Let's talk drum mics
- Thread starter HCL
- Start date
egan.
daylightdies.com
kick - d6 or e602 - honestly just want a nice top and a nice bottom without too much low mid garbage.
snare top - 57 or i5 or e22s - different mics depending on the drum or the player. The 57 just works, the e22s gets a lot more detail and high end, the i5 is somewhere between the 2.
snare b - whatever - I know opinions vary on this but unless the drummer is doing a ton of ghost notes I'm just not too bothered.
toms 421s or e22s, 57 or 604's also work - the e22's are amazing and easy to place but not many places have them. I like the classic 421 sound a lot but they can be a bear to place if the drummer
floor tom - e22s or re20 or 421 - the re20 is like auto-basketball bounce sound which is awesome sometimes.
hat - 451, sm7 - depends on if I want a bright or dark hat sound.
cymbals spots or cymbal focused overheads- collettes or km184's or mk012's - colletes are neutral, km184's are flattering, 012's are like a cheap and dirty 184.
Full kit Overheads - m149's but really any good matched LDC spaced. I love the m149's for the full kit but the goal is to get the kit cleanly from top to bottom so I want a full and balanced response. If I'm doing jazz then ribbons rule for overs.
Rooms - What's left? I like ribbons on the room b/c the soften the cymbals and I'm a big blumlein fan but I'd throw up anything.
snare top - 57 or i5 or e22s - different mics depending on the drum or the player. The 57 just works, the e22s gets a lot more detail and high end, the i5 is somewhere between the 2.
snare b - whatever - I know opinions vary on this but unless the drummer is doing a ton of ghost notes I'm just not too bothered.
toms 421s or e22s, 57 or 604's also work - the e22's are amazing and easy to place but not many places have them. I like the classic 421 sound a lot but they can be a bear to place if the drummer
floor tom - e22s or re20 or 421 - the re20 is like auto-basketball bounce sound which is awesome sometimes.
hat - 451, sm7 - depends on if I want a bright or dark hat sound.
cymbals spots or cymbal focused overheads- collettes or km184's or mk012's - colletes are neutral, km184's are flattering, 012's are like a cheap and dirty 184.
Full kit Overheads - m149's but really any good matched LDC spaced. I love the m149's for the full kit but the goal is to get the kit cleanly from top to bottom so I want a full and balanced response. If I'm doing jazz then ribbons rule for overs.
Rooms - What's left? I like ribbons on the room b/c the soften the cymbals and I'm a big blumlein fan but I'd throw up anything.
kick beta 91a in, d112 out
snare top i5, no bot
toms e604 top and bot
hh sm7b
ohs c451eb
ride md441
room c414 b-uls
snare top i5, no bot
toms e604 top and bot
hh sm7b
ohs c451eb
ride md441
room c414 b-uls
KHE
Member
kick: D6 + sennheiser E901
snare: i5 or sm57 mostly
toms: audix d2 / d4 or sennheiser E904
ohs: oktavas mk012, mostly spaced-piar
hats / ride: sennheiser E914 mostly, sometimes an at4040 or sm7
room: cheap tbone r500 ribbons in blumlein config
pretty much the same mic-setup for all projects atm. i'd love to have some more opinions... (esp. room & ohs)
snare: i5 or sm57 mostly
toms: audix d2 / d4 or sennheiser E904
ohs: oktavas mk012, mostly spaced-piar
hats / ride: sennheiser E914 mostly, sometimes an at4040 or sm7
room: cheap tbone r500 ribbons in blumlein config
pretty much the same mic-setup for all projects atm. i'd love to have some more opinions... (esp. room & ohs)
Potshot
Member
Kick - D6 + RE20 / e901 + e902 / e901 + Beta 52 / Sometimes with the addition of a subkick
Snare top - i5 / 57 / SM7 / RE20 / MD21
Snare bottom - SM7 / i5
Toms - D2's or D4's on racks depending on drum and tuning, D6 on Floor. Alternatively, MD441's or MD421's on everything
OH's - Schoeps CMC's / MK4's / KM184's / CM3's / TLM149, sometimes OH's are X/Y, sometimes they are A/B, sometimes both, sometimes with or solely a mono OH.
Spots/hats/rides - CM3's / NT55's / KM184's / Various AT or Rode LDC's
Rooms - Lustraphone ribbons with cinemags / SM7's / CM3's / Schoeps CMC's
Snare top - i5 / 57 / SM7 / RE20 / MD21
Snare bottom - SM7 / i5
Toms - D2's or D4's on racks depending on drum and tuning, D6 on Floor. Alternatively, MD441's or MD421's on everything
OH's - Schoeps CMC's / MK4's / KM184's / CM3's / TLM149, sometimes OH's are X/Y, sometimes they are A/B, sometimes both, sometimes with or solely a mono OH.
