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There are a lot of diverse options when it comes to determining the best drum mics to buy. You can choose from many different packs, from single microphones to complete drum mic kits.
There are lots of reviews online which detail the best drum microphone kits or just the individual microphones but in this article we will go into detail as to what you will need and the various different options available. Some packs will supply just one microphone, others will ship with a full set, others will include stands and leads.
Read on for our top choices.
Here are the best drum mics and mic kits 2025:
- AKG D112 MkII
- Shure SM57
- Samson C02
- Shure Beta 91A
- Sennheiser e 604 (3-Pack)
- Audix D2
- Audix DP7 (Package)
- AKG Drum Set Concert I
- AKG Drum Set Session I
- Shure PGADRUMKIT7
1. AKG D112 MkII
When it comes to miking the bass drum there are a lot of contenders but the D112 by AKG is widely considered to be one of the best-selling and widely popular mics out there.
It’s often referred to by its nickname as ‘the egg’, which is due to its egg-shaped grille. The D112 is shaped like this in order to deal with the wind pressure which is typical from a bass drum. This is a large-diaphragm dynamic microphone with a frequency range of 20 Hz to 17 kHz and has been shaped to enhance many of the desired characteristics of a bass drum.
Most bass drums have front heads with a small hole cut-out around the edge. This hole is so the drummers can access the inside of the drum and adjust the internal dampening, such as felt or pillows. Such dampening helps to control the sound of such a large drum and minimizes any unwanted overtones.
This cut-out also serves another purpose. The purpose here is so that the drum can easily be miked. Of course you can mic a bass drum which has no cut-out but there is a drastic difference in the sound and the mic placement options.
A bass drum resonant head with a cut-out means that the air is pushed out the hole when the drum is struck. If you position a mic, such as the AKG D112 right at the air hole, then the mic will pick up the sound of the drum along with the air which is being pushed out.
This air pressure can be detected by the mic and ads a lot of low end sub bass to the sound. The egg has been designed in this way so as to deal with the air pressure and capture it perfectly to create a bass drum sound with lots of low-end thump.
Image credit: AKG
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It is recommended to have a mic stand to use with the egg, although it will work ok simply placed in the center of the bass drum as long as it’s not in contact with the drum shell. It has a flexible mount which allows it to be angled easily at the air hole to capture the sound perfectly.
Also the AKG D112 MkII is versatile to a point in that it has been known to work well on other low-end instruments such as upright basses and bass amps.
2. Shure SM57
The Shure SM57 is something of a stalwart in the music industry. It has been around for generations now and is well known for its versatility, durability and great sound.
The SM57 is an alternative to Shure’s hugely popular SM58 which was designed primarily as a vocal mic. The SM57, on the other hand, has been designed for instruments and excels when used on the drum set. This is one of the best value for money microphones out there.
The SM57 is a popular choice when miking up snare drums. It’s very common to see one of these mics in at a live gig situation and often you’ll find one on the snare or even under the snare.
This is a cardioid mic so it’s perfect for picking up the playing area of a drum. Usually this type of mic is placed around 1-2 inches over the rim of the drum, so that it is close enough to pick up the stick attack but not so close as it may be struck by a flailing drumstick.
If it does receive the odd bash, the chances are it will be fine, as this is a robust and durable microphone, built with endurance and reliability in mind.
Image credit: Shure
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With a frequency range of 40 Hz to 15 kHz, this mic is perfect for mid ranged instruments. It doesn’t either an extremely high range or a sub-low range.
This is a great budget mic and every engineer should have at least one. It’s a relatively cheap option when you consider the other mics on the market at this price (currently it’s around $100 which is a steal for such a well-regarded microphone).
You can buy a Shure SM57 with the full knowledge that it will suit not just toms and snare drums, but also other instruments from vocals to electric guitar and bass.
3. Samson C02
This next product is a bundle pack of 2 condenser microphones by manufacturers Samson. The Samson C02 is an affordable budget pencil condenser microphone. The pencil here refers to the shape of this mic. It’s lightweight, small and highly sensitive. Being a condenser it will require a +48V phantom power source so do bear that in mind.
