Audix D4

Been doing live sound on and off for more years than I care to admit. Currently I'm one of the local "ankle biters".

The D4 is a very good all-around mic. Floor tom, rack toms (I switched form D2s), snare, guitar cabs, kick (if you want a natural tone), horns,.... (I expect you could even use it for live vocals in a pinch). I give it a 7 because even the best mics are poor imitations of the real thing.

Been making music for 10 years, have been recording demos for all the bands that i've been in for the last 5. I mostly use a Roland vs-880ex to record and then mix/master on my computer with cubase and sound forge. My primary listening equipement is my Kenwood surround system and my Sony MDR-V900 headphones.

This is primarily a floor tom mic. I bought a pair together on Ebay for $130. I believe its hyper-cardiod. I used these recently to mic rack toms (which alot of other people don't like them for), and put an AKG D112 on the floor (which gave a HUGE 808 type of sound!). I would like to try some D2's for racks (which most people DO love) eventually but I got these on such a good deal and they are the only tom mics I have.

These mics are pretty damn good. If you want a real percussive sound out of your toms then these are it. You get super attack and a lot of low end tone. They are perfect for heavy music and can make crappy toms sound like the dude from Tool was playing them. I was using an Audix D6 for the kick so I almost had too much click attack on the kit but it sounded good for the super heavy band I was recording. I angled them directly at the center of the toms but if you where to aim them more at the rim you might get less click.

I would say these mics are primarily for hard rock and heavy music. If you are doing jazz or light rock go get some Sennheiser MD-421's or something (but you will have to pay over double for them than the D4's).