I give up, u do it for me!

K

kikling

New member
Obviously my subject title shows that I am restless. This is due to my mic setup on my Pearl Export. I've tried everything. Nothing sounds good. Right now I have a Sm57, a Radio shack $15 mic ;) and a rode nt3 all running through my behringer 802a and into cool edit pro. I have only one mic stand (its my boom stand for drums, i just screw off the cymbal and screw on a mic clip. Right now i have my 57 close down to my snare on my only stand, it picks up the snare, my high hat and my left tom. I have my bass drum open with a pillow inside. I rest the Optimus (radio shack) mic on the pillow facing right into the bass drum. (Just recently have I been getting a good bass drum sound. Currently since i dont have a way to put it over head, i have my nt3 either on the right side level to my set, picking up my 2nd and third tom, crash (which is attached between the two toms) and it picks up the ride. This mic is very loud. I am not running any of these mics through a compresser ( though I don't have a physical one, i could use the cool edit one, i've used it but i doesn't do much diffference). The sound I've been getting from my set is a loud, but distance sound. Also a very echoing sound (that has to do with my studio, its very echoy because it is also a dance studio, wooden floor, a wall mirror, my sister wont allow couches that would take up to much room and i havent bought padding for the walls yet). I am fed up. Please can someone help me out. Tell me how i could make the best out of the mics and my room. Thanks alot.

kikling
 
First things first:

Go buy some Mic stands man!!!!!!!!

You can get a short one for the kick (I HATE just throwing a mic in there. even if it IS a $15.00 RS mic) for $10 or less.

You can get an "ONSTAGE" brand Boom tripod stand for $30.

Put the overhead directly over your head...say about 7 feet high, but right over the throne. This will pick up the sound similar to what you hear-but the distance will sort of "even out" the Tom and Cymbal level.

Tim
 
tim, good advice about the mic behind and above me. Though the sound is still echoy, the nt3 behind me really gets rid of the distant sound. Cool, but i still need more advice on the drum set up and one more thing. I have $300. I am going to either spend it on a set of drum mics (CADS), a used marshall amp (model not known), or a sm57 ($80) with a free stand. What should I do?!
 
kikling said:
tim, good advice about the mic behind and above me. Though the sound is still echoy, the nt3 behind me really gets rid of the distant sound. Cool, but i still need more advice on the drum set up and one more thing. I have $300. I am going to either spend it on a set of drum mics (CADS), a used marshall amp (model not known), or a sm57 ($80) with a free stand. What should I do?!
Click to expand...

Hi Kikling,

The question is...what do YOU want to do?
What kind of sound are you personally after from the drumkit?
Over the years of all the processed drumsounds, I've gotten to the point where I'm not as big a fan of close mic'ing as much as I once was.

Personally, I would tell you to put $150 on an Audio Technica Pro 25 Kick Mic, and a Short Mic stand for the kick mic, and apair of onstage mike stands....you should be able to find the Pro 25 mic for under $100- I've seen them go for $75.
Or you may want to get a "Claw" to mount the 57 to your snare, I think I'd rather have the boom myself yough, since it can be used on other things.

Save the other $150 until you have $300 once again to put on an Amp, if that's what you want.
That way you get a little now, and don't just spend all your money because "you can".


You've got a great overhead in the Rode NT3, so if you get a Kick mic- and pay attention to tuning of the kit, and even possibly changing the height of the cymabls to see how that changes the sound of the recording (without moving the mic), you can create a killer drumsound with just those two mics...and since you said you already had an SM57, you could put that on the snare if you wanted more control over the snare.




Tim
 
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If you mean by an "echoy" sound that you are getting a more open, sonically 'loose' sound, that probably makes sense since you are only using three mics. If you want a really tight sound, you'll probably need to close mic all your drums and just use the overhead(s) to fill in the gaps so to speak. If thats what you are looking for, one of the mic pacs might not be a bad idea, but I've heard some not so good things about the CAD mics. Theres an article in Mix (I think) that compares a bunch of the different ones. Personally, I dig a more open drum sound, but depending on what kind of music you are doing, I can see where you might not agree.
 
well the echo sound has to do with my room. I have a perfectly square room, wooden floor and a wall mirror. If you say something loud, there is a flutter of echos. Not really bad, but bad enough for the mics to pick it up. I especially get that sound from my snare and toms. I want a tighter sound with out the echo. Im aware that I'll either need a carpet on the floor or rugs on the wall, or foam padding. but i don't know if my sister, the dancer will like that. Well I know I already have all the information that I need, but I'm not acting it out. I guess I'm lazy. Whatever. sorry to leave you guys hanging with that response. Later

Kikling

But if you have other advice, i'd sure like to hear it ;) :)
 
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