Spots/hats/rides - CM3's / NT55's / KM184's / Various AT or Rode LDC's
Rooms - Lustraphone ribbons with cinemags / SM7's / CM3's / Schoeps CMC's
Trevoire520
Member
In my latest shootouts I've been heavily favouring condensers for snare/toms rather than dynamics. Depends on the drummers setup and playing style if you can get away with it or not.
Kick - Sennheiser E602 & Shure B91A, though in all honesty it usually just gets sample replaced anyway.
Toms - Studio Projects B3, CAD M179, Sennheiser E604
Snare - Studio Projects B3, Audio Technica AT4040, AKG C391B. If it's got to be a dynamic then a Shure Sm57 or Audix I5 will do.
Overheads - My favourite is Audio Technica AT4050, though honestly any half decent condenser will get the job done.
Cymbals - Shure SM7B for hihats, whatever condensers are handy for ride/china.
Rooms - Normally a spaced pair of LDC condensers set to omni and whatevers left will be thrown up as a mono room crush.
Kick - Sennheiser E602 & Shure B91A, though in all honesty it usually just gets sample replaced anyway.
Toms - Studio Projects B3, CAD M179, Sennheiser E604
Snare - Studio Projects B3, Audio Technica AT4040, AKG C391B. If it's got to be a dynamic then a Shure Sm57 or Audix I5 will do.
Overheads - My favourite is Audio Technica AT4050, though honestly any half decent condenser will get the job done.
Cymbals - Shure SM7B for hihats, whatever condensers are handy for ride/china.
Rooms - Normally a spaced pair of LDC condensers set to omni and whatevers left will be thrown up as a mono room crush.
Kick - D6 but I heard the M88 on kick recently which sounded dope.
Snare - M201
Toms - M179
Rooms - R121
OH - Whatever's going, haven't locked any down.
Snare - M201
Toms - M179
Rooms - R121
OH - Whatever's going, haven't locked any down.
wishtheend
clip the apex
Kick: D6 in, Heil PR40 out
Snare: Heil PR20 top, 57 or i5 bottom
Toms Senn E904's
I'm happy with those, I need to get some new mics for OHs and stuff with a bit more low end for floor toms, although still using E904s with some success.
Snare: Heil PR20 top, 57 or i5 bottom
Toms Senn E904's
I'm happy with those, I need to get some new mics for OHs and stuff with a bit more low end for floor toms, although still using E904s with some success.
GRStudios
Member
Kick: e902, e901, AKG Perception 820
Snare: e903 top, SM57 bottom, M 201 TG
Toms: MD421, e904, e604
OH: AKG c4000b, e914
Hi-Hat: e914, M 201 TG
Ride: M 201 TG
Room: Microtech Gefell UMT 70, AKG c4000b
Snare: e903 top, SM57 bottom, M 201 TG
Toms: MD421, e904, e604
OH: AKG c4000b, e914
Hi-Hat: e914, M 201 TG
Ride: M 201 TG
Room: Microtech Gefell UMT 70, AKG c4000b
Revson
Member
The last drum session I did was:
kick - D6 halfway in the hole, sm91 inside (probably not gonna use, too farty sounding)
snare - i5 on top and bottom
all toms - CAD m179s, until I noticed the 12" tom was overloading the mic and switched it out for a 421
OH L & R - Joly-modded mk-012
OH middle - 414 (just to make sure I had full coverage, probably unnecessary)
Room front - ksm32s
Room wide - Beyer m160s
Hat - sm7b (probably not gonna use)
Ride - sm57 (probably not gonna use)
The different room mic configurations were an experiment. The m160s came out really cool sounding. The stereo image is really wide and the overall sound is smooth. I don't know how much it'll get used in the final mix, though.
kick - D6 halfway in the hole, sm91 inside (probably not gonna use, too farty sounding)
snare - i5 on top and bottom
all toms - CAD m179s, until I noticed the 12" tom was overloading the mic and switched it out for a 421
OH L & R - Joly-modded mk-012
OH middle - 414 (just to make sure I had full coverage, probably unnecessary)
Room front - ksm32s
Room wide - Beyer m160s
Hat - sm7b (probably not gonna use)
Ride - sm57 (probably not gonna use)
The different room mic configurations were an experiment. The m160s came out really cool sounding. The stereo image is really wide and the overall sound is smooth. I don't know how much it'll get used in the final mix, though.
heshian46
Member
For those of you doing a Kick In/Kick Out mic combo, what do you prefer, head on or off? What are your tunings like?
I tend to keep the batter low to medium tension to give a little bounce back and the reso loosey goosey, just a hair past wrinkle.
I tend to keep the batter low to medium tension to give a little bounce back and the reso loosey goosey, just a hair past wrinkle.