This pack of 2 mics also comes with much of what you will need to do a basic drum set recording. In days gone by it was very common to mic a drum set with just a pair of overhead microphones. Even classic rock bands like Led Zeppelin used this technique although in most cases they would add an additional mic to the bass drum.
Miking drums with overheads gives a totally different sound to close miking with clip-on mics. Overheads are usually placed a few feet above the drum set in order to capture all the drums and cymbals. This allows for a wide spread of sound with a lot more room sound than typical clip-on mics will give. For around $120 you can get this bundle pack by Samson which will give you that overhead sound.
Image credit: Samson
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The Samson C02 condenser mic is an affordable solution to anyone on a tight budget and in need of some passable overheads. These mics have a frequency range of 40 Hz to 20 kHz so they’re great for high frequency instruments and will pick up cymbals nice and clearly.
You can easily do quite a good recording job with a set of two overheads like this and maybe one more mic for the bass drum. That will give you good coverage of the drum set and works well in live situations too.
4. Shure Beta 91A
Now we move onto premium bass drum miking. This Shure Beta 91A is one of the best drum mics, for both recording and live sound, when dealing with bass drums.
It is tailor-made for bass drums of all sizes and sits snugly in the base of the drum. It has a unique and unusual design which makes it look nothing like a typical microphone. It’s a rectangular shape with an angular grille on the face.
This mic is perfect for sitting flat on or beside instruments. It can be used on bass amps and even pianos but it’s ideally suited to bass drums.
Sound-wise there’s a nice lower mid scoop setting which you can select it to if you want a thumping bass drum sound which still has a nice clarity of attack. Alternatively you can set it to flat if you want to capture other instruments such as piano without any sound shaping.
Image credit: Shure
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The Beta 91A is rightly regarded as one of the best drum microphones by engineers all over the world. When it comes to bass drum recording this mic always receives rave reviews and is one of the highest-rated mics. If you value a good kick sound on your drum set recordings and live situations, then you’ll love the Beta 91A.
5. Sennheiser e 604 (3-Pack)
This set of microphones by Sennheiser was designed for drummers and in particular is made to handle tom recording. This is a pack of three mics which are all Sennheiser’s e 604 model.
These mics are one of the top-rated mics for toms in this particular price range. Individually you can purchase one e 604 for around $150, although in this pack you make a saving as they retail for around $350 in total for three mics.
These mics are light and portable and come with clips for mounting. The clips will fit practically all sizes of drum hoop and even a few other instruments, such as percussion.
The sound handling of these mics is very high, so they are tailored for close miking on loud drums. You can use the e 604 on either a snare drum or toms perfectly well, although in contrast to other tom mics of this price range, they may have durability issues if you’re working with a sloppy drummer. For example, they’re nowhere near as robust as the Audix D2 series of tom mics which we’ll get onto later.
Image credit: Sennheiser
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All in all these mic do a great job and with the right EQing they can produce healthy, rich sounding tones on the drum set. Their durability is questionable and they do feel quite light to handle. This does have its benefits though, as they are one of the smaller tom mics around, and this means finding a suitable little hard case for them is never an issue. They fold into a small manageable size and the clips should fit most standard drums with ease.
6. Audix D2
As mentioned in the previous review, the D2 from Audix is a very robust and durable drum mic. This mic is ideal for toms but can be used on snare and other high volume instruments.
This particular package comes with the D2 and a suitable drum rim clip. The price of the bundle is around $130 so that’s pretty good value indeed, by our reckoning.
Like the Sennheiser e 604’s, the sound handling of the Audix D2 is quite high. Actually it’s much higher than the e 604’s so you’ll need to drive these mics a bit higher than most typical dynamic mics. This is a good thing, though as it means the D2 can handle very high volumes, be it from a floor tom or a noisy guitar amp.
There’s less chance of you blowing the internal components of this mic. The frequency response is 68 Hz to 18 kHz with a slight boost around the mid frequencies. There’s a nice low-mid boost which helps bring out the ‘note’ of a drum, with toms in particular.
Image credit: Audix
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The Audix D2 has a lot going for it. This mic will serve you well on toms or snare drums. It’s perfect for percussion too and will even function well on guitar and bass amps.
It’s strong and can cope with the rigors of touring as well as dealing with high volumes night after night. For the money it’s hard to go wrong with a D2.
