Hypercardioid: Too narrow for single drum overhead?

[knownuttin]

I'm referring to my new Stephen Sank mod-ed Beyer M260, my first hypercardioid pattern mic. I want to use it as the "overhead" in an attempt at Fletcher's 3-mic drum micing technique. For the unfamiliar this means a placement anywhere from over the drummer's shoulder to directly over his head, roughly speaking.

My question is, as this is the only "overhead" in this approach (and obviously I'm not going for a stereo image of the kit), will the hypercarioid pickup possibly be too narrow a pickup for this application.

On the plus side, the drums will be at one end of a fair-sized live room with guitar amps blaring in it, and a bit of rejection may be just the ticket. Not a job for an omni.
TIA,
-kent

 

[mixmkr]

hey...without being sarcastic...try it...then you'll know. I think mic'ing a set of drums depends so much on the player, it is hard to give such a generalazationa (sp? ha!). I mean..you point it at the snare...wadda ya think you'll get..??..maybe, point it at your head....seriously...!! You have two sets of racked toms...well...maybe you need stereo

as I alluded to earlier in another post...your Beyer ribbon output may not be the greatest..so maybe it'll need to be "upped" a bit at the pre..and the off axis, you should enjoy..

did you like your mod, btw?
at a buck and a quarter, that might be the ticket...specially if mine ever shoots craps..(I've got the 160's though)

 

[knownuttin]

Yeah, I plan to give it a whirl. It's also my first ribbon, and being less than enamored of the sound of cymbals in digital-land so far, I'm intrigued by Lee Flier's statements on another forum that ribbons are something approaching a cure.

Having heard a bit of Fletcher's own recordings on a selection from the rec.audio.pro CD, I'm also pretty jazzed about trying out his drum-micing method. Neither this kit nor this project require stereo. Sessions about a week away, so I'm getting my thoughts together with a little help from you, my friends!

Thrilled with my Sank mod so far. I've had the dam flu, so thus far my only tests have been guitar and it sounds great. To qualify that, it's my first and only ribbon, and I did not have it before the mod. Stephen brokered the deal, and sent it to me when he finished the work. The only thing that might add value would be to say it compares favorably with the one I borrowed from Harvey about a year ago. On guitar.

FWIW, I think the mod for the 160's a bit more, but hey, if it craps out on you, what else are you going to do?
Thanks for your interest!
-kent

 

[TexRoadkill]

I would guess that you want to use the ribbon farther back as a room mic. I would be afraid of the cymbals pushing too much air at it.

If you can spring for some $35 ECM8000's they would make good overheads.

 

[JM350]

I would guess that you want to use the ribbon farther back as a room mic. I would be afraid of the cymbals pushing too much air at it.

Beyer recommends the mic for drum overheads right on their website. If you have any concerns about the Sank mod you should probably call him but i would think it would also be ok.

A single 260 would probably be too tight for a really large kit but one should cover a four or five kit just fine.

 

[knownuttin]

Cool JM, thanks! Yeah Stephen Sank and I talked about various methods of keeping the drummer from not knocking over the boom. He had some humorous suggestions, as well as some useful ones. This kits not huge, more Charlie Watts than Neil Peart, so I bet it'll be fine.

Tex, I have ECM8000's and agree they make good OH's, but this is going to be one noisy room. I'd sooner avoid the bleed I get with OMNI. They're also less forgiving of dumb homereccer mistakes because of their accuracy. I've got some really harsh cymbal sounds because of poor positioning when I first got em, because I didn't take enough time setting up and allow for the inevitable doubling of volume once the red light comes on. You're right though that they can work really well as a single OH. In this session, I'm going to have to keep the rock guitar bleed out of the drum mics for the extent possible.

Thanks for your replies. Any other thoughts are welcome.
-kent

PS-for anyone familiar with Fletcher's 3 mic approach, I'm contemplating using my V67 for the front-of-kick position. Tom Hicks of this board is using his on kick recording his band this weekend, and said he'd let me know how it works. Anyone else try this?