AT2020 : Great value studio condenser mic

I am recording live drums on demos and band tracks. I bought a pair of these AT2020 mics to use as drum overheads, after also considering others such as Behringer B1, Studio Projects B1, Samson C01, etc. I chose this model for sound quality and build quality based on reviews.

Set up in the 'recorderman' configuration, the AT2020's capture a nice balanced stereo image across the drums with a nice 'live' sound that doesn't require your room to be perfect. Add kick and snare and you have a great basic working drum sound with only 4 mics.

I am very happy with these mics. The sound is excellent and they are well-built. They don't have a lot of features (no pad or roll-off), so what you see is what you get; but they do the job very well.

Of course there are better mics on the market, but you have to spend an awful lot more to get a significant improvement. I tested my AT2020's against a friend's AKG C214 (which costs four times the price). The C214 was just a little warmer at high frequencies, but with a little EQ they were almost indistinguishable.

Highly recommended for the price.

(Don't forget to buy a shock-mount! T-bone SSM 6 works well with this mic).