Few micing each cymbal questions

[broken81]

Anyone who has ever or still Mic's all the cymbals when recording i got a few questions for you.....

do you cut the cymbal's in mixing when there not played or just leave them all going in the mix?

I just was looking at some pics from Heaven Shall Burn Myspace page and they have a Mic on each cymbal in there studio blog so thats why I'm asking. I'm thinking of trying something like this on my bands full length were about to record!

Also is it better to aim more toward the edge of a cymbal when you Mic or center?

 

[JeffTD]

It looks to me like they're just using a lot of OH mics and micing the ride/hat.

Whenever I've heard of people micing individual cymbals, they do it from underneath.

 

[Sloan]

I would imagine it would be good to edit them like toms, just to keep the mix a bit cleaner.

 

[egan.]

IME when you get that close the bleed becomes less of an issue. I would maybe duck them a few dB but I wouldn't clean them like toms. One thing to pay attention to is that if you get too close you will get a weird phasing effect when the cymbal is hit as it moves closer and further from the mic. It sounds pretty strange.
All of that said, my preference is to mic in groups when cymbals are close....so 2 cymbals a mic for crashes and then HH and ride mics.

 

[broken81]

How high above do you usually go from the pair of cymbals.

Do you put Mic in the middle of the 2 cymbals at the edge of both were they are closest together?

 

[fatalforce]

I put them on the edge unless I'm trying to get the bell sound out of a ride. Kinda away from the other drum elements.

 

[C_F_H_13]

IME when you get that close the bleed becomes less of an issue. I would maybe duck them a few dB but I wouldn't clean them like toms. One thing to pay attention to is that if you get too close you will get a weird phasing effect when the cymbal is hit as it moves closer and further from the mic. It sounds pretty strange.
All of that said, my preference is to mic in groups when cymbals are close....so 2 cymbals a mic for crashes and then HH and ride mics.

That's what I do...

I usually have a L/C/R type mic setup as well as normal overheads. I catch usually 2-3 cymbals per mic. I basically only close mic splashes/splash clusters, and chinas.

I also just do volume automation, not muting/region clearing on cymbals (and toms for that matter)......ride the volume down 10-20 DB and it'll sound way better....

 

[broken81]

That's what I do...

I usually have a L/C/R type mic setup as well as normal overheads.

You got any pictures or know were any are of this setup?

how much higher are your overheads than the cymbal mic's?

A picture would definitely help just to see a basic idea of this setup.

 

[C_F_H_13]

not the best pics, but here's some of terry bozzio's kit from the new korn record....you can't see the overheads, but they are there...if you look close though, you can see 3 sanken mics doing the L/C/R thing. All the mics are equi-distant from the snare, and then from each other....

The second pic shows a spot mic on his "splash cluster"

 

[James-Doolan]

Holy Shit That Kit is ridiculus

 

[JeffTD]

Yeah... I'm sorry, but that's a bit overkill. I know Bozzio is a legend and all, but I've heard better out of smaller kits many many times.

 

[deanbailey]

hmm...looks like he writes the notes/pitch of the tom on the skins, does he have a tom for each note? lol

I'm sure those two splashes/mini hats (w/e they are) just above the sides of the snare will cause problems.

 

[Metaltastic]

My god, why the hell does he have the chinas so high? That gap between them and the toms is absurd

 

[C_F_H_13]

Yeah... I'm sorry, but that's a bit overkill. I know Bozzio is a legend and all, but I've heard better out of smaller kits many many times.

I 100% agree. It was completely un necessary. He had 7 real toms, 16 "pitched" piccolo toms, 3 different bass drums, and 1 snare. He had something like 35 cymbals all together on the kit.

It was a micing nightmare. Frank fillipetti was engineering and he somehow made it all work....but yeah L/C/R cymbal mics..and I think 5-6 other cymbal spot mics.

 

[Sloan]

Haha.
That kit reminds me of Yanni's drummer. He had like this hugeass kit with the cymbals basically in a cage around him 360 degrees. I'm pretty sure he had stuff tuned to different notes as well.

 

[Maggai]

Yeah that kit is kinda disturbing. You can see it in action on the bonus dvd from the new korn record. he does alot of cool stuff.

 

[C_F_H_13]

My god, why the hell does he have the chinas so high? That gap between them and the toms is absurd

The crazy part...was watching him "maneuver" that gap. There's a bunch of tracks that didn't make the record where he did RIDICULOUS China/Kick and tom combinations...the guy is like a spider behind the kit. It was amazing to watch, and I he was also the nicest guy ever...even got a picture with him hahahaha.