanks a lot for the clear explanation on those mics! I use for my the recording for my students the AKG (+/- €325) and they do a pretty good job for the price!

One of my friends is a fellow photographer, and I really like her work. I've been shooting on mid- to high-end Canons for years and my current camera bag is worth nearly 5 figures. Well, one day I learned that she shoots on a tiny entry-level Nikon (D3200 I think) that has been beat up and abused since about 2012. Currently, her entire camera is worth about as much as my flash, and I can't quite decide whether to be angry or inspired by how fantastic her photos are. Yes, there are some pretty clear technical and user-experience advantages to my kit (speed, resolution, weatherproofing, etc) but at the end of the day her clients are happy and her work looks great.

It's very interesting, I just ran into this. I've always miced up grand pianos with big Neumann u47s, or other similar tube mics, for the Left and Right channels, and then a Heil dynamic on the middle sound hole of the soundboard for the Center channel. On this current record, we swapped the L/R channel mics with these TINY SDCs from a Swedish guy who makes them very inexpensively by hand for about $110 a piece. They're CM4s, which I learned about from classical recording engineers who want all the transient information and no coloration at all from the mic itself. And you know what? I was blown away at how fantastic they are. Ergonomically, setting them up is a pleasure and the much smaller footprint actually allowed me to be more experimental with my mic placements, and I've ended up with something that just works so much better in a lot more situations.

yes. Skills are always what matters. and good micing choices

While I was working at a music gear store I routinely took mic’s home to try out. I was looking for a large diaphragm condenser that I could use as my main “everything” mic. For vocals, guitars, and drum overheads. I purchased the Aston Spirits as I found they were at the tipping point of the “law of diminishing returns”. Unfortunately I left there before they started carrying Lewitt, or I probably would have purchased that drum pack. I’m still going to purchase a pair of the LCT140air’s.

That makes sense.... That has been the best analogy for recording with different mics. Goes with other things well too for recording and also making a tone. I can't have that warm light in my house. If it looks like the sun is going down, I feel sad or uncomfortable. It is from my childhood and know if I see the sun going down to that kinda color I have to go home and do shit. Then sleep and do shit at school. White light. In a good bulb is my favorite because it reminds me of luxury. But I know people that doesn't care which one. They do care about their rgb stuff on the computer, mouse, gpu, liquid coolers have rgb... But obviously you can buy bad mics. So those are the people that only have warm small lights in their computer and keyboard.

I bought a guitar with EMGs in it, an was fully prepared to swap them out. Decided to give 'em a try, and they weren't as bad as I expected/remember/told myself. Then I thought, why not do the 18v mod, that people are talking about? I did that, and they sounded great, and now I can't imagine taking those pickups out of that guitar. That surprised me.

I just went thru a similar happening! I also learned that a decent set of mics for $300-$400 dollars sounded as good recording vocals and guitar cabs through a good preamp 1073. The preamp made a much bigger difference in sound quality with these mics so much so, I prefer them to my much more expensive mics! $800-$1700. As you said my own subjective bias because of their price or my unfounded believes...

That's the law of deminishing returns. A 1000 dollar mic will not sound ten times as good as a 100 dollar mic.

Happy New Year and thank you for this video!!

I think it’s about context too. I love using cheaper dynamic mics when a band tells me they want a less detailed presentation. To me, condensers are accurate and/or pretty. Everything has its place for sure

Great and important perspective. Doesn't hurt to record someone with world class technique in a nice room too :)

Upvote this so Lewitt lets George keep the mics!

Did anybody else notice the subtle contrast and colour grade changes when he explained how different aspects were represented differently at 4:20? (heh). Nice way to drive the point home tbh.

This is one of the best video's I've seen ever!

I'm a drummer, and I wouldn't want to change the position of my tom up on the bass drum, then I bought a stand to center them, I was 100% sceptical, yet I LOVED IT, and have been using to since

The gear that changed my perspective on this is ZOOM MS-70cdr guitar/synth effects pedal. I found out that to me it sounds as good as some of the vintage pedals it emulates but without some of the drawbacks of a vintage pedal, like extra noise and other quirks. What it lacks is then ability to easly manipulate all the knobs on each pedal, it does not feel the same. But sound wise it is great for my needs.

This video was great, dude! For me, the last time my bias got blown away was with the Bus Comp from Warm Audio. I picked one up half expecting to want to swap it out for something else, but i was really surprised by how much i like it vs the plugin that i used to use to do the same thing.

Had to rewind 3 times when you were using the camera lens comparison to make sure I wasn't bugging out....

So, we getting thos bilo 4 playthroughs?

Lewitt are very cool!!great vid mate

Ironically enough, the last time I had this happen was with the Lewitt 140 Air small diaphragm condensers. I was skeptical based on the price, but I put them up on the kit and they became probably my favorite SDC's (yes, even over my Neumann KM 184's). I was particularly skeptical of the high end boost, but the mics, when used as overheads, sound like tracks that have been carefully eq'd and processed for a final mix when the "AIR" switches are activated. I can't say enough good things about those mics and I'd happily try out one of their kick mics, tom mics or large diaphragm condensers.

