Can I mic drums overhead with a Perception 120?

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Chammy

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I just purchased the AKG Perception 120 for home project and would like to know if I can mic the drums overhead with that particular mic. I have 2 Shure's , one for snare and kick and will use the 120 for overhead. Will I ruin my mic?
 
What kind of Shure's do you have? If you are talking about 57's you aren't going to get a very good sound from the bass drum as the 57 has a small diaphragm. i would suggest looking into a specialised, wide diaphragm bass drum mic. If you are on a budget you can get a cheap one of these for around $160 Australian. As well as this you will find that you will have trouble getting a nice sound out of the tom's as they will just bleed into the other microphones.

As for the AKG, it is a wide diaphragm condenser mic. Most engineers will use pencil condenser mic's with a small diaphragm for overhead use. It is very unlikely that it will damage your microphone (unless you are hitting the actual microphone with your stick) but you are not going to get a very clear sound using this setup.

I'm kinda new to this aswell so feel free to correct me if anything I have said is incorrect.
 
The 120 is fine for an overhead mic. There's nothing especially wrong with using a large-diaphragm condenser (LDC) for an overhead, but you are right that you often see pencils used. I think if you look at a lot of pictures from recording sessions, though, you will notice things like 414s as overheads. Use whatever sounds good (or in this case, whatever makes the most sense given what you have).
 
Chammy said:
I just purchased the AKG Perception 120 for home project and would like to know if I can mic the drums overhead with that particular mic. I have 2 Shure's , one for snare and kick and will use the 120 for overhead. Will I ruin my mic?
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Well it is a large 3/4' diaphragm microphone with a roll off frequency switch and a pad switch, but you should be fine, and for $74. you could get an other one for a nice stereo spread of your drum kit. Or just use the one microphone centered on the drum kit.
SDC are used a lot for over heads but LDC can be used as well it all depends on how your finial mix sounds to you. SDC are used for the quick transit of the sound where as the LDC can be sort of sluggish again it all depends on the style of music your recording and the *sound* that your trying to achieve.
A minimal drum micing set up would be kick,snare,overhead - 57 on snare, 120 on overhead and a large diaphragm dynamic for the kick, my preference is either the Shure beta 52a or the Sennhieser e602.





:cool:
 
Chammy said:
I just purchased the AKG Perception 120 for home project and would like to know if I can mic the drums overhead with that particular mic. I have 2 Shure's , one for snare and kick and will use the 120 for overhead. Will I ruin my mic?
Click to expand...
Shure (sic) you can use it as an overhead and won't harm them at all. I am still a bit short on mics, so I used two 120's on this recording:
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=818206&songID=8866540
One was placed about 4" above and between the snare and tom on one side, the other about 4" above and between two toms on the other side. I used two MXL 603's as overheads and an ElectroVoice ND868 on kick. I wish I had more (decent) mics. This was a location recording of a 3 piece blues band.
 
In truth, you can use any mics or types of mics to record drums. Some are far better suited than others but ultimately, if you're happy with the overall sound, then what the general consensus is doesn't really matter. You do have to be sensible though and that's why these forums are so good and the breadth of advice more than worth noting.
I did a session the other day and I thought I'd have a go at using one dynamic {a shitty Shure} and one condenser {from a Thomann stereoset} as overheads. They were both placed fairly wide apart and under the height of the cymbals {my drumming mate can get a little cymbal happy} while I close miked everything else. I liked it but I regret one thing - that I didn't add a room mic just for more overall presence. Whenever I've used a room mic or one overhead recently, I've liked the result.
You live and learn.
 
Common Dreads said:
What kind of Shure's do you have? If you are talking about 57's you aren't going to get a very good sound from the bass drum as the 57 has a small diaphragm. i would suggest looking into a specialised, wide diaphragm bass drum mic.
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A microphone's diaphragm size has nothing to do with the amount of bass it can capture. Read the "big thread" at the top of the forum.
 
grimtraveller said:
In truth, you can use any mics or types of mics to record drums. Some are far better suited than others but ultimately, if you're happy with the overall sound, then what the general consensus is doesn't really matter. You do have to be sensible though and that's why these forums are so good and the breadth of advice more than worth noting.
I did a session the other day and I thought I'd have a go at using one dynamic {a shitty Shure} and one condenser {from a Thomann stereoset} as overheads. They were both placed fairly wide apart and under the height of the cymbals {my drumming mate can get a little cymbal happy} while I close miked everything else. I liked it but I regret one thing - that I didn't add a room mic just for more overall presence. Whenever I've used a room mic or one overhead recently, I've liked the result.
You live and learn.
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Oh yes, a room mic is a very good thing! Even better is a stereo pair of room mics.






:cool:
 
grimtraveller said:
I'm going to try that next time. Are they vastly different from overheads ?
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Yes Grim ....well depends on your room.
I should point out that if you have a great sounding room your room microphones will really shine up your mix.
As for me our live tracking room is 100 x 100 and two stories high it's a GREAT sounding room for drums.;)





:cool:
 
Thanks guys for the usefull input here. Yes I am on a budget and just bought the 120 for vocals, garage/home project type stuff. I have the Shure SM48S's.
 
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