My favorite mics I have used are:

Kick ? AKG D112

Snare ? SM57

Toms ? SM57

Overheads ? Samson C02 pair

Electric Guitar ? AT3035 at range with an EV RE15 and an SM57 close mic'd

Acoustic Guitar ? AT3035 and the Samson C02's

Bass ? AKGD112 mixed with direct signal through a compressor.

I built a budget home studio with this set up.

3 x Shure SM57
2 x Electrovoice RE15
1 x AudioTechnica AT3035
1 x AKG D112
2 x Samson C02

I paid 600 USD for all of these, so I would look around on ebay and find some deals. Careful of SM57's, though, I got sent a few , and they don't look anything like a real one. They also weigh about 1/3 of a real mic.

I would suggest spending money on good preamps too, because those make a huge difference.

This is a question that is very budget driven. When you say 'favorites' it should be noted that this could put your mic budget above 5 figures rather quickly should you act upon these particular mics. With that in mind I'll spend a moment and arrange them in a budgetary order.

Kik- condenser

High= Neumann U47fet Med= Soundelux U195 Low= Studio Projects B3

Kik- dynamic

High= Electrovoice RE20 Med= Heil PR40 Low= ATM25

Snare- condenser

High= Neumann KM184 Med= Shure SM81 Low= ADK SC-T

Snare- dynamic

High=Sennheiser MD441 Med= Beyer 201 Low= Audix i5/Shure SM57

Toms- condenser

High= Neumann U87 Med= Audio Technica 4033 Low= Studio Projects B3

Toms- dynamic

High= Sennheiser MD421 Med= Auix Dseries Low= Shure SM57

Overheads - condenser Large diaphram

High= Neumann U87 med= Audio Technica 4050 Low= Stusio Projects B3

Overheads -condenser Small diaphram

High= Neumann KM84 Med= Shure SM81/ AKG 451 Low= ADK SC-T

Electric guitar- condenser

High= Neumann TLM193 Med Audio Technica 4033 Low= Kel HM1

Electric guitar- dynamic

High= Sennheiser MD421/409 Med= Audix D4/i5/Shure SM57 etc.....

Acoustic guitar- large d condenser

High= Neumann U48 tube Med= Soundelux fet47 Low= ADK TT

lower= AT 4033/4050/4040 even lower= SP B3/ADK Hamberg

Acoustic guitar -small d condenser

High= Neumann KM54/84 Med= Shure SM81/ AKG 451 Low= ADK SC-T

Bass..........I like a good preamp for the bass. And a good DI. If I were to mic a cabinet, any of the kick drum dynamics will do. For a dedicated pre for bass I reccomend the SWR Interstellar Overdrive, the Alembic , the Avalon U5, and the Aguilar preamp. These all have a high quality DI in them so alls done with that.

Hope this helps. There are many many other choices but these are my personal favorites that I have some experience with.

You didnt ask about a vocal mic which another ball of yarn all to itself.

A single 'feature' mic for this would be a Neumann...U87/TLM193, or a Soundelux U195 which for the price is one of the best in the world. Another great budget vocal mic is the ADK Vienna/Hamburg series II.

Currently using:

Kik high Audix D5
Kik low Yamaha sub kick
Snare top Audix I5
Snare bottom sm 57
High Hats Audix I5
All Toms beta 98
OH sm81

http://www.produccionestecate.com

Amazing. Thanks for all your help.
I didnt mention vocal mics because i have been given a Neumann M149 that my dad used to use.
It sounds pretty good on anything (although I dont know what it was actually designed for).

Is the yamaha sub kick any good ?

Thanks again

Kick ?
(Inside): Beyer Dynamic M88, Audio Technica ATM25
(Outside): Audio Technica AT4047 (or FET47 if you can get it)

Snare ? Shure SM57

Toms ? Audio Technica ATM25

Hats? Peluso CEMC6

Overheads ? Peluso SR14 (or Royer equivalent if you can get it)

Electric Guitar ? Shure SM57, Beyer Dynamic M88

Acoustic Guitar ? Neumann U67, Peluso CEMC6

Bass ? DI, Beyer Dynamic M88

-----------------

Top 7 mics: RE-20, M88, 57, ATM25, U67, CEMC6, 121

To cut down, I'd get a couple 57s, a couple ATM25's, do away w/ the Royer, and maybe look into the Peluso 22 251 or Mojave MA200 instead of the Neumann U67.

The RE-20 would get more multiple uses over the D12E.

The U67 style mic makes for the best vocal mic I've ever heard.

