Mixing Room Mics for drums

[Jason James]

Hey there. I'm doing a session this weekend where the artist wants a jazzy sounding kit. My drummers going to bring a 16" floor tom converted into a kick, very small tom's and of course snare and cymbals. We have a 20'x20' vaulted ceiling/hardwood floor room that's empty for tracking and I wanted to capture alot of the room sound. THe ??? is, I don't have any matching Large Diaphram mics. I usually use a Neumann TLM 103 for a mono room mic, two MK-012's for overheads and then mic the snare, kick and toms accordingly. Would it work to use the TLM 103 and say a Rhode NT-2 for stereo micing though they don't match. Also, I have a Oktava MK-219, I could get another one and use them for the stereo pair. What do ya think? Anyone know of anygood books or sites that have drum micing techniques. www.sae.de is a pretty good one. Thanks

Jason

 

[analogelectric]

I love doing Jazz recordings, especially if the players are really good.

The best thing about Jazz musicians is they have their drums tuned PERFECTLY for what they do.

I think you'll have an easy time putting what you got up and capturing it live. If you wanted to stay 'true Jazz' you'd use one Omni mic in the middle of the room while placing everyone according to how loud they are around it. A U47 will do the trick. Probably a little out of anyone's league so I'll move on...

I like the 103. I wouldn't worry so much about matching. It comes in handy but I've used a Neumann U87 and a TLM103 for overheads and it worked fine. It also showed me the difference between the two. The U87 was much rounder than the 103 but I moved them in accordance to the set/room to get them close for stereo imaging.

I don't know much about the RODE you have but I'd say go with it and explore the room. You might have to EQ one of them (or both) to get closer to a match but that's a small price to pay as opposed to running out and buying a new mic. If I buy any pair of mics these days I like to make sure they have close serial numbers because capsules are different a mile apart.

Telefunken 221B's are really nice for Jazz but pretty spendy (if you can find them between now and this weekend). They're small diaphragm but sound really good for Upright Bass or overheads/room.

Well that's it from me...for now.

--AdamLazlo