how good are the 603s as overheads?

[ZEKE SAYER]

just how good are the 603s as overheads? what else do they work on?


thanks,


zeke

[jitteringjim]

The consensus around here is they work well. I like mine.
They are also good on acoustic guitar.
Truthfully, if you place them properly, they'll work for almost anything.
They're easy to bottom out on vocals, though.

[zbert]

I'll second that. I've even used a kick mic and 2 603's overhead and that's it. I got a really good "live" sound. Every now and then you can get a good deal on a used one off ebay.

[shackrock]

i got a pair of 8thstreet.com - 160 i think, comes with 2 mic chords too (xlr-xlr).

if you order this weekend, free shipping i tihnk.

peace

[Tim Brown]

I love mine.

If I put them on each side of the kit, and aim them at the snare, I get a very wide spread of the kit - and the Toms sound HUGE!

Tim

[Gidge]

Originally posted by Tim Brown
I love mine.

If I put them on each side of the kit, and aim them at the snare, I get a very wide spread of the kit - and the Toms sound HUGE!

Tim

i thought you swore by single overhead.......

anywho, exactly where "on each side of the kit" are you placing them?.......always looking for a new idea.......

[Tim Brown]

Originally posted by Gidge


i thought you swore by single overhead.......

anywho, exactly where "on each side of the kit" are you placing them?.......always looking for a new idea.......

I swear by the single over head if I'm doing Mono tracks.
Since we began recording pre-productions for a CD that we intend to record, my Bass player (and my co-founder of the band) wanted the toms and cymbals in stereo..(figure 14 cymbals....ranging from a 3" Cup chime to a 22" China)..so we are micing everything on the kit, and using overheads, but so far I haven't even needed to bring up the tom tracks- and he hasn't even realized that they are muted on the board! BWAHAHAH!

He's been listening to a ton of Tool, A Perfect Circle, and System of a Down, just to try and pay attention to the mixes of Heavy bands that are popular today, and he really wanted the stereo imaging on the drumkit, so I said "what the heck, we'll go with it"

Right now we're mic'ing the Kicks from inside, but we're going to build a pair of tunnels on the Kick drums, and mic them from a few feet out as well when we actually record the CD.

I have the overheads literally 4 feet to the left and right of the center of the snare on a pair of boom stands The Mic capsules are 6'8" from the floor, and angled at a 45-degree angle at the center of the snare. (I used a Tape measure to set all the mic's, so that when I found what I wanted, I would be able to replicate it fairly easily. Since we are doing this CD ourselves, I'm trying to capture the best sound that I can with the gear that we have. I want to use as little EQ as possible, and I'm trying to capture the sounds as naturally as I can.

Now, for my normal recordings, I would just pop an overhead directly over my head on a stand, and I personally am fine with the drumsound, it sounds killer, but I'm digging the stereo spread I've got right now.
Normally, I wouldn't want to "waste" the tracks (I have 16 tracks on a pair of DA-38's) because we use alot of tracks to build the vocals (we're heavy on the BG vocals, using a lot of layers, and we have alot of vocal lines that overlap...but one person singing those).
I'm in the middle of selecting components for a Pentium IV to be used strictly as a DAW and Video editing setup, because we're going to make the jump to recording on a PC, that way we will have almost unlimited tracks (more than I'll need....we're figuring that if we can use 32-48 tracks, we will be able to make this thing sound really "extra Thick".)


I'm still unsure about how I'm going to get my tracks into the DAW though.....I'm thinking about a pair of Tascam Digital Mixers, and using TDIF Cards so that I can get at least 16 tracks into the PC at one shot.
Hell, if I had it my way-I wouldn't even use a Mixer...I'd just go for a ton of Mic Preamps, because once the signal is in the PC, I want to keep it digital.

We'll have to see though.
I've just gotten sick of fighting noise, so I'm trying to keep everything in the digital domain when I go into the DAW because right now, I have to go Analog to get into the CD burner (Mixing with a Mackie mixer, and i'm really sick of it...so once we get the new set, the Mackie is going to be a dedicated live board)....and we want to get an internal DVD burner, so we're trying to make sure everything will be at least 48khz or better.
It's funny, I was always against Digital Recording, and now I LOVE it!

Oh, and my Tom mic's (ATM Pro-25 kick mic's) are 4" above each batterhead, and 1" in from the rim, and aimed almost straight down....about a 70 to 80 degree angle. (They sound killer, but like I said, I really haven't needed to use them because the Toms are coming through loud and clear in the overheads....but when we start recording on the DAW, that may change...it depends upon what kind of Reverbs I'll have to toy with.....I personally have been listening to Manowar's new CD, recorded in the Newest Protools platform, and man it is disgustingly huge sounding, and the bass guitar goes down so low and is so clear that it's almost frightening!)



Tim

[dcptnsdcvd]

tim,

do you have any recordings of your set (using either method, mono or stereo) in a song, with those tom mics and the overheads that we're discissing up there? i would love to hear how these methods of miking are working for you and how those mics sound (i'm in need of mics, all types so i'm looking to hear every mic out there)
Mike...

[lilcapn]

...other sd condensers? i've got a pair of the AT pro37r's, and i like them, but i wouldn't describe them as sounding "huge" as overheads -- anyone compare the 603's to other small diaphragm mics?

[ZEKE SAYER]

hey dudes!

i just got my pair of 603s and there asome! really low-nosie too.

[Tim Brown]

Originally posted by dcptnsdcvd
tim,

do you have any recordings of your set (using either method, mono or stereo) in a song, with those tom mics and the overheads that we're discissing up there? i would love to hear how these methods of miking are working for you and how those mics sound (i'm in need of mics, all types so i'm looking to hear every mic out there)
Mike...

I don't currently, but I'll put up like 30 to 60 seconds of music so you can hear what I'm talking about.

I'll probably put it up tonight.

We've been going through a lot of crap the last few days...my guitar player's girlfriend died Sunday night, and we're all kind of ...in shock. She fell down a flight of stairs in the middle of the night , broke her neck and died in the stairwell.....
Tim

[Gidge]

sorry to hear about your friends girlfriend....thats a real tragedy.....please pass on my condolences......


on a side note, i saw from your website you have a Mackie and a Carvin mixer....ive heard them separately and they sounded pretty similar, with the Mackie having a bit more headroom....side by side, how would u compare them?......

[Tim Brown]

Originally posted by Gidge
sorry to hear about your friends girlfriend....thats a real tragedy.....please pass on my condolences......


Thanks Gidge. It's kind of screwy, because I've never lost anyone that close...it's like, what do you say ?!?!

on a side note, i saw from your website you have a Mackie and a Carvin mixer....ive heard them separately and they sounded pretty similar, with the Mackie having a bit more headroom....side by side, how would u compare them?......

Well, the Mackie is a bit quieter, but the EQ on the Carvin is more musical sounding...go figure!
I hate the EQ on the Mackie....The Bell of the midrange is Wide and Shallow, which means it's just deep enough to screw up a lot of frequencies at once without really being useful.

Most of the time The Carvin is just sitting in a roadcase, and I rarely use it. Originally, I was using it as an effects return board, and a means of getting the outputs from the samplers and the ddrums into the main mixer.