Newsboys FOH mixer John O'Neal comments: "We are pretty particular about sound, right down to the microphones in our workbox. [Monitor engineer] Jeff Nolte and I began discussing our desire for some new microphones. Primarily, we wanted to go in a different direction with our drum kit - we had been using the same cardioid dynamic instrument mics on our toms and snare drum for the last six or seven years. The old mics weren't broken, so it wasn't like we had to make a change. We simply wanted better."
That's what they got with Audio-Technica microphones, and it transformed the sound of their drum kit. "Not only did we end up with a different approach on our toms, but also the snare drum and all of the cymbals as well," says O'Neal.
O'Neal and Nolte sought the big, open sound of a large diaphragm mic on the toms and found it with the AT4040 Cardioid Condenser Microphone. "The AT4040 has become our choice on the three floor toms, says O'Neal. Its large diaphragm and extremely flat response have really enabled us to capture the real sound of the larger drums in our kit. We ended up with the AE3000 Cardioid Condenser Instrument Microphone on the 12-inch rack tom, and it does a fabulous job on the smallest drum we have."
Then came the rest of the kit. "We're using a pair of ATM650 Hypercardioid Dynamic Instrument Microphones for our snare top and bottom, which are much warmer and fuller that what we'd had before," O'Neal comments. "And we are using the AT4041 Cardioid Condenser Microphone on the hi-hat and the ATM450 Cardioid Condenser Instrument Microphone under the cymbals instead of as overheads. We do that for aesthetics, to keep the profile of the kit nice and low."
Audio-Technica microphones delivered so well on the kit that vocalist Michael Tait is now using the AE5400 Cardioid Condenser Handheld Microphone and its wireless counterpart, the AEW-T5400a handheld transmitter with the 5000 Series UHF Wireless System, for lead vocals. "The AE5400 as our vocal mic choice has been probably as big a paradigm shift in the way the band sounds live as any drum mics we have started using." says O'Neal.
(Jim Evans)
