Sennheiser E604

I've seen hundreds of specs from live bands and the standard mic request for toms and snare bottom is a 604, with good reasons. They are great for live sound, and only a few tom designs will not fit well with the clip.

Practically speaking they are light, small, adjustable and built to survive many years of contempt. We have 7 in one of the venues I frequent, they are 9 years old and still look and sound fine, despite being: hit thousands of times, thrown, crushed and flooded.

The sound is what you want in a live situation: you can get a nice deep tom sound with clarity (even if it can be a little too bright for some situations). The dynamic range and sensitivity are well matched to the job, loud tom hits won't overload and softer drummers can be boosted without undue noise.

I have tried recording toms with it and while it was ok, the clip colours the low mid to bass frequencies via mechanical transmission and without heavy EQ its a little underwhelming. I personally would rather have MD421s or even just overheads compared to the 604s.