MXL A-5T TOM DRUM MICROPHONE
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MXL A-5T TOM DRUM MICROPHONE

MXL a-5T Main.jpg

TIGHT AND PUNCHY

The toms are often the hardest drums to tune properly and can create the most problems with resonant issues, so it only makes sense that you should have a specific microphone designed for this purpose. The tricky part is that you get a crisp higher mid-range from the attack of a tom with a booming bottom end to follow, so you need a microphone that will capture all of this. Set up fairly close to the top head of a rack tom, the A-5T does just that quite well. I find it better suited to smaller toms in the 10 to 13 inch range – most of your rack toms in fusion style kits – and it wasn’t as full sounding with larger floor toms, although it still delivered plenty of punch. That is what you want from your toms, a full, warm decay that follows a sharp, punchy attack to the note.

 

GIG READY

These are a fairly easy microphones to work with, especially if you are placing them on every tom around a kit. They come with drum mounting clamps, so you don’t have to use a stand for every one, which saves on space and setup time. In the mix, they are fairly forgiving, as they seem to sit in there nicely without too much EQ work required unless you have a loud stage that needs taming. And when you think of the purpose of every microphone on a kit beyond the overheads, these adhere to the task at hand, in delivering more definition and clarity to each individual drum on the rack. They’re ideal for the engineer or drummer on a budget that wants to bring more life to the live of recorded sound of a drum kit and they don’t require a degree in order to get a decent sound out of them.