What mics for overheads?

[Kevin Kitchel]

Hello Dan! I'm recording a group right now that is a Swedish style band (from near Detroit, no less) and I'm wondering what you use to get a good drum overhead sound? I'm using AT 4050s in a somewhat un orthodox means of putting them IN FRONT of the drum kit. It seems to work well, but only for the loud loud parts. I don't have a big room to work with, in fact, its little bigger than the kit itself (giant Tama kit). What mics and positions do you use for a drum sound that is consistant over all dynamic ranges?

PS - The mic pre is a True Systems 8, and its going straight into Nuendo via MOTU.

 

[Highking]

I've done a fair share of recording. Without knowing details, I'd say, for a room that small -- your best bet is to use 1 overhead, 57 on the snare, and some sort of football mic (d112 or whatver) on the bass.

Three mics will get you a good sound, but it also depends what you're going for.

It is possible to get a *big* drum sound this way -- but it won't be "metal" -- think Led Zeppelin as opposed to Morbid Angel.

If you want the metal sound, you should close mic everything in the set *and* have an overhead (or two if you're not getting phasing problems in such a small room).

 

[Nefilim]

Hmm, phasing problems? How do those occur? I just recently started recording stuff, and we have one ADK condenser mic as an overhang, but we were thinking of getting a second overhang mic just to see what difference it would make... Maybe we should rethink this if it means problems can occur?

 

[Skaldir]

Phaseing problems occur when 2 ore more mikes are close together and get a similar sound.
I think you can use 2 for the overheads, but place them different and in other distances. Just try. You have a phasing problem when it sounds strange and you don't know why.

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

Well, the drums are all done for this project. Just FYI, I used the AT 4050s on overheads, actually in front of the kit, not over the top. I mic'ed the kicks with some cheaper dynamic mics, because I'm triggering the sound from a sound replacer-type plug-in. I did the same with the toms, and recorded the tom samples with an AT 4047 FET and a 421. I also used the 421 on the snare top, and an MXL 2001 on the snare bottom (I got an interesting capsule overload there that worked really well) The ride and the HH were mic'ed with a CAD 100 which is a like a more jagged sounding SM-81. And the room mic was an Earthworks SRO omni.

The band (Summer Dying) is actually one of the award winners for this websites 2002 awards.

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

Originally posted by Unicorn
Phaseing problems occur when 2 ore more mikes are close together and get a similar sound.
I think you can use 2 for the overheads, but place them different and in other distances. Just try. You have a phasing problem when it sounds strange and you don't know why.

There is something called the 3 to 1 rule that helps you avoid pretty much all phasing issues. If you have a mic on a guitar cabinet 1 cubit (haha) away, make sure any other mic is at least 3 cubits. So, if you're close micing drums, and you're getting some weird washing because of the cymbals coming through your tom mics, then you can either move one or both mics around, or gate the toms, or anything like that.

If you can't space the mics correctly, or that just doesn't sound right...or you're mic'ing both sides of a drum...then you'd flip the phase. Although I've gotten some better results by sliding tracks back and forth by a few samples or milliseconds in my computer.

 

[mattcira]

try some shitty mics from Radio Shack... add some frequencies to the hertz on the dB... you'll get a totally Rokzorian Mandibulated sound.

 

[Kevin Kitchel]

Push it a little further for total malkavian derangement.

 

[Dan Swanö]

try shure vp-88 stereo mike
it rips

D

 

[mattcira]

ya see, the key to achieve totally Rokzorian Mandibulated sound is to add signal bleed to the crossfade. Once you have a bled crossfade, you can then demodulize the transfrequencies. This is THE key to totally Rokzorian Mandibulated sound. And the radio shack Mics will remove steps 1 & 3, and believe me... it works.