Best Mic's for Recording rock music.

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xparkerx

New member
So I just got a good deal on the Echo Mona and i want to buy some mics.. but i dont want mediocre crap. I currently have:

an AKG D12

a crown condenser (don't know the model name off hand but it was about 200 and looks like a mini flashlight, it has some bass frequency adjustments on it)

a couple audix OM2's i was using for live vocal stuff

i'm looking for something sweet to mic a drum set with and the best way to get a heavy guitar tone that sounds warm and not all nu metal dry crapola. I was thinking about looking into a VHT preamp or something ... but maybe i should just get a good mic.

what are your thoughts?
 
A mic isn't going to make a puny guitar sound huge. As far as mics for drums, it really depends on what sort of budget you are working with. If you live in fairy-tale land you could get the Brauner VM1S or a pair of AKG C12s for your overheads and you might find you would need little else. That or course is if you have tens of thousands of dollars to throw around for mics.

I use the Rode NT4 for overheads and have had some good results. I use it alot for live trap set recordings because I want a stereo drum track, but don't have time to position mics (also don't have to worry about losing the stereo image if a mic stand is bumped!).

For toms I would suggest Sennheiser MD-421s. Audix makes the D series mics which are nice for getting into small areas, but that's about it. Neuman KM84s are nice too.

Snare - Whatever you want. I think the snare is the personal choice of the engineer/producer and is the one drum on the kit that gets it's own personallity in the mix.

Some people choose to mic certain cymbals individually, like the hi-hats and the ride. Best mics for those would be small diaphragm condensers like the Shure SM-81 or the AT 4051.

There are lots of different mics and none of them have a "special purpose", so you may want to experiment with the ones you have as well. Just be wary of polar patterns. Putting an extremely wide cardiod on a kit may result in the mic picking up too much of something near it (snare mic picking up too much hi-hat, tom mic picking up too much snare, that sort of thing.) Less is more on a drum kit, so try to use the fewest mics you can get away with and make sure all of them are in relative phase correlation with one another because once you record it, it can't be undone in the mix.
 
cool.

Thanks for the input, do you feel like the akg 412 is a poor kick mic? it was just a hand me down.

When i was refering to the guitar sound i understand you need a good sounding guitar tone to begin with. Which for the most part i think i have. But i'm looking for something that will Translate a lot of gain well onto my HD.
 
You have an AKG D-12 or D-112? If it's a 12, it's a discontinued mic that's usually prefered over the 112 (and if it's in good shape they hold their value pretty well) but either is a decent kick mic. The Crown sounds like a small diaphram condensor (probably cardiod) and would be OK overhead. The Audix's would be OK on snare and rack toms.
 
ahh, it's a D-112.

What do engieneers use in decent stuidos?

my drum micing idea thus far has been to close mic the kick and snaare and use two overheads. is that enough?
 
xparkerx said:
ahh, it's a D-112.

What do engieneers use in decent stuidos?
Click to expand...

D-112s.

The setup sounds like it will work. You're going to lose a lot of the toms unless your overhead is really good. Positioning is the key there.
 
D-112s are one of many mics that are used in reputable studios for kick drum/bass applications.
 
well on the echo mona i just bought, 4 of the inputs have pres and it has 2 more inputs that don't if i put tom mics in those would it sound poor? Also, it just better to just go all tube pre? how much / what kind of difference am i looking at for the money?
 
Get the tube/solid state thing out of your mind. A good circuit is a good circuit no matter what. A crappy one is crappy, tube or solid state. As far as the two line input, you'll need preamps for those if you intend on sending mics to them.
 
much apprecaited...

does anyone have anymore input on what kind of mic to use to on my marshall cab? or have feelings one way or the other about the quality from guitar preamps?
 
my suggestion

i'm a bit of a renegade when it comes to mics on rock music.
ive used cheap no names with good results right up to neumanns. on string ensembles and orchestral recording pristine mics and pre's are far more important than on rock.
in summary i wouldnt rule out cheaper mics for rock.
because some cheaper mics together with creative mic positioning can yield interesting textures. if you search the history of recording some gold hits were done using in the past smogs of time old pa mics like the old shure pa mics.
i know one engineer who used to use 50 dollar mics on certain drum rock sessions. it was how heused them that was important.
 
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