ez primer on stereo mic placement

  • Thread starter Thread starter Obi-Wan zenabI
  • Start date Start date
Nice link

Obi Wan,

Good info man. I love stereo recording. When in the field I always place multiple mics because you just never know. When the stereo pair works good 90% of the time I use it and nothing else. You can pretty safely add bass or kick drum but just about anything else muddys up the waters.

As a side note during the Star Wars days my wife used to call me Hairy Wan Kenobe. A takeoff on an earlier moniker, The Hairy One. ( I am Hairy Larry, the man with a million monikers)

Thanks,

Hairy Larry
 
In using the ORTF method, where should you point the mics? At the kit? Parallel above the kit? Where?
 
Greg_L said:
In using the ORTF method, where should you point the mics? At the kit? Parallel above the kit? Where?
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Greg it depends on the room as to whether or not it's going to sound like crap. I'm assuming you are using ORTF for overheads on a drum kit. The problem is phase with this method. But If you want to try it make sure the mics are spaced about 90 degrees and that they are placed 3 to 5 feet above the kit. I try to aim each mic at at the furthest source (like one mic aimed at the floor tom and the other is aimed towards the hihat) Normally when I record drums I'll use the XY method or the over the shoulder technique there are less phase issues with XY. I've also seen people do overheads in front of a kit using ORTF. Just give it a shot and see what you like. It's mostly experimentation till you found a good spot in the room.
 
Been using M/S for drum OH's lately (with Beyer M160/M130 set). I can't get enough of it.

I have found that I prefer coincident techniques over spaced techiniques when other mics (besides the stereo pair) are involved. If it's only a stereo pair, then anything goes.

M/S is like having the ability to move your X-Y set up wider or more narrow after you've recorded it - which can help keep the center image stay focused if you need it to be. Love it.
 
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Thanks a lot I'm just getting into this as I now have 2 mics to record with. :cool:

Saved me from a lot of searching. ;)
 
bigwillz24 said:
Greg it depends on the room as to whether or not it's going to sound like crap. I'm assuming you are using ORTF for overheads on a drum kit. The problem is phase with this method. But If you want to try it make sure the mics are spaced about 90 degrees and that they are placed 3 to 5 feet above the kit. I try to aim each mic at at the furthest source (like one mic aimed at the floor tom and the other is aimed towards the hihat) Normally when I record drums I'll use the XY method or the over the shoulder technique there are less phase issues with XY. I've also seen people do overheads in front of a kit using ORTF. Just give it a shot and see what you like. It's mostly experimentation till you found a good spot in the room.
Click to expand...

Well I haven't tried it yet. I got some new O/H mics and I'm just trying different methods to record my drums in my small over-reflective room. So far, the recorderman method has given me the best results. Thanks for the info. :)
 
Larry-- the zenabI spells the name of my vintage Ibanez bass backwards...

But it is a pleasure to know that another jedi sits on the council here at HR
 
Nice links, great "favorites" site. Unfortunately, I've not become one with the M/S deal yet. All the others...I'm willing to work with :D
 
leddy said:
Been using M/S for drum OH's lately (with Beyer M160/M130 set). I can't get enough of it.
...
M/S is like having the ability to move your X-Y set up wider or more narrow after you've recorded it - which can help keep the center image stay focused if you need it to be. Love it.
Click to expand...

Totally agree. I was going nuts trying to mic a big kit, and finally settled on an M+S overhead and to the left, aimed at the snare and to the center of the toms. Used a CAD VSM "M" and an E300 "S", with an M179 for a kick mic. The results were insane; in fact, so insane that the band insisted on redoing the previous tracks with this configuration. Flexibility with MS is incredible, and you can pretty much tweak the "image" to taste.
 
jon_s said:
Totally agree. I was going nuts trying to mic a big kit, and finally settled on an M+S overhead and to the left, aimed at the snare and to the center of the toms. Used a CAD VSM "M" and an E300 "S", with an M179 for a kick mic. The results were insane; in fact, so insane that the band insisted on redoing the previous tracks with this configuration. Flexibility with MS is incredible, and you can pretty much tweak the "image" to taste.
Click to expand...


I record live jazz a lot. There is often little isolation between instruments, especially with drums leaking into the upright bass mic. Phase issues become difficult to deal with, and it just gets hard to keep everything from getting muddy from all the leakage and off-axis sound. By switching the drum OH to M/S, I really cleaned up the whole thing. The Beyer M160 pattern is very tight, and I can add more or less room with the side mic. What's really cool is when I solo the upright bass mic, then I add just the side mic from the drums - almost as if the bass mic is the mid mic. Everything is still right where it should be - the drums in the bass mic no longer sound like they were bleeding in, they sound natural. I can then bring up the drum mid until the balance between the bass and drums is right. So much flexability.
 
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