Super interesting! I love the way you teach and explain things. Such a great perspective on recording and how you should always experiment. Lately I experienced mixing and trying my old pairs of headphones (I have VSX now, but got back on my HD600s and AT M50s for experimenting). And I was surprised how they sounded, like I was re-discovering them again. Got me interesting results. Thanks for the amazing content George, I wish you a happy new year!

Your idea of cheap has changed how I think too lol 😂

Good lesson for younger/less experienced people here: the sound source, the room, and the player are all far more important than the mics and outboard gear.

In the 80's I bought a box of mics at a garage sale for $3 because I had just gotten my first 4 track. One was a wierd akg that has remained my secret weapon snare mix to this day the other two were classic EVs. For years I thought I needed to get other mics to fulfill their roles but I keep going back to them. The snare in particular is so distinctive and not an sm57. It has become a signature.

This bias in my experience seems to apply particularly to any gear made in China . . . only to be very pleasantly surprised by just how good the stuff often is. And even if it doesn't sound exactly like whatever expensive brand I'd normally consider superior, it can be different in a fresh way that's actually inspiring and gets you thinking outside the box. All good!

I tracked an EP with an Aston Vocal mic instead of my usual Neumann U87 last month, i think the price difference is a solid 1.5k so naturally i was like 'this is going to be awful...' but I found the top end (which is the main reason i would usually stay away from Astons) helped the vocal performance to stand out without the usual top end processing i would do on vocals, not saying its my new favourite mic but 'a bad workman blames his tools' could be used as an argument for my previous, less-experienced self!

Don’t think I’ve clicked so fast to one of you videos 😂. Thanks for being an inspiration

Subbed. Thanks for the work you do

Great, now I want these mics even I dont even have or record drums :D

“Saying yes to things more often, even if I’m sceptical.” There’s a mantra for 2023.

every shot in this vid is crazy looking. tasteful grain too

A big bias i discovered in myself relates to guitar pickups. For the longest time I felt like I NEEDED to have more expensive, boutique pickups to get the sounds I like from my guitars. I was very hesitant to buy/install pickups from brands like Dimarzio or Seymour Duncan, I was biased against these brands. Recently, upon prodding from my guitar tech / roommate, I decided to give a couple DiMarzios a shot inside a project guitar that I was finishing up. I was blown away by the tone and came face-to-face with the fact that I had avoided these pickups for years for no real reason.

I went to Monnow Valley to track drums once and the engineer asked me to bring some more drum mics for an experiment. I said all I had was ‘cheap crappy’ ones, he said it doesn’t matter, these cardioids all sound the same!

Always great food for thought.

Just went through an upgrade process of getting new studio monitors. I have been super keen to get some mid grade monitors. Anyway saw a crazy good deal on a set of Presonus Sceptre s8's and the reviews on these are across the board very positive but my internal bias kept saying presonus arent in the same leauge as the monitors that these are reputed to be as good if not better than..tried a few of the other more usual brands in this price range and yep..they really are pretty awesome and compete well above the asking price (especially as the set I got was basically new for 1/3 of retail). So many companies making great products that i think being able to fight our bias is a great thing. Plus you could make a kids karaoke set sound good so that is another factor...

I recently was getting ready to not like my new co-worker. But I did give him a fair shot... and I did not like him 😅

I have a handfull of Behringer mics that will cover any gig if needed, the XM8500 passive vocal mics and the SB78A condensers, great option for a very low price!!

There's a website loaded with mic samples and exposes the kings clothes for what they are. We have all been marketed too. Maybe 50 years ago there was a substantial difference but today there isn't.

Love the philosophy of this. Getting into audio there's heavy industry bias and it's hit or miss. The reality is stuff might not be optimal but literally anything will work and nothing will be terrible as long as the performance is up to standard

So I bought a SM7b and tested it against a beta 58 with the capsules equal distance from 2 different singers. Long story short, the SM7b went back to the shop. No noticeable difference in sound, switches can be emulated in the box. 100% sure I will by a SM7b in the future if I get the funds, but only 1% because of how is sounds. I've also being putting off shooting out a beta 57 and an Audix i5 on snares to see which one I like more. Got an i5 because the internet told me 57's are boring', but then found out (on the internet) that Nolly uses a beta 57 on his snares. But that's a sorry for another day

Five years ago, I was absolutely against any Allen and Heath product. Now after using many of their products, I am recommending and installing their products and almost every project. I was a Yamaha snob for most of my life.

My answer to gear bias is Advertising, we're programmed to believe one is better than the other like with alot of consumer products most are made in the same factory's but we would always buy a brand name over an unrecognised brand or non branded

As Forrest Gump once said, "I may not be a smart man, but I know that the price point of a microphone bundle does not necessarily dictate what they will sound like." I don't think he actually said that. What I do know is that Tue Madsen uses cheap mics on toms because he likes how it sounds. I learned from him that it's ok to experiment. If it sounds good, use it - if not try something else. We record $3000 guitar rigs through a $60 SM57 because it works. It should work for drums as well.

