Unusual problem with mic bleed...

N

name_goes_here

New member
Okay, here's the set up we have for recording drums. The song is acoustic with occasional drum parts so there aren't many drums that are used - just a bass drum, snare, and crash/ride cymbal. So here's the way this kit set up is mic'ed...

Bass drum - AKG D112
Snare drum - Shure SM57
Overhead - Oktava MK319

The problem is with the bass drum and overhead mics. The bass drum has a front head with a hole and the bass drum mic is about halfway into the drum. It is pointed directly at the bass drum beater. The overhead is about one and a half feet above the crash/ride cymbal. The problem is...is that the overhead mic, for some reason, picks up the bass drum too much...even more than the bass drum mic does. If you play the track back and solo just the overhead, you can see that the overhead recording of the kit has a MUCH better bass drum sound than the bass drum mic recording. I don't really mind for this recording, because overall it sounds good. But I'm worried about recordings that use more cymbals and toms and such...and also I'm just puzzled why the bass drum mic is picking up less volume and quality from the bass drum in comparison to the overhead. I know the overheads should pick up the whole kit and get a decent sound but what's happening in our recordings is the overhead is getting a better bass drum sound than even the bass drum mic itself. How would I go about fixing this problem...what did I do wrong?

Sorry that was so long. Any help would be appreciated.

I know the overheads should pick up the whole kit and get a decent sound but what's happening in our recordings is the overhead is getting a better bass drum sound than even the bass drum mic itself.
 
Getiing a great overall sound from an overhead isn't unusual. The condenser has wide frequency response. You should be able to get a good kick sound from that AKG, though. The D112 is a geat mic, but it isn't very forgiving. By that I mean placement is pretty important. With any mic in general, if you aren't getting the sound you are looking for, move the mic. As little as an inch
or two can make a huge difference with a D112.

Something else- given the distance between an overhead and kick mic, many people find it necessary to reverse the polarity of their overhead mic, because when they blend the oh in with the other mics there is lots of comb filtering that kills the overall sound.
 
The difference in quality' is easy to understand; the overhead sees a better overall view of the kick. And the kit-mix is part o/h location and how hard the different drums are being played. (More the later.)
But what does the kick mic being lower in volume mean? Does it also not have more isolation of the kick?
Also Boingoman's suggestion about phase of the two when mixed is a biggie. Is that part of it?
Wayne
 
Hahaha the problem has been solved and it's actually very funny. Our guitarist, who was doing to recording, simply named the drum tracks wrong. He accidently named the bass drum track "Overhead" and the overhead track "Bass". Sorry for the misunderstanding, if I had known that he misnamed things I wouldn't have posted. I will still use the advice though because the bass drum mic did actually pick up a lot of cymbal sound.
 
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Thanks, man. I was havin' kind of a bummer day and that made me laugh. (With you not at you ;) )

p.s. a gate will clean the cymbals out of the kick track but if when you add the oh mic the kick goes away then try the polarity reverse.
-bm
 
hahaha yeah, he came to record guitar yesterday and i was like "oh man i dunno whats wrong with the AKG but it picked up no bass drum and the oktava picked up a nice bass drum sound." And he just looks at me for a second and goes "dude, cool it. i named the tracks wrong by accident." hahaha im still laughing about it.
 
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