Snare, kick and two overheads has always been my mic set-up. They all go right into a small 4 channel mixer, or direct to the board. Hope you run into a string of good sound men at gigs! Those guys can make you... or break you. I always try to go out front and listen to how my drums are sounding from the audience's perspective. You'll find a world of difference in how your drums can sound mic'ed from out front, as opposed to what you are hearing from behind the kit. It's an education.

John

I used the CAD mics in a demo session some time ago. They seem quite good for the money. The clips that hold the tom and snare mics to the rims didn't seem to be too sporty, though.

For kick drum, you might consider a Shure SM91a pressure zone mic. If you have a port in the front head, simply place the mic on a folded towel or whatever baffling you might have laying inside the shell. It seems to pick up head tone and impact while rejecting the odd resonance(s).

I'd like to go off on a slight tangent in regards to close micing a drum set and something you'll need to take into account. If you've always played gigs without mics, chances are you run your drums "wide open" and unmuffled utilizing the drums full resonance. While this is absolutely the best way for your drums to cut through the band mix in that scenario, it could potentially cause issues when you add mics. You didn't state if you typically use a soundman or if your band runs their own sound. You see, when you close mic a highly resonant drum, the mic captures all of the overtones, and without some processing (i.e. gates for toms, some compression for the kick), you will likely end up with an unsatisfactory sound. My whole point here is to make you aware that using mics on drums requires some processing and eq'ing to get the right sound. There are a lot of soundmen that might say "can you muffle the toms a little" as it makes their job that much simpler. Just food for thought as the mics are only the first part of the equation..... The overtones are not an issue if you use overhead mics. Another important question is if you port your kick drum or not. You'd be surprised on how many soundmen cringe when they see an unported head on the kick drum - they have a more difficult time dialing in the sound as opposed to a ported head.

I bought that set a few years ago. $100 is a good price if they are in good shape.

When I asked the store owner if he could get me another bass drum mic for my other foot, he rummaged around in the back room and handed me a (working) D12!

Now I need to stumble across another one of those!

as a soundman myself...i could not of said this any better. when dialing in the band during the sound check...the kick is the first, snare, toms or overheads sometimes ive had to do both. then the bass guitar, lead and rythem guitar, fiddle then vocals, acoustic guitars last coz they are only used in certain songs. and for me...muffleing and a port hole is the only way to mic your drums.

as to whats the best mics for drums...i think it was vibes that suggested the shure package with the beta 52...that would be my vote. in my book, any mic shure...you cant go wrong. have worked with audix mics too they are nice mics too.

hope you find the right mics for your sound taste.

I ended up going with a $130 7 mic kit from Pyle. I have so much to learn I just couldn't see plunking a bunch of cash down. I need more pieces of this puzzle... most glaring is something to plug these into! :). Fun adventures ahead. Hope when I get this figured out that Pyle doesn't turn out to be a pile. ;)

I have the CAD pro-7 mics that I use to record. I've been pretty satisfied with them. They cost $200 new so if they are in working order I would say the $100 seems like a reasonable price.