When looking for drum microphones, specifically well matched tom mics, my partner and I looked far and wide, listened to many opinions, and listened to as many as we could to ensure the best quality we could afford. We heard offerings from AKG, Shure, Nady, and a few others that I just can’t remember off the top of my head. When we took our annual trek to the local Guitar Center, we were determined that day to get the best we could afford, and had the idea to just get 4 SM 57’s, one for the snare and three for the toms.
While sitting at the checkout counter, we noticed in their sales case a set of Sennheiser e604 tom mics. Now I will be the first to admit to everyone that I have never been a huge Sennheiser fan. I don’t know exactly what it is about them, but Shure has always had my heart. I have tried the comparable Sennheiser products to the SM58 and the Beta 58 as well as their higher end wireless systems, and while I don’t see anything wrong with them really, they just don’t give my ears the same rich sound that the Beta58 and the Beta87 produce (just my personal opinion, I know many people that feel the complete opposite). So while I hesitated to pick up the 3 pack of e604 tom mics, I decided with advice from the salesman to give them a shot. After all I can return them if I don’t like them, so why not?
What I was expecting was a generic microphone sound, something that would amplify the toms, but not necessarily create a high quality sound worth anything more than a generic instrument mic. What I heard was an engineering masterpiece. The sound of the toms was crystal clear, with tons of headroom before peaking. The clips are perfect for the toms (or snare if you get a fourth mic). The small size is great and I have never had a drummer complain about them being in the way yet. All that and I have the added benefit of not using up mic stands.
Now when we bought these mics, our only intended use for these little marvels were for the toms of sets we had mic’ed. During a bluegrass groups performance, the bass player was using a standup bass with no pickup available. I looked at the size of the e604 and figured it was worth a try to see what sound I could get. I was amazed at the quality of the standup sound through the little mic, and began experimenting with other instruments.
I now consider the e604 one of, if not the best instrument mic for the money in my gig bag. It has a crisper sound than an sm57, and the size to be used on just about anything, amped or not. Clip one on to a saxophone and enjoy a very rich and natural sound. Guitar amps? As Gallagher would say, no problem! Hand drums are perfect candidates as well. I have yet to try them as vocal mic’s but I am sure that gig will come when I run out of all other available mic’s.
If you are looking for some drum kit microphones, I highly recommend checking these e604’s out. They won’t break the bank at roughly $139 a piece, or $339 for 3, and can take the abuse of an occasional drumstick smashing into the microphone while the local slamming drum heads soloist goes to town. The versatility of these things rates as the highest in my gig bag, and you would be hard pressed to find a better sounding instrument mic at this price range. You can also buy these inside of a Sennheiser Drum mic kit with a kick drum mic, but I have not yet used the Sennhesier kick drum mics, so I don’t have a good opinion on those…..yet…..
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