Drum Mics help?

ex351d said:
Not trying to see you the oktavas, but they can get joly modded too. And they have a modular design, thus, you can substitute capsules such that the mice becomes omni directional, figure of 8 or even LDC.
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Sorry for the lack of reply.

I've looked around for Oktavas, on Ebay and Amazon. They're all pretty up there in price, at least when it comes to my budget. The one on Amazon right now is $600. Shoves the budget over by about $200. I don't know if I can trust Ebay. I don't wanna get a fake pair and be out hundreds of dollars. I think the over budget mentioned earlier pretty much knocks out buying a pair from Joly.

Still leaning for the 603s. A couple late-comers are MXL 604s and Rode NT5s.

The 604 seems pretty cool. It doesn't come in a matched pair, but it's got a low-end rolloff and a -10 dB pad. It also comes with an omni capsule. And it comes in a velvet-lined wooden case, which is kinda like adding a cherry on top. Lol. $99 bucks a pop.

The Rode does come in a matched pair. $430, which brings the budget to $100 under. This is without a CAD M179, Heil PR20, or a MXL 2003a (which I added to have a LDC to try out on vocals).

Any experience with those, folks? They're a couple hundred dollars more than the 603s. I don't know what comes in their box.
 
Whatever you do, take the long view. Microphones will always be an asset to you in recording. If you had purchased a quality mic in the 60's, chances are you would still be using it. Better to spend a couple hundred too much, than have something laying around you won't use because it is a turd.
 
'Nother question. Since my ceiling is really low, what if I took two LDCs, maybe AT2020s, and pointed them at the kit from the front, aiming them at the snare or kick?

Then, maybe I could use some of these 1/4" jack inputs that the TASCAM has to mic up my dynamics so I can throw some SDCs on the ride and hats, maybe close mic one on the crash (or crashes, if the drummer decides to finally buy another.) I only have 8 XLR inputs and therefore, only 8 Phantom Power inputs. Lots of options for mixing and lots of practice for future endeavors.


The previous paragraph was just a thought. My question was prior. Lol.
 
If you are on a budget with overheads have a look at the Rode M5 pair. If you later get more expensive overheads the M5's can be use on a lot of other things.

Alan.
 
Purchase the Oktavas from a thrust-worthy online store and not form any site with multiple international sellers that you do not know their background as a lot of fakes are around. Here the oktavas are quite cheaper at about 300 euro a pair. You would get a better sound with no tom mics and good overheads rather than using cheap overheads and tom mics. Also, the overheads should pickup enough hats and ride without need of close mics.

The drums you will not be recording it through close mics but through the stereo pair of overheads. The rest of the mics are there to add 'punch' or 'body' to any particular drum piece. The base drum and snare drum usually require a spot mic to capture the low end of the base drum and the mids of the snare drum as they are the dominant sound in a drums. Similarly is what happens to the toms but you can get a great sound without tom mics.
 
If you have a low ceiling, the last thing you will need are spot mics for the cymbals. The reflection off the ceiling will have a tendency to wash the whole kit out.

Close mic ing cymbals, other than hat and ride, usually sounds like crap. You end up Getty a phase sound as the cymbal moves. Also, the more mics, the more phase problems you could have.
 
Thanks a lot for all the suggestions and answered questions, folks.

I'm gonna be putting some treatment up in the big room this afternoon, after work. I'll post a sound clip after, if you folks would like to tell me what you think about it.

Also, would the Studio Projects B1 be a good mic to get? It's not very expensive.

I've decided to save up and get some Oktavas in the near future, maybe next year or so. I'm going to work towards that goal, and the goal of getting a U87 some years down the road, if I'm still into recording and knowing me and my band, we'll end up being sort of a "studio" band that plays shows every now and then. Lol. For now, I'm going with the AT2020s.

Right now, I've got this setup:

Snare: SM57 or Audix i5.
Rack Toms: SM57s or e604s
Floor Tom: SM7
"Forward" heads: AT2020
Kick: Audix D6

Don't know if I'm gonna mount the snare mic on or not. Depends on if I decide to get a room mic. The room isn't very wide, so finding a spot for one would be harder than getting Metallica to release a new record this summer. (If they end up shocking us all and doing that, I will buy a Fathead the day the release date is announced.)
 