LBTM
Proud Behringer User
- Feb 19, 2012
- 897
- 0
- 16
head off and then first mic a couple of inches behind the beater and the second a few inches behing the shell both dead center. tuning depends on the song. whatever sounds good.
ArthurD
Member
Kick: out AT250de. in md421. sub. and a royer 121.
Snare: sm57 top + AT250de. Bottom sm57. sometimes an akg 414 figure 8 between snare and kick.
toms: sm57 or md421. Im more into sm57s.
hats: sm58 (Brendan O Brien style)
Ride: SM7b
China: u87
cymbals: TLMs 103.
Room: Royers 121 + U87
And obviously uber tuned drums, new skins, harhitting drummer
This sound:
Snare: sm57 top + AT250de. Bottom sm57. sometimes an akg 414 figure 8 between snare and kick.
toms: sm57 or md421. Im more into sm57s.
hats: sm58 (Brendan O Brien style)
Ride: SM7b
China: u87
cymbals: TLMs 103.
Room: Royers 121 + U87
And obviously uber tuned drums, new skins, harhitting drummer
This sound:
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LBTM
Proud Behringer User
- Feb 19, 2012
- 897
- 0
- 16
sounds a little cluttered and heavy bro. on snares tuned and sounding like that it's good practice to move the mics a little bit back to reduce the proximitty effect. no offense though.
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To the guys using M179's, how the hell do you deal with and reduce the bleed?
Even in super cardoid mode, I get a ton of drum bleed which makes editing and especially gates a real PITA! Also I find that they will distort with louder tom hits.
Other than that they do sound pretty good on toms. But that bleed makes them pretty much unusable for me.
Even in super cardoid mode, I get a ton of drum bleed which makes editing and especially gates a real PITA! Also I find that they will distort with louder tom hits.
Other than that they do sound pretty good on toms. But that bleed makes them pretty much unusable for me.
Revson
Member
I never really noticed the bleed to be much worse than anything else I've used. I have noticed that even on weak hit toms, the waveform shows up better than most of the dynamics I've used, allowing more accurate chops to cut out all the bleed.
Interesting, I have had the exact opposite result. I end up with every hit of every drum looking the same. Versus a 57 or 421, the hits are much clearer and the bleed is considerably less.
Now I will admit for like rock drums or jazz where I want the bleed, I would rather take the bleed from the M179's over a dynamic any day.
I thought maybe I was fucking up the placement, but even working that I would even get crazy bleed from toms on the side. Pads enabled and hypercardioid. Even using figure 8 for two toms had crazy bleed in the nulls.
Are you in a larger room? Maybe I am just getting reflection off my walls (they are treated). Super weird.
ArthurD
Member
Thanks for the input! The snare was ultra low tuned, no proximitty effect issues. the mic was almost 20 cm.
I went with this approach to use some sample augmenting (good old clearmountain for highs on snare).
The biggest issue with this, IMO, was that the drummer had an "impossible" setup. Toms were all ultra close, so cymbals.
ze kink
THE BLACK WIZARDS
Kick: Beta 52, d112, SM7 or RE20. U47 fet sounds brilliant on kick out, AKG 414 is okay. Doesn't get used much though.
Snare top: M201 or 57, pretty much. Don't really like the i5 much but I'll use it live sometimes.
Snare bottom: 421 is nice. 414 is nice. I'm in a no bottom mic phase though.
Toms: 414's, ATM 450's, 58's with the pop filter screwed off or 57's. SM7 and d112 are cool on floor tom. Audix D2's/D4's live.
OH's: Oktava MK-012's, KM-184's, U87's, whatever's good and available. SM81's as underheads works for me live.
Hats: SM7 top, or some leftover SDC bottom.
Ride: Don't usually close mic it, but a neutral omni SDC on the bottom worked a couple of times.
Room: Blumlein with figure 8 LDC's, would like to experiment with ribbons more though. M/S can be awesome. An omni in the next room can work really well for some stuff.
But honestly, I don't own that many mics myself, so whatever I can borrow or is available at where we track will be improvised on.
Snare top: M201 or 57, pretty much. Don't really like the i5 much but I'll use it live sometimes.
Snare bottom: 421 is nice. 414 is nice. I'm in a no bottom mic phase though.
Toms: 414's, ATM 450's, 58's with the pop filter screwed off or 57's. SM7 and d112 are cool on floor tom. Audix D2's/D4's live.
OH's: Oktava MK-012's, KM-184's, U87's, whatever's good and available. SM81's as underheads works for me live.
Hats: SM7 top, or some leftover SDC bottom.
Ride: Don't usually close mic it, but a neutral omni SDC on the bottom worked a couple of times.
Room: Blumlein with figure 8 LDC's, would like to experiment with ribbons more though. M/S can be awesome. An omni in the next room can work really well for some stuff.
But honestly, I don't own that many mics myself, so whatever I can borrow or is available at where we track will be improvised on.
