Mic Placement Help / Live Sound.
MIC "placement", people. Not how many mics. j/k.
Yeah. Powerkor definitely has a few cool combinations if you're limited w/ mics.. And for live sound, when we don't all want to use our "polished" studio mics, it's best to limit our mics to ones that can take a BEATING (or a mic you wouldn't mind beating the hell out of.)
First off..Picture your live setup. Is it a SMALL stage/ no stage where the drums are at ground level w/ the rest of the band? OR ...Are the drums on a riser?.. IF the drums are level w/ the band, which is typical for party setups, then you may be able to escape using over heads due to the Vocal Mics picking up Bleed from your cymbals.. It's perfect!!..almost always sounds good!..
Next ..After you've got the Vocal Mic scenario out of the way, Put your kick mic in there.. YOU NEED A KICK MIC FOR LIVE SOUND.. and SNARE AS WELL.. UNLESS YOU're Really Handy at placing your over heads..For Live overheads,You'd Probably want a pair of Small Diaphragm Condenser mics (they usually look like a pair of Crayola markers to give you an idea of their size). Many live venues use them for a number of reasons, Which I can explain to you if you really need to know..ask me later.
For your snare.. yeah.. you can't go wrong w/ your SHure SM-57 mic.. Just basically place the mic to aim at the drummers gonads ( crotch ). Whatever direction the BACK of the SM-57 mic is facing, it is most likely to Ignore that sound...Don't worry about this live though unless you audibly notice some alterations to your sound that you can't stand.
now back to the over heads for the last paragraph here.. For Live sound.. It's not Difficult at all..Start out by Putting an OVERHEAD mic on each side of your drumset.. one over your RIDE cymbal.. one over your Hi Hat.. approx 18" above each. Now Just point the mics to pick up the entire drum set by angling each mic towards the drummer's Thrown.. You can Imagine a lazer beam shooting from each mic..Make sure the Drums that you want to pick up are in the path of this lazer!.. also..Possibly point the BUTT end of those over head mics towards the audience to reject the band / Audience ..etc.. you'll hear them if they love you're band.. HOpe I've helped somewhat.
Randy ( studio drummer , DW Home artist )
thedrummer@hotmail.com