I agree with a few of the posts above. Spend money on the over heads, DAW and Interface. Go mega cheap on the close mics for drums(use the CAD mic set) cause it wont matter when you run it through the SSD Trigger 2 program, hell you don't even need to change or tune your drum heads either;)

Don't believe me, then listen to this clip I just finished editing. cheap close mics, good overheads and room mics, SSD Trigger
https://soundcloud.com/signs-of-reign/ibt-drum-check-1

Not saying its the greatest drum recording ever but for the bang for the buck, I'm am just fine with it and you may be too.

Cheers
 
metalj said:
I agree with a few of the posts above. Spend money on the over heads, DAW and Interface. Go mega cheap on the close mics for drums(use the CAD mic set) cause it wont matter when you run it through the SSD Trigger 2 program, hell you don't even need to change or tune your drum heads either;)

Don't believe me, then listen to this clip I just finished editing. cheap close mics, good overheads and room mics, SSD Trigger
https://soundcloud.com/signs-of-reign/ibt-drum-check-1

Not saying its the greatest drum recording ever but for the bang for the buck, I'm am just fine with it and you may be too.

Cheers
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Sorry, wrong approach IMO.
 
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metalj said:
I agree with a few of the posts above. Spend money on the over heads, DAW and Interface. Go mega cheap on the close mics for drums(use the CAD mic set) cause it wont matter when you run it through the SSD Trigger 2 program, hell you don't even need to change or tune your drum heads either;)

Don't believe me, then listen to this clip I just finished editing. cheap close mics, good overheads and room mics, SSD Trigger
https://soundcloud.com/signs-of-reign/ibt-drum-check-1

Not saying its the greatest drum recording ever but for the bang for the buck, I'm am just fine with it and you may be too.

Cheers
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Now if you could just use SSD Trigger on stage....

I mean, its always better to get a good recording than to BS it later...
 
I guess it depends on your budget right ? and your ability/experience and time to engineer a home recording.

My recording cost not including the DAW or the Interface or any cables, or the drums. comes to about hmmmm, 7 Piece CAD Mic kit used for about $100, Trigger plug-in about $150 (upgraded). So $250. Not bad eehhhhhhh :)

If you go back to the OP. The guy had about $1300 to spend for his budget. Seems like a reasonable option with $1000 left over to spend on a nice interface and a nice Computer based DAW or a couple decent OH mics.
 
You could definitely use this on stage too. You would just need to bring your laptop, interface and some extra cabling.
 
I suppose it depends on how you see yourself: as a recording artist or an engineer.

If you want to get good sounds at a cheap price, samples will work.

If you want to hone the craft of recording, learning mic placement, tuning, etc would be the way to go.

I used to be a little more snoby about this stuff, only resorting to samples when there was no other choice, but now that I'm in a situation where I can't have a real drumset, I now have to use v drums and samples...
 
By the way, even though theoretically you could do this live, you would have to replace the mics with triggers. There is far too much noise on the stage that would mistrigger the samples.

Plenty of artists do.this, but they usually use a drum brain that allows them to load their own sounds. Drum brains normally have lower latency than you can get from a daw.
 
metalj said:
LOL, but I don't understand the comparison. Real humans actually play the drums.
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Yes I know that, but if you are going to replace the drums with optimised recordings, then you may as well be hitting tin cans. I don't like the way artistic performance and skilful engineering is being replaced with automation.

The world is getting away with less talent and more fakery. If you record a live drum kit, then record with a half decent set of mics and good placement. Otherwise you only need to sit down with any of a number of drum synthesiser plugins and be done with the actual human drummer. And if you really really need SSD Trigger on stage, then you need a better drum kit to start with. I have some excellent recordings of live bands with some relatively ordinary mics and I like the feeling that I got them without any trickery
 
GuitarLegend said:
Yes I know that, but if you are going to replace the drums with optimised recordings, then you may as well be hitting tin cans. I don't like the way artistic performance and skilful engineering is being replaced with automation.

The world is getting away with less talent and more fakery. If you record a live drum kit, then record with a half decent set of mics and good placement. Otherwise you only need to sit down with any of a number of drum synthesiser plugins and be done with the actual human drummer. And if you really really need SSD Trigger on stage, then you need a better drum kit to start with. I have some excellent recordings of live bands with some relatively ordinary mics and I like the feeling that I got them without any trickery
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Amen brutha. For real. :thumbs up: :thumbs up: :thumbs up: :thumbs up:
 
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