eliminating kick through overheads

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mncheetah

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How do you prevent the overheads from picking up the kich drum?
 
Overheads pick up the whole kit. Then kick, snare, and possibly other mics can be added to accentuate certain parts of the kit. If the kick is overpowering the overheads, try these solutions- 1. Put a dampening ring on the kick drum, and put a towel or small pillow in the kick drum. 2. point the overheads away from the kick drum. 3. Engage any available low cut/high pass filters on the overhead mics or pres. 4. Use EQ to cut the bass on the overhead tracks.-Richie
 
I WANT the kick in the overheads. The snare too (especially). That's where the real sound comes from. The tight mics just fill it out.
 
I dont know how some of you guys like kick bleed in the overheads. When I mute my overheads, the kick sounds nice and tight and solid, but when I bring them in, it makes the kick sound loose and flabby.
 
mncheetah said:
I dont know how some of you guys like kick bleed in the overheads. When I mute my overheads, the kick sounds nice and tight and solid, but when I bring them in, it makes the kick sound loose and flabby.
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If that's so, then you didn't set your mic placement properly....
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
If that's so, then you didn't set your mic placement properly....
Click to expand...

I'm using Mc012s in an XY pattern about 6 1/2' high, halfway between the drummers head and the Toms. I would go higher but my celing is only about 7' high.

What is wrong with that? Is that too low?
 
OH's might be too low?... yeah, LF is probably getting trapped as a standing wave on your ceiling.

Try carving out the kick with Eq and putting a gate on them if you don't want the kick in the oh's. The snare FR is too close to the cymbal FR and so Id look to tune that relationship better. The trick with OH placement is frontal placement balancing with the streo field. A way to cheat is put the OH mic on rolling mic stand, get the L/R placement right buy just hitting the hihat and the ride. gaff tape a pole to the stands an roll them fwds and bkwds while the drummer is playing until you balance the 3-D field. I often use tape measures and a calculator when doing basic mic setup (321 rule) gaff tape and poles for setting and locking positions once Im set.
Nothing more frustrating than clumsy folks bumping a mic stand that results in phase problems.

SoMm
 
Why don't you try using a trigger in the bass drum with a killer bass drum sample?Go direct and mix the mic'd and sample sounds until you come up with something suitable.
 
mncheetah said:
I dont know how some of you guys like kick bleed in the overheads. When I mute my overheads, the kick sounds nice and tight and solid, but when I bring them in, it makes the kick sound loose and flabby.
Click to expand...
Have you checked the phase of the kick mic against the overheads? If it sounds good till you turn them up, sounds like it could be out of phase.
 
The way that I Keep the kick from bleeding is by putting a Blanket
over the front of the kick covering it and the mic, I had learned this from some Pro Studios I used to record in and it helps a lot.
 
Track Rat said:
Have you checked the phase of the kick mic against the overheads? If it sounds good till you turn them up, sounds like it could be out of phase.
Click to expand...

That would be my guess.

The close drum mics are usually there to supplement the OH sound. I don't see why would you want no kick in the OH's. That's 80% of the sound.
 
I agree overheads do add most of the sound but I tend to like my kick to have a lot of punch and snap and if your not recording in a huge room the tones most of the time in smaller rooms dont add what I like to here in my kick sound, in smaller rooms you will get more tighter reflections that can take away from the punch of the kick.
 
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