Drum micing placement

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mentil69

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Im having a bunch of problems with my drum micing setup. First of all my setup is two oktava mc012 omnidirectional condensers for overhead, sm 57s on the three toms, an sm 58 on top of the snare, and a shure KSM27 under the snare. Oh and a beta 52 for the bass drum. So my first problem is that I cannot get the sound I want out of my toms. When I go through my mackie mixer using the xdr preamps, I cannot get the equalization right so I just decided to go straight into my workstation. However, now I am just getting a very flat crapppy sound. Second, my overheads are not working the way I want. When I put them close to the hi hat and ride, I get a good tone, but if I push up the levels at all on them, I start to hear some of the bass drum in them and it doesnt sound good. But when I put them as overheads a couple feet over the set, I get a live sound and the cymbals loud enough. The main problem is that whenever I raise the volume on the overheads I get a lot of bleeding from the bass drum and snare. Can anyone help me out?
 
hows you room? put the cardiod capsule in the mc012's and play with their placement. there could be a million things. i also use mc012s fo oh's and get great results. i too have a mackie mixer and get crappy tom tones. but it has gotten better with mic placement and proper drum tuning. how do the toms sound to your ear before the mics even go up? that is where i would start. make the toms sound as good as you can on your own than play with mic placement on them and your oh's
 
Ya thanx The first thing is I have to tune the drums better, my problem is that I got the mc 012s for very cheap and I didnt get the cardiod capsules. Im almost positive I could get much better results if I had those capsules, i just cant find them. Also, if im putting the tom mics through my xdr mixer preamps, how do you suggest I equalize them?
 
what are you recording into? how many channels?

what kind of sound are you going for when you EQ your toms? you can probably get close to the sound via tuning and different head combinations. if your toms are tuned properly and sound good to you 'live', then you shouldn't need to EQ them....however, best case scenario is to record them dry onto their own track and then tweak with EQ at the mixing stage, if necessary.

regarding your overheads....if you don't want bass drum in them, you can roll-off the bass, either pre-recorder or at the mixing stage. I don't think putting a different capsule in the mic is going to solve your 'bleed' problem.
 
I frequently use the 012's as overheads. Personally I think the bleed is your friend but that's just a matter of taste. The cardiods would sound a bit different but if anything bass response would come up. If your preamps have a rolloff use it. The 012's come with a pad but no rolloff.
Are you tight micing every tom and the bottom of the snare?
 
mentil69 said:
Ya thanx The first thing is I have to tune the drums better, my problem is that I got the mc 012s for very cheap and I didnt get the cardiod capsules. Im almost positive I could get much better results if I had those capsules, i just cant find them. Also, if im putting the tom mics through my xdr mixer preamps, how do you suggest I equalize them?
Click to expand...


This applies to anything in recording: garbage in, garbage out. I am in no way saying that your toms sound like garbage as I've never heard them, but if you don't have a good sound in a good room to begin with, you're not going to achieve the results you desire.

I also believe that bleed is desirable, as a drumset is a cohesive instrument. I also do not equalize my toms as I achieve the sound I am going for with (in this order): head choice, tuning, mic placement. As always, NEVER stop experimenting. It can be quite frustrating but quite fun as well. Good luck...
 
Ya i do mic the toms close, and i use a ksm 27 on the bottom of the snare, and an sm 58 for the top. I dont have much experience with bass rolloff but my mackie preamps dont have it. If there is anymore help available i would appreciate it. thanx
 
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