Help what am I doing wrong

  • Thread starter Thread starter wildmotox
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wildmotox

wildmotox

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Hi everyone I would like help on recording. I have a Tascam us1800 with cubase le5 on a laptop. I learning how to record my drums. My question is how to I get my OH mics to pickup my cymbals..They pickup everything else LOUD but not the cymbals. Can anyone give me any pointers on what Im doing wrong. Thanks Floyd
 
It would help if you told us what microphones you are using and maybe send a picture of how you have them set up. Are you sure you are actually getting signals from those mics to Cubase, and not just the other mics?
 
Greg L wrote a great guide to recording drums in one of the forums, not sure if itll help here but its certainly worth the read for anyone recording on a budget
 
Overhead mics will always pick up the whole kit.
Most people seem to take the approach of getting the kit to sound good with overheads alone, then using the other close mics to supplement that sound.

Definitely read anything Greg wrote on the matter. That's about the best advice you'll get around here.
 
Another little thought, you will likely always have to reverse the polarity of your overhead mics. We would definitely need to see how you have things mic'd up tho.
 
Steenamaroo said:
How come you do that, Jim?? You bottom mic the toms or snare or something?
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Nope, never. It just almost always is what is needed. In fact, I can't even think of a time where I haven't needed to flip em.
 
An easy A/B test, shows the low end is more prominent with the overheads polarity flipped. I suppose it depends on the distance of the overhead mic's, but I have had this conversation here before, and many have agreed. Give it a shot. :)
 
Ok, so is this assuming the kick is mic'd up or something?

Genuine curiosity here; I've never heard of this.
If the toms or snare are top mic'd then flipping the OHs is no good, right?
 
My typical setup for 4-6 piece kit:

Kick mic'd inside. Toms and snare above. Overheads approximately above hh and ride, equidistant to snare, about 3-4' away. I tend to mic ride and HH for definition/enhancement of attack if needed for rock stuff.

Always, the overhead mics sound out of phase. Problem solved by reversing polarity. This seems different than the typical need to flip polarity for close mic'd toms/snare. I'm not sure why, but all I know is that it works for me.
 
Ah I see, I think.
So it's a comb filtering thing.

There's always gona be some kind of cancellation between tom/snare mics and OHs at a distance.
You prefer the sound of whatever cancellation occurs with the OHs flipped?

Cool man. I'd never thought about that before.
 
Absolutely prefer the sound. I typically send my overheads to a stereo group channel, and flip that. Other drums get grouped separately and treated with different compression and stuff.
 
wildmotox said:
My question is how to I get my OH mics to pickup my cymbals..They pickup everything else LOUD but not the cymbals.
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I've not heard that before. If anything, it's the opposite problem, the cymbals are too loud.
Just out of interest, where are your mikes in relation to your cymbals ?
 
I often flip the polarity of the overheads, quite often due to the distance from the snare the overheads will be out of phase with the snare top mic. There are occasions where I have found the overheads sound better not flipped funny enough? I think it depends on the size of the kit and the height / width of the cymbal set up. How high are you setting up the overheads?

I sometimes also flip the kick mic(s) one or the other or both (inside or outside) again this seems to depend on the size of the kick and the kit set up. Another thing I do often is to put an acoustic blanket over the top of the kick to take the shell sound out of the overheads.

I have even taken to flipping the odd tom mic as well, I recently had trouble with a floor tom, flipping the phase on it fixed it up completely. I was talking to a sound engineer (live PA) the other day and he often flips the phase on every second tom to clean up the sound (mud) and it works for him.

So to sum it up: you do what you need to do to get the sound you want.

Alan.
 
Thanks Everyone I will check it out and keep working on the problems.. PS You all have a great day..
 
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