Snare top mic at noon anyone ?

[Djabthrash]

Hi !

I've just seen this Aquiles Priester video (drummer for Angra and many more, who also did the Dream Theater auditions some time ago) where at the 32-second-mark he says he positions his shells close mics so that they're aimed at his drumsticks when he hits a drum :



Among others, you can see that his snare top mic is located in front of him, at NOON (in between his two rack toms), and not at the 10:30 or 11'o'clock position we mostly see them placed in most cases.
I've also seen another drummer position his snare top mic the same way : Franky Costanza (Blazing War Machine, ex-Dagoba) :



What do you think about this ? For now i have a hard time making sense of it...
Until then the 10:30 or 11 position was favored due to hihat spill considerations and keeping the mic out of the way of the drummer, but maybe i'm missing something ?

I might give it a shot, and i'm curious about what you guys think of this approach.

 

[newamerikangospel]

If you do the split-phase technique for pulling out highhats, I would imagine that micing towards the highhat would be better for cancellation. It may also help kill overall cymbal bleed since they should be mostly in the mics null area

 

[Djabthrash]

@newamerikangospel : what's this "split-phase technique" you're talking about ?

I've never heard about it and can't find anything on Google...

 

[newamerikangospel]

Take your snare mic, duplicate it, then setup a highpass on the duplicate track. Then flip phase, and move the high pass up until you get a good cancellation to tone. You will still need to gate a little, but this helps the high hat bleed "slipping" through the gate closing delay.

 

[Djabthrash]

@newamerikangospel : Nice ! I need to try that !

 

[schwinginbatman]

I've always miced drums so that they're positioned towards the drumstick. That's just always made sense to me; try your best to pick up the snap from the drummer hitting the shell.

A lot of times, micing the snare at noon is the only comfortable way to get the mic in there. I generally try for the typical position, but sometimes it doesn't work. While doing drums for my current project, the snare was positioned at roughly noon. It sounds quite good, and there isn't much hi-hat bleed at all. It also helps that he's a really good drummer.

 

[TRUIE]

@newamerikangospel : what's this "split-phase technique" you're talking about ?

I've never heard about it and can't find anything on Google...

Hey Djab, take a look at this :

 

[Djabthrash]

Also found it in this video that Gene Hoglan (drummer god) has its snare top mic at noon :



The common point between the 3 drummers i previously mentioned with such a mic position is that they all have a classic double bass setup : a 2 bass drums, the snare in the middle, and the toms symetrical with each other if you divide the kit in the center going through the snare with an axis. This way, the snare top mic fits easily in between both racks tom.
In hindsight, i think this particular setup justifies such a mic position, whereas it might be a different story wiht a more traditional single bass drum setup. In the latter, oftentimes the snare top mic wouldn't fit at the noon position, because a rack tom or the bass drum would be too close to the snare edge.

With that being said, there are still drummers with the symetrical double bass setup that put their snare top mic at the 10:30/11 o'clock position and not at noon, like in the following video :

 

[Djabthrash]

@[B]schwinginbatman[/B] + @TRUIE : thank you for the info !

 

[newamerikangospel]

Hey Djab, take a look at this :

Wow, just saw this. The compressor addition is really good!