Overheads!

[AlexHerd]

Price wise what would be the next step up from the ECM 8000 for drum overheads thanks!

[B3Nut]

Next steps up price-wise?

Here are some potential OH's, concentrating on small-cap condensers. LD's can often be good too, SP C1's and MXL2003's are said to be nice budget LD OH mics.

MXL603S @ $50 to $80 are a good bet, everyone should have a pair of these
puppies.
Rode NT-3 (160)
Rode NT-5 set (299)
Rode NT-4 (stereo XY mic; 450)
Oktava MC-012 (caveat emptor if buying from Guitar Center; try a few if you want these mics, or buy em from http://www.oktava.com .) (100-200, depending)
Crown CM-700 (200-250)
Shure SM-81 (300?)

Have fun

TP

[darrin_h2000]

Probobly Pzm if you can find one, the 603s from Mxl should be good.

[Track Rat]

Neumann KM-184's

[nz_guitar_god]

Neumann U-89's :-)

[postalblue]

i'll have to second the km 184 suggestion, and bring up the elation 201, which nobody ever mentions, but is reportedly better than the oktava mc012.

[Fishmed]

I have been using AKG C418 for my overheads and have been getting great results. AKG now has the C430 Overhead Microphone for around $160.

[nwsoundman]

Try some AT Pro 37R's. You should be able to get em cheap used. They work fine for OH's and acoustic guitar.

[octoruss]

I will second postalblue's suggestion about the Elation KM201. I searched for a long time to get a decent pair of sm condenser overhead mics for the drum kit, and tried a lot of the brands mentioned here.

I ultimatelky bought the KM201s on reputation alone, but haven't looked back since. They have become sort of my defacto standard for everything now--drums, ac. guitar etc. (which may be a bit overboard) but I love these mics. Very versatile, but also amazingly accurate and smooth--perfect for a good drum kit or high end acoustic guitar (esp. Taylors with their shimmering high end).

[geekgurl]

How much are the Elation 201s, and who carries them?

Also, the KM184s are probably at least 2 if not 3 steps up from the ECMs, right?

[chessrock]

yea, try like 100 steps up, pricewise.

[Link]

I don't give a poo what anyone says....for the music I do (which is usually punk and harder edged stuff) I still like the AKG C1000's a lot. They were recommended to me by some bigtime engineer and I haven't looked back


I've tried the KM 184's and they didn't really do it for me.

[postalblue]

well, forget about the elation 201's then. they're more expensive than the 184's.

[fimpen]

c-414 ULB if you can afford them


/fim

[spiral]

If the room is decent i've had really good luck with an sm57 as an overhead or micing the side of the kit. It takes the edge off the over-zealous cymbal hitter-person and tends to be softer than a condensor. Try it.

Just an FYI: I recently tried the Studio Projects T3 over a drummers head facing the snare and one AKG bass mic and it was really tight.

[Fed]

spiral,
do you mean you had just two mikes for the whole kit
if so, very cool! any sound bytes.
Thanks

[spiral]

Yes. 2 mics in both cases. No sound samples with the T3 unfortunately because it was for a radio show and i haven't gotten my hands on the recording yet. I've also really wanted to try and just set up the T3 in front of the kit. The idea is to get the sound of the whole kit. The only sample i have of the 57 overhead is really old (ie. before i knew much about recording - quite boomy) and its a lower bitrate mp3 so keep that in mind. YMMV of course but this is where experimenting comes into play. "Prentend you are an ear."

http://www.polishoperative.com/mp3/track1EP.mp3

i think this guy does great stuff with minimal micing. ksm 32 overhead, 57 on snare and a meyer m-88 on the beater side of the kick drum
http://home.earthlink.net/~organwolf...fOrganWolf.htm

Sorry. I don't want to derail this too far off topic, so ... The original question was what would be the next step up, pricewise, from a ecm8000. Those are 35dollars each so my suggestion was trying a sm57 which is around 75dollars.

[Blake Long]

If you're looking for ovhd mics to pick up all the drums, use the 8Ks. If you looking for a ovhd mics to make the hats and crashes sound good, get the Marsh 603 for a cheap answer and the AKG 451 or the newer version for a more expensive answer. In my opinion those 8Ks are dark as hell. I just use them as room mics mixed with bright ovhd mics.

[hrn]

I have a sample of two ADK A51's (type 3) as overheads here:

http://www.hig.se/~hrn/forum_samples/oh.mp3

I adjusted the levels during the sample....if you hear anything strange in the stereo view.

Hans,
www.hagen.nu