Killing microphone bleed?

[thefalloftheheretic]

Hey everyone.

I'm about to record a local band (again) and I need your advice.
Last time we recorded, the tom mics had so much bleed, they were almost unusable.
Furthermore, there was a lot of sympathetic vibrations from the other drums on the toms.

How would one go about A, killing the tom bleed (aside from gating and such, I mean more along the lines of mic positions and such) and B, killing those sympathetic vibrations?

Thanks Sneapers!

 

[professorlamp]

Try and point the null of the microphones at the offending area, I think for tom bleed, again, you're just going to have to be clever with placement. Figure of 8's, cardioid and hypercardioids would be helpful here but you're most likely to be dealing with just cardioids which is not a problem. Just spend some time positioning, listening and repositioning.

 

[thefalloftheheretic]

Try and point the null of the microphones at the offending area, I think for tom bleed, again, you're just going to have to be clever with placement. Figure of 8's, cardioid and hypercardioids would be helpful here but you're most likely to be dealing with just cardioids which is not a problem. Just spend some time positioning, listening and repositioning.

It's the cymbal bleed that is killing me with these tom mics. I'm replacing them with ES57s as soon as I get the chance.

 

[IronApe]

A) Mic placement might help you a bit with the bleed issue, but it's always gonna be there, no matter what. Maybe more, or less, experiment a bit, try turning those mics around. Then you're going to have to grab your gate, or edit manually, or both, anyway...

B) Ha, nice one! Tuning the drums properly helps a lot, but those vibrations might be quite a bitch to deal with. Decoupling?? Might be an idea, try isolating the toms from each other someway. And again, eventually gate or edit manually later...

"Drums' a bitch, and then you die!"

 

[Sloan]

Reduce as much bleed as you possibly can during tracking, then when you mix, edit the toms by hand, cutting out silence between hits etc...

 

[pikachu69]

Dont let the drummer set his cymbals too close to the toms. Alot of drummers tend to do this. Even if this is his normal setup ask him to raise them a bit for the benifit of the recording. Some drummers are ok with this, some not but it is worth a try.
Dont use clips to attach tom mics to the toms, always use proper mic stands.
Look into mic polar patterns and learn how to position them well.

Other than that, I always edit my toms after no matter how well I control the bleed. I like to do this to the HH and ride too.

 

[thefalloftheheretic]

Yeah, I've been working on the old files (they're recording again because last time it fell through; singer quit) and I've gotten the toms to be more or less isolated via reverse gating (expanding) and then some EQ.

 

[crillemannen]

Shouldn't be a problem if the drummer can hit the toms properly. If you are going to replace them just use sm57's. You can automate the toms or just cut out the bleed when the drummer isn't playing on them

 

[thefalloftheheretic]

Shouldn't be a problem if the drummer can hit the toms properly. If you are going to replace them just use sm57's. You can automate the toms or just cut out the bleed when the drummer isn't playing on them

I will be getting some ES57s to do my sampling with.
Already have one and it's a great snare mic in and of itself, not to mention that you can sample really well with it.

 

[crillemannen]

I will be getting some ES57s to do my sampling with.
Already have one and it's a great snare mic in and of itself, not to mention that you can sample really well with it.

AudioTechnica ATM450 slays on toms. Sounds awesome.

 

[nosgulstic]

AudioTechnica ATM450 slays on toms. Sounds awesome.

A little off topic, but how do those compare to the md421 on toms?

 

[crillemannen]

A little off topic, but how do those compare to the md421 on toms?

They are better and cheaper. Super snappy and can really capture how a tom sound. Just let the mic breath a little bit meaning that it needs a little distance from the tom, so not super close like a md421 or sm57 on snare.

Here is a clip all real toms: http://studiohaga.net/kidgalahad_drms.mp3

 

[nosgulstic]

They are better and cheaper. Super snappy and can really capture how a tom sound. Just let the mic breath a little bit meaning that it needs a little distance from the tom, so not super close like a md421 or sm57 on snare.

Here is a clip all real toms: http://studiohaga.net/kidgalahad_drms.mp3

Wow, those sound really good! I think I'm gonna pick up a pair of these