Question about cymabls/overheads

[dayve]

Hi,

One part of my drum recording that I find lacking for metal is overheads. I can never get that kind of bright cutting sound I hear in so much metal these days.

I was wandering what Mr. Sneap and the rest of you guys do?

do you guys trigger them, and use sampled sounds, or actually use proper overheads. If so what kind of mics?

I think my approach is too traditional at the moment for metal bands. I always try and get a great realistic kit sound with my overheads which works well a lot of the time but I don't think it works with the heavier bands I work with.


Any advice on cymbal triggering/micing/overheads welcomed!

 

[Hopkins-WitchfinderGeneral]

No idea on micing etc cuz i've never done it properly. But I can say that getting a nice eq on the cymbals tracks is vital. To make them shimmer and bite you'll need a decent sized boost higher up in the "shimmer" area of the spectrum. Huber's "Modern Recording Techniques" suggests a good range to play around in.

 

[dayve]

I've found playing around with a amek 9098 eq gave me the best sounding overheads I've had in terms of cymbal sound. Unfortunatley though at home Im mixing entirely on a computer, and even using the 9098 there was still something severely lacking.

I read somewhere about using small diaphragm condensers?? I've always been using large diaphragm condensers up until now. Any thoughts?

 

[jamesboyd]

hey I'm no andy but-

think of the overheads in the context of the whole drumkit, in the sense that where they are placed will affect what the other parts of the kit sound like, for instance-

Have the oh's about 1 foot above the cymbals pointing towards the edge closest to the the snare side of the kit, and literally pointing at the snare, this will keep the snare central in the mix and should give good coverage of the whole kit, or-

have the mics 1-1.5 feet above the oh's above the outside edge of the cymbals, then angle them so the are pointing just past the edge of the cymbals and away from the kit, this will give you good seperation but will not pick up the rest of the kit that well.

for me having them angled and pointed more towards the edge souds way cleaner/crisper than in the middle or something so try that.

also room mics ususally make the cymbals cut through the mix and sound way more spacious/clear than close mics

try putting up a stereo pair of c414's if you can they work well imho.

also when mixing try cutting out all below 250hz-500hz cutting the mids a bit around 600-900 and boosting around 6-12k

peace

james

 

[Andy Sneap]

I think cymbals are the hardest thing to get right. They can be an absolute nightmare. I try and get as much separation as possible, micing 2 cymbals per mic, if there's alot. Aiming for the edge and rolling everything out from at least 600 down. I'll sometimes compress the mids with a bandwith comp (c1) and try and get rid of more snare. Watch out for the hi hat also.

 

[dayve]

So I take it you see picking up other peices of the kit as a hinderence rather than something useful, Andy?