Help centering snare in mix!

[hotwatertim72]

Well, yesterday, I recorded for teh first time with my band. I set up two overheads, one snare mic, and one kick mic. After we recorded and I was mixing, I noticed that when I panned the left overhead, to the left of course, the snare went along with it. I need some help positioning my overheads so they pick up the snare evenly. Here's what I'm using:

Presonus Firepod into computer

Mics -
2 MXL 990's as overheads
1 Sm-57 as snare
1 Superlux FK2 for Kick (don't laugh, I got a good sound out of it)

Here's a picture of my kit, so I can get some help:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...m/P1010040.jpg

[treymonfauntre]

try an XY configuration over the drummers head. that should pick up enough cymbals and toms and as long as the snare is in the middle of the x/y they'll be perfect.

[hotwatertim72]

Thanks man. I was wondering, in my set, the snare is actually off to the left of the bass drum, which is in the middle. Would I then make the snare the "middle" of my set? Another question arises from that, wouldn't the bass drum be off to the right then? Sorry for asking dumb questions, but i'm a noob on setting up overheads. Thanks a lot.

[tourettes5139]

What I do is setup the x/y so that it aims halfway between the snare and kick. On my set, they are pretty close to each other, plus combine that with the fact that x/y doesn't give you a very wide stereo image, it comes out just fine.

[jkokura]

Check out this site...TONS of advice for beginers to help understand positioning and the 'mechanics' of recording

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

Jacob

[treymonfauntre]

yep, that site is great. for a kit like yours you need to realize that staring straight at the bass drum won't give you a centered image. the middle line goes through the snare and the bass drum and typically the mounted tom.
you wouldn't happen to be in a hot water music cover band with all those cymbals would you?

[Adam P]

Originally Posted by treymonfauntre

you wouldn't happen to be in a hot water music cover band with all those cymbals would you?

Haha, I was wondering that myself.

You mentioned that the snare is moving to the left in the image when you pan the overhead left (which is what is obviously is going to happen), but what about the right overhead? Is there no snare signal at all in your right overhead? As long as your overheads are an equal distance from the snare and there isn't anything impeding the sound's travel between them, the snare level should be fairly even in both mics.

Alternately, you could get yourself a cheap stereo bar from a music store and try out XY, which may work out better.

[hotwatertim72]

No, i'm not in a hot water music cover band, but i do love HWM. Great band, and their drummer is one of my influences.
Anyways, I think what happened was that I had the left overhead way to close to snare, and the right overhead not close enough, because there barely any snare signal in the right overhead. Now that I think of it, the positioning was like that. Thanks a lot guys, I'm gonna try some things out and see what I can get.

[Adam P]

You might also want to give this a shot. I see it's at the top of the forum as I'm posting this. Very useful...check it out!

[hotwatertim72]

hey thanks everyone for suggestions, but thanks to jkokura a lot! I used that guys drum mic technique, and, low and behold, it worked great. My snare is now in the center and I'm able to pan my OH's left and right. Thanks a lot guys!