Pssst. Don't tell anyone but get an older Sennheiser 432 Profipower, it's a superb snare mic! I was searching for snare mics almost 10 years, always changing around and not beeing completely satisfied. I have now settled on the 431, fits my needs most of the time. Akg 451 can also be cool but that depends on the micing setup and music style. For a traditional setup the 431 is king. Another (even cheaper) option is the AKG C1000. Yes that one that sounds like shit on everything, for some reason it doesn't on snare. My last setup was the C1000 with the Revox 3500 or Beyer 201 taped together, very cool also.

Just a few days ago I got a used 431 for a very good price (G.Massenburg got me curious about it).
There are a lot of mics that get cool snare sounds, but this one hears the snare pretty much exactly as I (or any other drummer) hear it when sittting behind the kit.

Yeah, superb snare mic. It's supposed to have the same capsule as the 441 but without the proximity effect (or less). While this might be true i've never liked the 441 on snare top that much. Now i have 431 on top and 441 on bottom, both going into a 512c-first time i'm really happy with my snare.

So “Cheapie XYZ Microphone is to Snare”.

Like “Groupie is to sleeping with Bass Player”
(Rock band)

Makes sense.
Much like first Rule of Fight Club.
Chris

In my case it was only a "cheapie" because the guy selling the 431 was just a pro selling unused tools for a fair price, not some price-hiker surfing the "vintage" wave.

431 is a great mic!

They're getting pretty rare these days, but probably my favorite mic on kick and snare is the Peavey PVM 520i.



https://assets.peavey.com/literature...s/80301951.pdf

I still have one left over from the days of doing some live sound reinforcement and recording loud rock bands. Nowadays, I use it on guitar amps when I want a little more clarity/bite. Pretty much excels everywhere one might use a 57, but also makes a great kick or tom mic due to it's extended and flat extension way in to the sub bass frequencies (and still very directional in the lower frequencies). Has a neodymium magnet so it's a little condenser-like in it's transient response.

I even like it for vocals, but not necessarily out of the box, as it tends to be a bit peaky (that same peakiness works great, btw, for bringing out beater and stick attack on drums).

I also have this old Beyerdynamic stage mic, the TGX-280, that I liken to the Peavey, but it's even peakier, so not always the best choice for vocals. I dig it a lot though. Same diaphragm material as the M201, M88, etc (more condenser-like behavior).



Pulled both of these mics out of the bargain bin, basically, 50 bucks or less.

520i is fine on Vocals.
Usually hard to find one nowadays.
Chris

I never got the sound I wanted on guitar cabs with a 57. Always seemed too mid-y and biting, at least to my ears. Today I use a CAD D89, which I bought on one of those guitar store deal of the day things. It completely defied my expectations and takes whatever I throw at it.

I have a friend who swears by 57s. He works at a larger online music retailer who recently did a shootout between 57s and condensers on drums through some Helios preamps and thinks the 57s win outright. I think they give snares an overinflated basketball kind of boingy sound. I recently picked up the Lauten Audio Snare Mic and was blown away. Sure it costs 4 times a 57, but the proof is in the pudding. I did a side by side with one of my Audix D1s and a 57 on guitar and the Audix won by a mile. 57s are solid and cheap and of course if you run them through a $3500 preamp, you're gonna get decent results, but I'd rather have the mic do the heavy lifting at the source than blow $56k on enough preamps to record a band. And if you have $56k for preamps, why buy the cheapest dynamic mic you can? Now, this is all from a recording perspective. A crate full of 57s in a small venue will be just fine. Put em on everything. No one will know.

I regularly use a Lewitt MTP 440 DM in places where you would usually use a 57, great underrated mic IME, sounds great on guitar amps.
Also have and use the M201 and AKG D40, both great mics.

I've never liked Mexican made 57's, the old USA made ones sounded much better, that said I've liked 57's with an upgraded transformer like the TAB one, sounds much better than the current stock one IMO.
The off axis response is what I dislike the most about the 57 on snare the hi hat bleed sounds horrid, so harsh.