Dynamic Mic Shootout! (tom/snare)

[BurnBarfield]

No problem man, but I do have a request to you!

If you do purchase the kit with D2/D4/D6, please AB(C) them on rack and floor tom for me.. I am debating whether I should just get a few more of the D6 or if the others will do a better job of capturing the toms.

 

[promesis]

I was actually contemplating the same thing: whether to just get more D6s .. however, the D2 and D4 are both hypercardioid as compared to the D6 which has the wider cardioid pattern.. On toms I would prefer the tighter to help with isolation between toms. It will be a couple weeks possibly.. got some gigs to get through then I am overhauling my drummer's kit to set up for tracking. It would be a great time to do that .. with all brand new heads and nicely tuned.

Thanks again!

 

[boingoman]

Yes they were, essentially same distance from capsule and the capsule's angle to head.

OK that's the second time someone asked about placement, and nobody seems to be commenting.

Burn, you put in a good effort. It takes a lot of work to put something like this together. But putting all the mics at the same placement isn't really a true test of how the mics stack up against each other, except at that particular placement. Anyone who records should know that placement is hugely important, and an inch or two can make the difference between sonic bliss and sonic turds.

I'm willing to bet that if each mic was placed in a position for the best sound, the results would be much harder to judge. I'm not putting down your effort, but placing all the mics in the same place is a fairly limiting factor.

 

[promesis]

But putting all the mics at the same placement isn't really a true test of how the mics stack up against each other, except at that particular placement. Anyone who records should know that placement is hugely important, and an inch or two can make the difference between sonic bliss and sonic turds.

I'm willing to bet that if each mic was placed in a position for the best sound, the results would be much harder to judge. I'm not putting down your effort, but placing all the mics in the same place is a fairly limiting factor.

Good points .. I had thought the same thing, so many factors besides even placement .. beating on that head during the first test to the last, head quality, head temperature, skill of tester to strike drum consistently between takes (i.e. obviously not a drummer hitting these things) .. the increase of room temperature with increased activity.. humidity .. et cetera. Would have loved to hear rim clicks or rim shots to reveal the differences in those timbres as well.

But think of it like this - it is a pretty neat idea to just "stick these things up and hit record". The methodology is not scientific, but, you do get a general sense as to how these mics react to such an arbitrary set-up. It's reasonable to assume if a mic sounds good without a lot of futzing around .. it would continue to sound good, if not better, when taking the time to extract the optimum sonic quality through placement and other considerations. Any mic that sounds great with a minimal amount of struggle is a keeper in my book.

 

[boingoman]

But think of it like this - it is a pretty neat idea to just "stick these things up and hit record". The methodology is not scientific, but, you do get a general sense as to how these mics react to such an arbitrary set-up. It's reasonable to assume if a mic sounds good without a lot of futzing around .. it would continue to sound good, if not better, when taking the time to extract the optimum sonic quality through placement and other considerations. Any mic that sounds great with a minimal amount of struggle is a keeper in my book.

Yeah, that's something. And it's cool to hear what they sound like. I just want to warn people away from drawing conclusions that one mic is better than another in these shootouts. They are different, that's all. Micing other things, different mics would sound the best in the same position.

Like your experience with the ATM25 and D6

D6- cardioid, wide and deep midrange cut. 15db!
ATM25- hypercardioid, much flatter. Mids are down maybe 3db

Of course they will sound radically different in the same position!

 

[promesis]

I just want to warn people away from drawing conclusions that one mic is better than another in these shootouts.

Like your experience with the ATM25 and D6
D6- cardioid, wide and deep midrange cut. 15db!
ATM25- hypercardioid, much flatter. Mids are down maybe 3db
Of course they will sound radically different in the same position!

Yup, good warning. That's why I went ahead and tried it myself.
I did move the mics all around last night to test for sensitivity on positioning and its effect on sonic quality. The 25 is one of those mics that requires a lot of experimentation inside the kick to get the "right tone" .. a slight bump out of position and start over. (not a good thing especially when recording in a one-room situation like me. ) A quality probably due more to the 25's inherent "flatness" as compared to that of the D6 as you rightfully pointed out above.

The D6 sounded pretty good just "stuck in there" .. one subsequent slight adjustment rendered a sound that I am not sure the 25 could attain after futzing considerably.