SD Condenser mics for Overheads have never suited me well. Then again, I'm a coated heads kinda guy, so if you're after more of a modern thing, then the SD condenser mics for overheads would work well...as would perhaps a D112 kick mic instead of the D12E or RE-20

I too am a fan of the Co2s for overheads for the monies. I bought them in the drum pack to get me going and since have kept using those two and the QToms - more for the price and ease of having them clip on the toms.

For electric guitar: I've become a huge fan of the Sennheiser e609. I use it with the SM57 at times and have always gotten great results.

I'll bite...I'm bored.

Kick ? - Soundelux U195 with Fat Switch engaged or U47 (definitely with DD on that one!)

Snare ? 57 or Audix i5

Toms ? I don't usually mic toms. (See rant below)

Overheads ? Schoeps CMC6 MK4, Gefell M930, Gefell M300, Beyer M130/M160 in front of the kit in M/S, Royer SF12 (just started playing with it on overheads and LOVE it!), TLM193

Electric Guitar ? i5, Royer SF12, Beyer M160, or U195 if I'm after a different sound

Acoustic Guitar ? Schoeps CMC6 MK4, Neumann KM84, Royer SF12 (quickly becoming my absolute favorite for acoustic guitar), Gefell M930

Bass ? DPA 4006, Schoeps CMC6 MK2, Soundelux U195 (for acoustic bass) Radial J48 or Summit 2BA-221 for DI

(RANT Re: Tom mics):
I never like to say never, but I'll say it here. I never mic toms. Okay, maybe not never, but I'll only mic toms if the plan is to replace some crappy drums with samples. Other than that, I'll never mic toms. Even then, I'd rather spend an hour or two working on the kit and getting it sounding like I'd like it to than to futz around with some program like Drumagog getting the right drums to hit at the right time within the software!

Here's my reasoning for not micing toms.

Okay, so you have an overhead pair and a kick mic (and MAYBE a snare mic.) You already have a phase issue. Your left and right overhead pairs aren't picking up in great phase unless you're using MS/XY/Blumlein and let's face it, most people don't. But...even if you are using any of those patterns, you've still got your kick mic to contend with.

What's that you say? I'll roll off the high end on the kick mic....hmmm...now you've lost the harmonics which give the kick its strong attack and you only have a "thud" left.

So okay now...you've added some tom mics and said "screw the phase issue, I'll fix it in the mix" and you think to yourself - "Hey...I can always time align the drums and flip the phases on some. If that doesn't work, I'll gate and EQ..." (Sound familiar yet?)

Okay, so now you start to time align your floor tom mic. Which mic do you time align it with? Your right overhead mic? Your left overhead mic? Your kick mic? Guess what, you now have an exponentially larger phasing issue...

That's okay, you can gate and EQ.

So, you turn to your trusty gate and get ready to fire it up and when it starts working, you notice something weird. As the gate opens when your floor tom is hit, suddenly the image shifts. Not only does the drum seem to pop out of nowhere (even with a carefully timed gate), you just opened a momentary phase issue with your overheads and shut it down again. This kind of phasing issue creates a new stereo representation (kind of like the way an AB spaced pair works - time differences versus amplitude differences).

But hey! There's the EQ. We can now treat the drum with the EQ and get rid of all of those pesky frequencies that just aren't in the floor tom's range. Hmmm...which ones to cut. Do you cut below 100? Probably not. In fact, you probably boosted that for that extra "boom" in the mix. So, let's just roll off the high frequencies and let the overheads handle the cymbals and the drum mics handle the drums...Oh yeah...the fundamental of the tom is around 120-200 Hz, but the overtones reach all the way up to 4kHz or so. Oh....and the overtones are what tell us where the drum is. So now you can't roll off the highs, you can't roll off the lows so....you boost the mids. Guess what - that EQ just added MORE phase complications to the problem. An EQ achieves its goal by moving the said frequencies *ahead* or *behind* in the time domain.

Now you just can't figure out why the drums don't sound as tight as you want them. The funny thing is, they sound pretty tight through the well-placed overheads and kick mic, but add the single extra mic for the floor tom and trouble. Just think...add 1 mic per tom (3 total for the average kit), 2 mics for the snare (why????), a high-hat mic, overhead pairs, a kick mic (or two in some cases) and a pair of room mics...

It's a wonder we can even hear the drums and that everything isn't out of phase!

So...okay, I've ranted. Sorry bout that. I hope you realize that I am not directing this at any one person and that I'm merely trying to help with one of the most problematic instruments to record.

Cheers!

Jeremy