Marshall Origin 2x12 guitar cab. Thought it would be bad - I've disliked almost all other Marshall cabs - this one just sounded good for some reason and we went with it. It wasn't the 100% finished guitar sound (we blended a reamped Mesa Single Rec into a Mesa 2x12 later) but it ended up being a major component of a really good active rock guitar tone.

The expensive mic is not always the right mic for the job. Same goes for the cheap mic. I haven't had the chance to use the Lewitt drum mics (?) but i am curious to know how they would fare in the non-drum recording situations that your "bias" mics will also do well on.

1 sushi - love it. I was just a scared lil kid I guess. 2 I'm sure I'm not the only one but stock logic plugins.

Trying SM57’s on toms instead of the MD421’s we had laying around. I mean, of course they are the standard for everything, but I thought since every thing I know for toms is using MD421’s I just figured Nah…. Won’t be as cool. Turned out they sounded waaaay better for the record.

Recording drums is the only thing I do. And my personality is that of a contrarian. I actively seek out ways to do things that most would think won’t sound good. I used to be one of those assholes in high school who didn’t like something just because everyone else did (stupid yes) but it has lead me to actively seek out ways to get great sounds out of things that most others would instinctively say “that’s not gonna work.” Here’s two examples that continuously blow people away when they hear my tracks: the Behringer BA19a, a $70 mic, is the best kick drum mic ever made, at ANY price. Audix D6 is the best tom mic ever made, rack toms, Floor toms, doesn’t matter… the best! Try these sometime and see the results!

I for sure have deemed something unusable before ever plugging it in. Like all those old peavey amps with the ugly silver strips on the side. I proved myself wrong though when got my hands on the 400 series. Got rid of my 5150 to use the peavey musician fully.

I don’t think there is a need for expensive mics or mic pre amps. I use the same preamps and mics that Ulrich Wilde uses. It cheap Behringer mixer with invisible preamps and Sm57. The mixer cost me 50 bucks. Ulrich Wilde uses a larger version. But I get monster metal guitar tones for very little money.

What do you call the thing in the floor where there are many mics connected? The one that you can see in the thumbnail

the fetheads for me! i can't say enough about them; i did blow up one doe, LOL! get's really close to the "classic rock" sound at 80 bucks each hahah! great stuff!

man that snare sounds absolutely amazing. what is it?

I've always had a strong affinity for and loyalty to Fender guitars. A couple weeks ago I saw a Guitar Center-brand fretless bass for $99 and morbid curiosity (along with a couple gift cards) got the best of me. I decided it would make a good RU-vid video; see how terrible and useless this bass would be. Turns out, I really like it. A flawed but fun instrument, and totally useable in the studio. Great video George!

George, use the word you're skipping around, it's "snob". A lot of us are snobs with gear, and then we're proven wrong. I discovered Phil Anselmo used an SM58 for most of the Pantera stuff. If something sounds good, it's good, no matter the pedigree or price tag.

I dodged behringher interfaces a lot of time until for neccesity I bought the umc1820...it filled all my needs also tube screamer pedals, I still hate the simple and overrated they are, but I really enjoy mine haha

Confess your bias!

cool shit G

yes. those drums sounds are great. but I also need to say that this voice over tone is also great...which is sadly a hit and miss thing these days...especially in sound related videos.

If someone can’t get a great recording with sub $300 microphone, they don’t know what they are doing!

the older i get the more i am getting a little less closed minded ...i was such a gear snob and needed to justify my purchases... i think we need more people like lewit and less clones companies old stuff is great but maybe not dollar for dollar worth it...great vid

I had my god damned vegetables ready, what do i do now?

I had to plug into a Marshall Valvestate at some point and my bias was that a solidstate power amp was going to suck for the midrange of my guitar sound. Turns out I was right, if I ever have to use one again, I'll probably skip.

I know Glen Beck uses a Lewitt

In the "old days" there were only really great mics, and garbage ones, so it perpetuated the idea that you needed really good ones. Nowadays, people take for granted that you can get great mics for very little money.

I always try ti avoid that but the most of the people this problem with DAWS.

If sm57 for $100 can be a studio standard for decades, why can’t a Lewitt 440 become a studio standard for $270

A very good drummer and an average producer/engineer can make $100 mics sound like $5,000. A bad drummer and bad producer can make $5,000 mics sound like a smartphone.

So serious question from an amateur/newb Home recording idiot...LOL. I have a small bedroom studio and I love learning about different techniques and such. Question : Why is there this negativity towards inexpensive gear? Microphones seems to be a big one. I know we want to get the sound as good as possible from the source ie; the mic. BUT. After you EQ, compress and process the signal does it really matter if the end result sounds good? I feel the same when people talk about "real" amps VS amp sims. And dont get me started on guitars...

switching to cubase?

People get so religious about their gear, audio, photo, whatever. As for the drums, no microphone can sound good in a bad room, while any microphone will be at least useful in a good room. And there is much more things to consider before paying so much for popular microphones, or for preamps, or even worse for converters, so on...

i prefer short videos. you don't need 25 minutes to explain 5 eq moves. i don't mean you, btw. just something I've noticed on yt

"not biased" - proceeds to literally define bias :p Everyone is biased. There is no unbiased review.