Multi miking cymbals...

[nwright]

My band is heading into the studio to record our next CD starting the first week of February. Since I've moved into the "freelance" gig at a local studio, we will be tracking drums there.

Since we have access to nice mics, pres and all that, I would like to try some new stuff that I've never been able to do before...

I'd like to mic up cymbal pairs to try and get a bigger sound. In the past, I've only used a spaced pair, rarely miking the HH or ride even.

When miking up cymbal pairs, would you still opt for stereo overheads as well?

If I can't get a nice sound miking up pairs, I'll end up using a spaced pair and then miking the HH and ride, but reading how some bigger albums mic up pairs, I'm hoping this will sound cool.

 

[egan.]

Hey Nate. I've done this a fair amount and I always leave up an OH pair as well but generally a little higher and wider than I might have otherwise. I use undermics for the close mics (phase inverted generally). The big trick is the more mics you have then the more phase relationships you have to deal with. Part of what I like about the undermicing is that the cymbals you are micing go a long way to "block" the things you don't want.
The other thing to watch out for is the closer you get to cymbals the more likely you are to get big washy and weird low frequency stuff as the cymbals move. HPing is a must but you also really need to play with positioning and distance to get this right without being too far away. I hope this helps.

 

[Soundlurker]

I generally go for the standard stereo OH approach and simply record the ride and hh by positioning the mics so that I get a combination of good sound and good seperation.

You can flip the phase or time align later, depending on your mic positions.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

The ideal setup is to mic spaced pair OH and mic the HH, Ride and each China if applicable. Nothing worse than recording all the tracks, trying to mix the songs to find the the ride, HH isn't loud enough, or find that the china doesn't have enough attack.

 

[mick thompson]

The ideal setup is to mic spaced pair OH and mic the HH, Ride and each China if applicable. Nothing worse than recording all the tracks, trying to mix the songs to find the the ride, HH isn't loud enough, or find that the china doesn't have enough attack.

+1 on that, 2 oh's, mic the ride if you can, mic the hats if you can and mic the china's to keep their clarity. and watch out for phase issues