Beyer M69 vs SM57 on snare/toms.

  • Thread starter Thread starter formerlyfzfile
  • Start date Start date
formerlyfzfile

formerlyfzfile

New member
For micing up a drum kit, what would be the difference between the M69 and 57 on the snare.
Or on the toms.

I am doing a session "on location" so to speak, next week and have not picked up the 69 yet....... have to wait for it to transfer in from another store.

The band is 2 guitar rock power-ballad (-ish) kinda thing with a lot of 2 part vox harmonies.

The drummer plays the whole kit and does a lot of short accent fills .... not the metal 4-bar power fills... but the 1 or two note tom accents.
He's also pretty light on the cymbols ..... which is nice.

His kit is a beautiful hand made 5 piece ..... I dont know the dimentions ...... he made the kick, floor tom, and two rack toms.
He said making a snare is a whole nother ball game and level so he didn't make the snare, but he has a few different ones.

I plan on the following set up.

GT MD1B-T (pair) as overheads.
RE20 for kick.
M69 on snare.
Sm57 on rack toms
Sm57 on floor (dont have a 421 yet :( )

Should I put the M69 on one of the toms instead??

I know the answer ultimately is put up the mics each way and see for yourself what they sound like but I'm just kinda wondering what to expect.

I have read the M69 is a smooth mic compared to the 57 and the MD1b's are smooth and the RE20 is pretty smooth on kick so I was thing the M69 might fit the "smooth picture" on snare a little more prehaps.

Does this sound like a reasonable plan???

-mike
 
The M69 is a hypercardioid with a tight polar pattern. Used for snare, it would help reduce bleed from other close-by components in the kit. The M69 is very deaf on the 120-degree axis, due to its tight hypercardioid pattern.

At 2.9mV, the M69 has a lot higher output than does the SM57. This might pose more of a problem of overloading the preamp due to extreme high SPL at close micing distances.

The Beyer M201 is designed for this purpose, and has a very low output of only 1.2mV. The M201 is also a tight hypercardioid, and I've heard this one tracked numerous times at Recording Engineer's studio. Very tasty.
 
The Beyer M201 is my favorite snare mic.

But...
freshmattyp said:
Bottom line for me is Harvey has hard earned credibility. DJL has none. No one has any idea of what DJL has done. Not a clue. There's no web link, no posted work, no real name, nada, bupkus. DJL, you are just an opinionated asshole with no credibilty to back up anything you say. Your 3000+ posts of nonsense speak volumes about your "experience". Your lack of even basic conversational skills or the ability to form a coherent thought continue to amaze me. I have met some flaky bass players in my day, but you take the prize. Congratulations. And for God's sake, learn the difference between your and you're and their, there and they're. Repeat the 4th grade if necessary.

Oh, yeah, it's "damn" you moron. You can't even cuss right.
Click to expand...
So don't expect too much.
 
Boy, I'm all over the place today. How lucky for me. As I rarely record drums, I don't really have anything to add.

Thanks for playing along at home.
 
Just what BGavin says . . . if you don't have a pad, or a mic pre with a lot of headroom, then you might run in to overloading problems. The 69 really is a surprizingly hot mic.

Other than that, it should be fairly/somewhat similar to the 201.

In my experience, I would give it the nod over the sm57 as a snare mic in most situations. A little better rejection than the 57 with careful placement. It tends to have more immediacy to it ; better "pop," or initial skin slap so it usually requires a little less EQ.

I generally would use a 57 when I plan to use the snare mic in more of a supporting role to the overheads . . . whereas the 69 seems to be able to stand on it's own a little better should you plan on letting the snare mic play more of a feature role.
 
The 69 is a great hypercardioid dynamic which is very versatile as well. You could use it on any part of a drumkit.

The M88 is the bigger brother of the M69, kind of a 69 with the 'loudness button' engaged.

If the pre can have it, the 69 is a great snare, tom, floor, kick or even spot mic for hats and cymbals.

It seems to me you can't go wrong with any Beyer mic. The 201 is also my favorite snare mic!
 
I've got an Audix D1 and D3 coming shortly, and want to get with Recording Engineer to compare both to his M201.

Play time!

:D
 
bgavin said:
I've got an Audix D1 and D3 coming shortly, and want to get with Recording Engineer to compare both to his M201.
Click to expand...


I think the Audixs' probably have about the best rejection / tightest hypercard pattern of any mic I can think of outside of maybe the MD-441 and some of the Electrovoices.

However, I think there might be somewhat of a tradeoff in terms of sound quality. It just tends to sound a little pinched at times, which is fine, in most cases, if all it's going to do is play a supporting role to the overheads.
 
Wow... thanks for the responses.

These mics will be going through my M30 board wich has decent headroom but more importantly has a 20dB and 40dB pad on each input.

I had planned on using the VTP-1 on kick and snare but seeing as that pre completely SUCKS ASS and has ZERO headroom and I kicked it to the curb after a day..... all mics will go through the board.

I MIGHT try the kick through my 286a but I think my baord will be better.

I have heard a lot of good things about the 201 on snare but the M69 is what was available thru my local shop.
They have a 421 (used) but I cant swing that right now.
Maybe I'll rent it to try it out.

I have heard that 421's make for a great tom mics ..... among other things.

And just one more thing.... dont EVER use, or especially buy a Digitech VTP-1 pre.
They SUCK.
Useless.
Shitty.
No balls.
No character (read sounds like nothing ....blaaahhhh)
No headroom.
"POPS" loudly when overloaded.
Little gain.
Harsh EQ.
I HATE it ..... just incase you couldn't tell.

-mike
 
Don't make us read between the lines. Why don't you tell us what you really think about that Digitech, FFZF. :D
 
The Sennheiser 421 is my favorite kick drum mic.

But...
freshmattyp said:
Bottom line for me is Harvey has hard earned credibility. DJL has none. No one has any idea of what DJL has done. Not a clue. There's no web link, no posted work, no real name, nada, bupkus. DJL, you are just an opinionated asshole with no credibilty to back up anything you say. Your 3000+ posts of nonsense speak volumes about your "experience". Your lack of even basic conversational skills or the ability to form a coherent thought continue to amaze me. I have met some flaky bass players in my day, but you take the prize. Congratulations. And for God's sake, learn the difference between your and you're and their, there and they're. Repeat the 4th grade if necessary.

Oh, yeah, it's "damn" you moron. You can't even cuss right.
Click to expand...
So don't expect too much.
 
Re: Wow... thanks for the responses.

formerlyfzfile said:
.... dont EVER use, or especially buy a Digitech VTP-1 pre.
They SUCK.
Useless.
Shitty.
No balls.
No character (read sounds like nothing ....blaaahhhh)
No headroom.
"POPS" loudly when overloaded.
Little gain.
Harsh EQ.
I HATE it ..... just incase you couldn't tell.

-mike
Click to expand...


I got one would like to purchase it?













;) :D



Don
 
chessrock said:
It just tends to sound a little pinched at times, which is fine, in most cases, if all it's going to do is play a supporting role to the overheads.
Click to expand...
This is the entire point.

I've not yet heard the Audix, except on my drummers kit, so this is an exercise in buy-first, listen-second. I intend the Audix be exclusively used for straight-on close micing of drums and cabs.

The Beyer M201 is even tighter in its hypercardioid pattern, and is all but deaf to everything in front of its nose.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top