Earthworks SR71 and some questions for Harvey too...

[tubedude]

Anyone use the SR71 for rock overheads before? I'm kind of wondering... alot of mics seem to exagerate upper mids and high frequencies, which can be bad. I was thinking that the Earthworks cardioids might be nice as overheads since they are well known to be very clean, detailed mics (important to me)with a lot of clarity.
What is the actual difference in using a good flat mic now and eq'ing later, or having a mic that affects the EQ now, maybe in ways that arent right? Seems it would be better to record flat, and tamper later if needed, but that seems to go against the grain since nearly every damn mic I know of has a high freq boost, especially the cheaper ones, which seem to try to boost high end to make up for lack of detail and clarity.
I want the drums to sound like drums, sitting in the same room with them.
What is everyones take on this?
Any other recommendations, under $800 pair?

 

[Track Rat]

Tube
I just picked up a pair of SR-71's. I haven't tried them as overheads yet but I will very soon. I can tell you they ain't bad on acoutic guitar. They ARE flat as a pool table, that's for sure.

 

[tubedude]

Cool deal... clarity and detail is what I'm after... let me know how they compare to your others....

 

[Harvey Gerst]

Originally posted by tubedude What is the actual difference in using a good flat mic now and eq'ing later, or having a mic that affects the EQ now, maybe in ways that arent right? Seems it would be better to record flat, and tamper later if needed, but that seems to go against the grain since nearly every damn mic I know of has a high freq boost, especially the cheaper ones, which seem to try to boost high end to make up for lack of detail and clarity.
I want the drums to sound like drums, sitting in the same room with them.
What is everyones take on this?
Any other recommendations, under $800 pair?

Well, anytime you mess with eq, you're messing with the phase of the signal. That's not always a bad thing, but it makes it easy to mess up the sound, and it's not repeatable if you need to come back and redo a section later on.

I think this recent move by many mic manufacturers to add excessive top end may be their attempt to please the home recording crowd who complain of muddy mixes. Finding the right mic and the right mic placement takes time, and it's not always an acceptable solution to the "I want it good, and I want it RIGHT NOW" crowd.

I've pointed out in the past some mics (that I like) that don't seem to have the exagerated top end and you might try those first. I've also pointed out some mic placement techniques that don't emphasize the high end response, and those are also worth looking at.

Most of what you'll wind up using (and deeming good) is the result of trial and error. Basically, you just fuck with what you have till it sounds good. Along the way, you'll discover some stuff that may sound good for something else, and you try to remember those things for use later on.

Over a period of time, you'll develop a bag of tricks that you dig into when something isn't working right. It might be changing the mic, rotating the mic, putting something over the mic, moving it to a new location, or trying a really shitty mic (cuz all your great mics suck in this one application).

At one point in your life, you may go, "Aha, that's what Harvey was talking about" as you pull out a cheap Radio Shack $10 cassette mic, aimed away from the source, laying inside a bucket, to capture the "perfect sound". When that moment comes, congratulate yourself - you're now really an engineer.

Finally, you asked about drums that sound like real drums in the same room. Try a pair of Behringer ECM8000s, or MXL603Ss, or Oktava MC012s, any of the Earthworks mics, or the Audix TR-40s as overheads, and an MXLV67G or any decent large diaphragm mic about 6 feet out in front of the kit.

Bring up just the overheads at first and listen to them, trying to figure out what else is needed. If something sounds distant, move the mics around till you get a good balance between all the drums. Now bring up the room condenser mic (which will add that extra bottom end and the sound of the room), and you should wind up with a realistic representation of a real drum set.