Drum mics - room ambience

  • Thread starter Thread starter dingwall
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dingwall

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Hey everyone,

Over the past while, I've built up a mic collection which I feel is pretty good. The only thing I am really lacking is a really good LDC.

I am concentrating on topping off my drum-mic setup with a set of room mics.

So far, I have the following:

Kick - Beta 91 and Beta 52 and a home-made Yamaha sub-kick
Snare top - Beyerdynamic m201
Snare bottom - Beyerdynamic m201 or SM57
HiHat - CAD ICM417 or m201 (if I use 57 on snare bottom) [what do you all prefer on snare-bottom?]
Ride - CAD ICM417
Rack 1 - Sennheiser 421
Rack 2 - Sennheiser 421
Floor - Beta 52 or Sennheiser 421
Overhead left - CAD CM17
Overhead right - CAD CM17

The fact that my overheads, hi-hat and ride mics are not that great are beyond the scope of this thread. Although I will admit that I do enjoy the sound of the my CM17's on overheads, they just sound pleasant to my ears. And the ICM417 on ride has this unbelievable off-axis rejection that I like.. even though the sound of the mic itself leaves me desiring something more. Keep in mind I have a shure SM7 that I keep throw on hi-hat or ride, as I have heard of a lot of people having luck with that.

Now my question.. I wanna get a set of room mics. As usual, I am fairly generous to myself with the amount I spend on my mics. I don't like to cheap out.

Here are my ideas so far..

2 Audio-technica 4050's spaced out in the room. This would benefit because I could also use them as vocal mics.

2 Rode NT-2a's spaced out in the room. Same thing... vocal mic.

2 Rode K2's spaced out in the room. And again... vocal mic.

A Beyerdynamic m130 and a beyerdynamic m160 in m/s configuration in the room. These mics may not benefit me as much for vocals, but they would certainly give me a couple more great mics for guitar cabinet, acoustic stringed instruments, vocal ensembles, and so on.


Any other suggestions? I currently use my overheads in an X/Y config. Maybe I should use the small condensers in the room and the LDC's as a spaced pair for overheads. I'm open to any suggestions. There are just so many choices.. that I figured I would see what some other human's preferences are.

Thanks a lot.
 
While I really like the Rodes on some voices, I like the 4050 on just about anything. It is even, well balanced and gives a pretty accurate presentation of what it is put in front of. The Beyers are great too but might not be the best for a room thang and they would need a bunch of gain which may introduce noise issues.
Studio Projects T3 is another mic to look at..... especially an older one with a tube upgrade
 
Get rid of those cheapo CADs and pick up the AT4050s. I use them for OHs and love them and you'll have no need to mic any other cymbal looking device. Not to mention the 4050s sound great on vocals and acoustic instruments (guitars, basses, cellos, violins, woodwinds, etc) in general. They are my LDC work horses.
 
Yes, a spaced pair. My sneaky trick is a quasi Recorderman setup. I place the first OH over the rack toms/crash so it is roughly half way between the kick and snare. Then I take a string and masking tape... tape one end of the string to the top rim of the kick, pull the string to the mic and while holding it against the mic I drop the other end fo the string to the snare head and tape it. Then holding the point where the string hits the mic, I can create an arc and place another mic equal distance from the snare/kick on the other side. It is the same deal as the Recorderman setup basically, but I never bother with the drum stick deal as I prefer a wider spacing than that will give. I don't like the one mic directly over the snare but back a bit.
 
ok... that whole two drumstick thing never made sense to me.

If you put an LDC two drumstick lengths above the snare... doesn't that mean when the drummer sits down in his stool, he will pretty much be breathing into the damn thing?

Does anyone have a picture they could show me of that... I would be forever grateful.
 
Let me see what I can get posted for you tonight (ugh, no helper to take pictures, so hopefully the tripod will do it.). Once you see it it is so derned easy and makes for perfect phase and stereo imaging. Here is a YouTube of it in use:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=IiFOD1EeKhQ

My only real difference is instead of measuring from the beater on the head I measure from the top of the rim and place the top mic further out (more between the tom and crash) and let the snare/kick close mics do a bit more of the work. Putting the mics out further give me a wider spread which I prefer... but nothing says that Recorderman doesn't work. I have done the two drum sticks deal with good results too as in this quick and dirty test track I did a few weeks back. (Forgive me on the kick as the close mic is out of phase.)

<- Recorderman true to the 2 stick measurement

<- my modified wider version (note the floor tom and hats especially in the stereo image)

Both examples put the pan at 80 R and L.
 
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