7. Audix DP7 (Package)
And now we come to the first full drum mic kit on our list. Some of the previous kit bundles have included extras such as rim mounts and mic stands but this Audix drum mic kit has a complete bundle of microphones which can serve to capture a drum set in full.
So what do you get for around $1000? Well, in total there are 7 top-quality drum mics which range from tom mics to overheads, and everything in between.
Beginning with the snare, Audix has supplied one of their i5 mics. This mic is designed to capture and shape the sound source from a snare drum. It’s closer to a Shure SM57 in terms of sound.
For the rack toms we have two D2’s and a D4 for the floor tom. The D4 is a little more suited to lower end drums such as floor toms and also bass drums.
On the bass drum Audix have assigned the D6. This mic comes with a clip which can be connected to any standard mic stand.
There are two overhead mics included also. They are Audix ADX51’s. These pencil condensers are highly sensitive and do a great job capturing the drum set in full.
Image credit: Audix
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This is a good drum mic kit for $1000 and very durable. The Audix mics included in the bundle are very durable and built to last. Overall this drum mic set is very good value for money and well worth checking out.
8. AKG Drum Set Concert I
Now we move on to one of AKG’s most popular drum mic kits. The Concert I kit comes complete with 7 microphones, including 3 tom mics, a snare mic, a bass drum mic and 2 overheads.
For the bass drum we have the aforementioned AKG D112 ‘Egg’ microphone. Then there are 4 AKG D40’s which are for snare and toms. You can mic a typical 5-piece drum set with this drum mic pack.
For overheads there are two C430’s which are remarkably small pencil condensers. These are some of the best overhead drum mics in this price range. The whole set comes with an AKG hard case in which to easily transport the microphones.
Image credit: AKG
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This set comes in at $200 cheaper than the Audix set which is a good saving for a top-end drum mic set. It’s ideal for most typical drum set configurations and you’ll only need to supply the mic stands for the two overhead microphones.
9. AKG Drum Set Session I
Our next drum mic kit is a great budget option. The Drum Set Session I from AKG is aimed at drummers on a shoestring and offers the consumer 7 microphones for just under $400.
For the money you get 3 tom mics, a snare mic, a bass drum mic and 2 overheads. The bass drum mic is a P2. For toms and snare there are four P4’s. Finally two P17’s make up the overheads. The P17’s work well when used as hihat mics or cymbal mics.
Image credit: AKG
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This is a good entry-level drum mic set and these mics will last with proper care. For around $400 it’s certainly worth buying these mics altogether in a pack as opposed to separately as you make considerable savings.
10. Shure PGADRUMKIT7
This 7-piece drum mic set from Shure is priced at around $500. While there are no classic Shure mics in this pack, you do get a full set of drum mics and overheads. This is a good cheap set of drum mics for recording drums.
Included are the usual bass drum and snare along with three tom mics. These mics have been characteristically sound shaped for their individual purposes. The two overheads are condensers too, so you’ll need phantom power in your setup.
Image credit: Shure
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If you like the Shure sound but this is particular pack is out of your budget you can opt for their 5-piece mic setup. This costs only around $300 and is perfect for drummers who are happy to perform without any overhead mics or who have their own already.
Conclusion
We hope that you’ve found this drum mic review helpful. This is a list of the most highly-rated drum mics and drum microphone kits on the market today. These brands are well established among drummers and engineers as some of the most reliable and high quality.
When shopping for drum mics you have several options. You can start out small and buy maybe one or two mics to begin with so that you can get to grips with mic placement and your DAW.
Overheads are a good choice as they are very sensitive and so can detect most of the drum kit in full clarity. You won’t necessarily have the full punch of a professionally mixed drum set but it will get you started in basic miking and is perfectly suitable for beginner YouTube covers and the like. After that, you may want to move on to bass drum miking.
Two overheads and a bass drum mic is a classic technique for miking the drum set and is very effective. We have nominated our picks on this list but if that’s still out of your budget you can use any cheap vocal mic here just to get started.
One the other hand you can pick a drum mic kit and get stuck in. Drum mic kits are a bit more of an initial cash investment but you do make worthwhile savings when buying packs as opposed to separately. There are a few good drum microphone kits on this list for beginners to advanced drummers and engineers. Take your pick and get playing!