do you use overhead mics for live gigs?

E

earworm

New member
now, i've only done small PA's and never used condenser mics for overheads,
i once messed with sm57's above the drumkit which gave me too much feedback,

soon i'll do a few more small PA's , i don't feel like miking the toms,
but i'm not sure,
or i'll go for Overhead mics (oktava mk012) and no toms
or i'll go for 3 tom mics (421's) and no overheads

what would you go for?

thanks
 
I have only done overheads at large shows in big rooms or outside. This is only for cymbal pickup and they are not sent through the monitors. There in no way to put up overheads and get enough gain to pick up the toms in a live situation. You must mic the toms, even if you span 2 toms with one mic. It is the only way.
 
ok, thats the way i'll do it then,
i just hope the drummer will at least hit his toms once or twice during the gigs/./
 
The tom mics pick up some cymbals, so they are usefull anyway. The reason the overheads-for-toms idea doesn't work is because, in that technique, you are micing the room. That would be the same room the PA is in, hence the feedback.
 
now what about gating drums live?
in the "studio" i mostly don't gate anything, i do that in the mix,
i'd have to go buy me a gate (2 or 4 channel) if i want to use one..

whats the most important instrument (including vocals) to gate?
on my previous gig i had gate on kick, snare and all vocals,
but i sold that quadgate :rolleyes:

seems like i shouldn't have to put one on the toms so they can constantly pick some cymbal bleed up,
kick and snare, do they cause lots of feedback problems in general?
or are it just the vocals that are dangerous..
 
How big of a setup are you running? I have never gated the vocals live. The kick and floor tom are problems on hollow stages when you have a lot of power to the subs.
If you give us an idea of what you have, it will be a lot easier to help. There are different ways of doing things for big and small shows
 
ok, its nothing big,
in the local club, we can fit about 300 to 500 people in there,
but i'm sure that evening won't be more than 300 people,

the stage is about... 8 meters wide and the length of the club might be around 15 meter, but thats just an estimation,
i don't have to use a huge setup,
i was thinking about two nexo ps15's as FOH, nexo amp and that extra "nexo controller" or how you call that... wasn't thinking about using subs...
and 4 cheaper monitors onstage, but can't remember which brand or type,
gonna look that up this week

the bands that will play are rockbands, might be one ska band,
4 bands on one evening, its all low budget,
the idea is to mic the vocals, bass, kick and snare, and guitars a bit, depends on the volume of their amps onstage

i don't know what mixer i'll get, think its a "small" yamaha

mics on drums are
e602 kick
m201 snare
md421's toms

sm57's on guts
sm58's on vox
 
Without subs, I wouldn't put the kick or the bass in the PA. In fact, with a small system like that, I would only run vocals, solos and effects through it.

A 15 with a horn on a stick is more for a press conference, than a rock show for 500 people. You will be lucky to get vocals out of that without them being really distorted and crappy sounding.

I have never used less than 5000 watts in a place that big. 2500 was for the subs.
 
mhh, but the nexo speakers are quiete heavy for such small things,
if i'm correct its 2x 600watt,
and they blow pretty hard, but yeah,
i think the place might be just too small for a bigger PA system,
and its just a little bit too big for just "a rehearsal setup", with only vocals trough the speakers,

damn problem is the budget, i'm not organizing it...they asked me to help :rolleyes: the systems i can rent with bigger subs and a few 'tweeters' on top are over budget, and then i didn't get the 4 31-channel eq yet, what i really want for the monitors
 
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