ECM8000's As Overheads Placement Problem

[Whyte Ice]

What is good placement for my Behringer ECM8000's when used as overheads on my drum kit?

I tried these mics out the other day and these mics are really sensitive. If I raised the volume on my mixer over -25dB they would feedback.

My drum set consists of 2 rack toms, floor tom, snare, 22" kick, hi-hat, ride, & crash.

The way I positioned them were, the left overhead was pointing at the center of the snare, 3.5' feet up in the air from the snare. The right overhead was positioned 4 feet up in the air from the floor tom, pointed straight at the floor tom.

 

[tubedude]

Feedback? You using these omnis as a LIVE mic? Thats probably a no-no. Omnis pick up everything, not just the source they are set in front of, and the will definatley pick up a PA cabinet if you are trying to run it that way and probably get a nice shrill loop going. Not a good idea, I think. Use cardioids or hypercards for live mic'ing if you want any seperation at all. Use the omnis to record.

 

[Whyte Ice]

I am using these to record. I get feedback when I'm monitoring.

 

[saxman72]

dude, mute the mic channels when you're monitoring.

and check out this site for good advice on miking: http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

the little bit on stereo imaging of overheads is cool. makes perfect sense to me, yet I had never thought of it, and have seen countless "pro" engineers do it the "wrong" way.

 

[Harvey Gerst]

While the article and techniques shown are certainly very good and will give good results in most cases, it's NOT the "right way" or the "only way" to mic drums. It depends on the drummer, the drums, the mics available, the song, and the room; any changes in any of these elements may require considerable rethinking on the engineer's part.

Some drummers are "cymbal bashers" while others are "tub thumpers" - how they whack the various objects withing their reach will play a big part in determining what mics you use, and where you put the mics.

As with most choices in recording, the key words are always "it depends".

As far as the article goes, it was well written, but pretty incomplete and didn't cover a lot of the new mic choices (the AT drum mics, the SEnnheiser 604Es, etc.). But it's a fairly good starting point for less experienced recordists (although a little too rigid for my tastes), and you should wind up with something usable.

One thing that struck me as funny was the author's surprise that a PZM mic DIDN'T have any proximity effect. Duh. A PZM is simply a small omni, pointed into a plate, to only pick up a half hemisphere. It's still an omni, and omnis don't have proximity effect.