drum recording! session soon!

[The Garage]

1) i havent been completely happy with my snare sound with the 57. i do plan on trying a 58 and a 421 just to see, but has anybody used a condensor on a snare drum? if so, is there anything i should know about a particular technique? am i gonna mess the mics up with too much sound pressure? i have a c1, u87, tlm103, c414, nakamichi sd condensors... anyone have any luck with any of these on snare?

2) to get that beatles' tom sound, would a good start be tuning them lower and damping them a lot?

3) i've used my nakamichi sd mics as overheads. i was thinking of trying LD mics, but i dont have a matched pair. i could try a mono overhead, but was thinking of matching to different LD condensors just to see. any good experience with this technique?

thanks for any replies.

-teddy

 

[tmix]

Condensors are fine on Snare!

I did not like the sound I was getting with a 57 either,maybe just my drums. The 421 is excellent though it may be the ticket.

I have heard the C1 is a top notch snare mic. I use a B-3 myself (because I don't have a C1) and place it about 3" off the shell where th Diaphramm barely peaks over the top head of the drum. I use mine in fig 8 mode to control the hat bleed but since the C1 is cardiod only experiment a little with placement.

It gives a nice clear sizzly kinda sound.
I only use 4 mics for my kit, the B3 on snare, a beta 52 on kick and either 2 Cad E100s or 2 AKG C1000s on toms from about 2 foot from the floor in front of the kit.

It works for everything but really in your face drumming.

 

[Track Rat]

Right now my favorite snare and tom mics are AKG C-1000's. But if you have a 414, I'd imagine that would be my weapon of choice.

 

[Chibi Nappa]

I have used a Studio projects C1 with great success on a snare. Just be sure you can place that gigantic thing out of harm's way. If the song calls for a real open snare sound and you don't care too much about bleed, try pulling the C1 waaaaaaay off the snare (like a foot or so). That's given me very interesting and usable results before. If not, you can also use it closer.