good overhead placement?

[ZEKE SAYER]

i've bin recording my overheads with a pair of 603's and i really like the sound. but, there picking up the back head of the kick and making the kick sound like a big "bong" or something. how can i place the overheads to get everything, but the kick?


thanks,
zeke

[spinrecordings]

Well, when I mic my set for recording I really just use the overheads to grab the cymbals.

I have everything else mic'd and or using drum triggers. So I realy don't need any more drum sound bleeding through my overheads. What I do is just eq out the bottom end (who the hell needs bottom end on a cymbal?) and that usually gets rid of just about all the drum sounds from my overheads. Hope this helps a little..

[Gidge]

if you are mic'ing the kick , try just doing a low cut to get some of that kick out of the overhead picture.....

[memriloc]

DITTO....

[tubedude]

It shouldnt sound like a gong unless it sounds that way in the room anyway.
Speaking of rooms, that is a very improtant question. Are you micing to gather alot of room information, or are you micing to eliminate as much as possible.
More details with your questions so we arent stabbing in the dark.

[ZEKE SAYER]

i'm recording with 4 mics. (2 ovh/kick/snare) i have been thinking of geting more mics for the toms and mabye one for the room.
i hear alot of stuff about that. some tell me that 4 mics is the best way to get a "real" drum sound and then some tell me to mic all of the drums. i'm wanting a really loud,hard rock sounding drum sound. my walls are tacked with capet pading. (it gives it a dead sound.)

[tmix]

Zeke,
Good to see you again!
Four mics are often just the right thing for natural drums sound like for Jazz etc. Sometime when you want extra beef you may want to add tom mics and work with placement,EQ , blend etc. to make them stronger.
Before you do that, try loosening the batter side head a little to reduce the boing sound. I typically loosen the head to almost the point of crinkleling and then tighten it to the minimal tightness I can get by with for my pedal action to be right.
When I perform I like a tighter head for quick action, but generally you will want to deaden / loosen the head during recording. (unless you want the bong sound)

tmix

[ZEKE SAYER]

well, my kick don't sound like a bong in the kick mic. it just sounds
that way on the overhead tracks. i have acquain super kick heads on the kick and there both tuned all the way down to where they almost ripple.

[ebeam]

Well, I just posted to your other thread about kick drum phase problems. Here's a hint that I don't think people really do very often but makes a lot of sense to me and you can definitely hear the difference. If your overheads are positioned on the beater side of the kick drum, you will be picking up kick drums sounds that are the inverse (polarity) of what the kick drum mic is picking up. Same with any kick drum leaking into the snare mic. So, you might be getting some phase cancelling when you mix in the overheads with the kick drum mic that make the kick sound like crap. Try inverting the polarity of the kick drum with respect to the other 3 mics and see what happens.

Another thing that I bet is hampering your sound is that carpet padding on the walls. All that is doing is killing all of that nice sparkly high-end. Generally, a dead room is not just a room with no high-end, it has broad band absorption/diffusion. With the carpet padding on the walls (or carpet on the floor for that matter) you will likely have all the same problems with room modes, etc. you had before, but now you have no high end.