Apex Electronics DP2 Drum Pack

Been making music for 45 years. Pro musician for 35 years. Home studio - not pro studio engineer but very experienced. Using Sonar 8, waves Mercury, Presonus FireStudio and Digimax FS for a mobile 24 track I use for live recording.

This is a package of drum kit mics. I actually bought this for the small clip-on 165 mics and figured if any of the other mics turned out to be useful, that would be a bonus.

I have used the Audio Technica Pro-35 and was looking for a flatter response clip-on for use with brass/woodwinds. Considered the Audix ADX20i - and the Apex 165 looks like the identical mic. Not sure if they are identical (Audix claims they make their own). I had tried the Audix F90 and it has the same upper mid peaks as an SM57 so great for drums but not what I was looking for.

I bought this kit hoping that the clip-on mics would be just right for a natural sound and the handy bell clip for sax. If they worked out that way, the price for the kit was less than buying three ATM Pro 35s or any other sax clip-on mic.

Apex 165 clip-on:
The clip works well and positions much better than the ATM Pro 35 clip. The mics sound great in recording - much flatter than ATM Pro 35. Using it live - much more prone to feedback than ATM-35. Not nearly as directional

The kick drum mic was a nice surprise - first impression was bad though. I removed the large screen and found a tiny element inside. Why try to fake like it's a large diaphram mic when it's not? However it really does sound wonderful on kick and seems to have the proper kick EQ curve naturally (sounds just like a beta 52). The Beta 52 it is copied from also has a tiny element inside a large housing and, though I suspect it's all just for show, perhaps the size and shape of the shell really does affect the sound.

The snare mic also sounds great - can't tell it from an SM57.

I can't use the 165 clip-on mics for live sax as I had hoped. They feedback too easily but they are great for recording (though if I were recording I'd use a ribbon instead). The clips work very well on congas and they sound good for this application. They were meant for toms in this drum pack and I bet they would work well for that purpose, though I haven't tried them yet.

I haven't used the 190 pencil condenser mic much so far - from what I can tell it should work well on hi-hat or as an overhead but I really haven't compared it to anything yet.

Oh, one other issue - on the 165 mics. They have the electronics in the oversized XLR connector (just like the ATM Pro 35 and others) but the pins in the XLR connector are undersized. They don't make a solid connection in some mic cables. Musician's Buy included mic cables with this drum pack as a bonus - and those cables fit these mics fine. But my Mogami mic cables would not make a tight connection in the socket of the 165 mics. So that's something to be wary of.

The price is much higher now than it was when I bought my DP-2. I'm happy with the sound of these mics - but the current price is right up there where an Audix or some other brand drum pack might be a better choice (and you wouldn't have to deal with poor fitting XLR connections. I didn't have a set of Audix drum mics to compare - I would guess that I'd get much better feedback rejection with Audix for live use.