Need some help with my overhead tracks

lostcausestudio

New member
So I recently upgraded my drum kit and cymbals in the studio space, the drums sound absolutely fantastic, got just the right punch and drive. but my cymbals are another matter, no matter what i do they seem thin and kind of harsh, I have tried running a spaced pair to dial back the harsh overtones, but they still are thin, I have decent cymbals, meinl classic customs dark all around the kit, using 2 nady matched small diaphragm condensers for overhead mics, which I got from someone I know who used them as overheads for years, and his cymbal tracks always sounded good. There are videos all over youtube of these cymbals being used in an oh demo, and they sound great, if anyone can help me with this I would appreciate it, the cymbal sound in my overheads is the only real issue I am struggling with.
 
Hi,
There's a few reasons things might sound different for you than for the other person.

The cymbals themselves may just sound different so that's the first thing to be aware of.
Your room comes into play too. A lot of elements of a kit are close miked so the room has limited influence on the sound but the overheads are usually several feet away.
If your room is very live/bright, that could influence things.

Another thing to check is polarity. Trust nothing when it comes to polarity - It's entirely possible for two cables, or adapters, to be wired 'wrong' to each other.
A simple check would be just to have the two microphones side by side pointing the same way then just record a hand clap or something.
If they have ended up with opposite polarity your recording will be very thin sounding and the waveforms under a zoomed view in recording software will clearly be moving opposite to each other - as one goes up the other goes down and vice versa.
 
thank you, i will give the polarity check a try, I did put some acoustic treatment up yesterday around the kit (had it basically everywhere else in my recording space except around the drum set) I originally thought it was acoustic issues, however after putting foam tiles and diffusers up it doesn't seem to have improved the sound much at all, I have both of my overheads off axis from the cymbals and pointing at the floor which seemed to eliminate some of the harsh overtones I was getting in prior tracks. Hitting the phase switch in my daw seemed to change nothing so I didn't really consider polarity as my issue, but I will give that a try and see if that makes a difference and switch the polarity at my mixer going into the daw.
 
Polarity may not be the issue at all but it's certainly worth ruling out.
Generally with a partial cancellation you're left with nothing but the higher frequencies.

May be stating the obvious but for testing you'd want to toggle polarity of one of the overhead microphones - not both.
It's probably easier to asses with both microphones panned centre. Wrong should should very weak and empty - right should sound much fuller.
 
Thank you yeah, that was the plan, i am going to test it when i get back home, flip one mic at a time and play with my headphones on for monitoring, see if the sound improves then track and go from there, I have the kit very close mic'd even the overheads are closer than most people put them, to try and eliminate the room noise, my philosophy has always been that it is easier to add the room in via reverb and other effects, than it is to eq/compress/gate out a bad room sound. So I am fairly certain that the room isn't the issue here, like i said I have it treated, and i keep the mics close just to make sure. Part of me is wondering if these particular cymbals just do not get along with these particular microphones.
 
So I checked the polarity, it was fine, what I ended up doing was I moved the overheads lower, and swung them off axis from the kit, then rechecked phase and so far it seems to have completely changed how this kit sounds in the mix, the overheads are now giving me a full spectrum of the drum sound, which seems to help a lot with the mix, and the cymbals seem much fuller and far more crisp than they did in previous attempts. Now if I could only get an actual drummer here to play the kit I could get it fine tuned lol, But for now I will basic rock beat my way through a track and see what happens
 
Back
Top