At church we use the Audix F-15's, which came with a package of drum mics. I'm not entirely sure, but judging from the mics that we have on the drumkit, I think it's the 7-piece Audix Fusion kit with the 3 F-10's, 1 F-12, an F-14, and 2 F-15's.

Anyway, I'm sure these mics will work fine. Sorry if this is a stupid question, but are you going to be using these mics for live work (like I would at my church, for example), for home or studio recording, or for both? I've heard these mics in use at my church, and for what we do, they work great. I've heard them out in the audience several times, and while I don't remember ever hearing a demo of ONLY those mics, they work fine. So I'm sure that if you use them live, they'll do alright.

Recording I think they'd be good, but since I have no experience with them in that field, I can't really make an accurate comment.

The F-15 mics aren't in the $50-$75 range, but they certainly aren't anywhere near $350. They're just a little over $100 each. Try checking them out for yourself.

Good luck!

Thanks for the resonses guys.  To be quite truthful, I'll be doing both live and studio.  I'm going to look into the Audix right now. 

Honestly, don't fret. Microphone choice at this level wont make much difference, the big differences will be in the source and as you gain experience with the whole sound thing. (live or studio).

As long as it's the right type of microphone for the job you want (which it is) and isn't ridiculously noisey you'll be fine.

Anyone have experience with the Audix i5 snare mic?  It's comparable to an SM57 but has more tone in the lower frequency range.  I'm told it will help deliver a fatter snare sound, and I'm thinking about picking one up. 

Any comments about the i5?

i like the i5 alot more than i like a 57 in pretty much all applications.  smoother response without that gigantic 15khz hump.  basically it's a better mousetrap.

there's very little difference in inexpensive mics.  for cheap OH's, i like the MXL604's-- they include a pad a a low roll-off, both of which can be useful--  especially the pad for OH's.  moving up the scale you can get a pair of decent rode's for aorund $400, and from then on up you've oot josephsons, neumann, mojave, dfa..

also take a peak at the cheap audio-technica mic's, as well as the original oktava mc012's that are on sale on the web.  not dirt cheap but solid recording tools, for sure.

I agree with David about the 57. It's an industry standard.
On the other hand, I've read a lot of comments on audio forums by people who prefer the i5. I plan to try it myself soon. It's a very cheap mic IMHO.
If you can afford to have both, do so. If you must choose, the only one I can recommend right now is the 57.

Cool. Let us know what you think of them when they get here.

And about the SM57, I think that mic will work on almost any instrument at close range,  right? I kinda found out the hard way that dynamics aren't very good for overhead microphones or for distant applications. The last week at my church before we moved out to the facility, I was running sound, and I put an SM57 up for the overhead. Since we used a large gym with pretty much no padding inside (except for the people and a few rare padded surfaces), and the band didn't want to put up the large absorption pads that go behind and in front of a drum set when a sound screen is set up, the sound echoed a lot. The drums were a bit overwhelming, so me and another sound man turned the overhead all the way down, and it made absolutely NO difference. I guess you can say I learned my lesson that day.

I agree also, I'm familiar with this mic.


That sounds pretty negative, and maybe you didn't mean it so, but could you elaborate?  From the way I understood it, (and how it was explained to me) is that the i5 is supposed to be an equal to the 57, however it has better low end response.  Now, I haven't tried it, and at the moment, have a 57 on my snare...but from looking at the frequency charts of both, the i5 does look good. 

It's priced exactly the same as the sm57, so were you referring to general quality?
I'm not trying to pick a fight, I just want to understand correctly what you meant.

In English english (not American english) 'cheap' means something doesn't cost very much.


Exactly, so I plan to own both, unless I find I really don't like the i5.
If you can afford two reasonably cheap mics, you'll be able to put off the either/or decision too.

Would you say that the 'advertised more low end' of the i5 to be noticeable?  That is what is said to be different from the 57, is the added low end of the i5.  The whole deal being to give a fatter snare sound than a 57.  Would you say it does that, or too hard to tell?