Large Diaphragm Condenser On The Snare?

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ghetto3jon

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hello. last weekend i was doing some snare drum tests, and i thought that the mxl v67g sounded better on my snare than the sm57 (about 2" away, over the rim, pointed toward the center)...is it all that uncommon to use a LD on the snare? is there any chance of damaging the mic because of the high SPL?
 
Other than poor isolation and funny off-axis response, there's nothing inherently wrong with using an LDC on a snare if it works for you in your setup.
 
ghetto3jon said:
hello. last weekend i was doing some snare drum tests, and i thought that the mxl v67g sounded better on my snare than the sm57 (about 2" away, over the rim, pointed toward the center)...is it all that uncommon to use a LD on the snare? is there any chance of damaging the mic because of the high SPL?
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The SPL's will probably be okay, the electronics will saturate and distort before the diaphram sustains damage. Sudden bursts of air are bad though (like the kick drum hole). Also a wayward whack from a over zealous drummer could do some damage.
 
i've used a Studio Projects B1 on snare with excellent results. I like the V67 a LOT as an overhead, so i'm sure it would do fine on snare as well.

just don't hit it with a stick. :p

also, you might want to experiment with aiming the mic at the shell of the drum versus over the rim--i find that the shell has a bit more of a "woodiness" to the crack than over the rim.

chessrock's right about the wonky off-axis response and poor isolation. it'll pick up EVERYTHING. still, i like it better than an sm57 given the choice.


cheers,
wade
 
I once used a V93M on a snare just for fun. It worked OK, but just wasn't the right mic for that snare.
 
sorry to change the subject, but is there any sort of equipment i can buy to measure the SPL of different sound sources? thanks!
 
haha, i knew there was something, ive seen it mentioned on this forum loads, just needed my memory refreshing. cheers MadAudio!

steve
 
love the LDC on the snare. Just finished up an album using an ADK. Wound up with it about 6" out from the shell and hanging under just a tad to catch some "whiskers" from the snare bands. The isolation wasn't that great, but I thought the tone rocked.
 
LD's certainly sound great on snare, but I never use them on snare top with a loud drummer because of all the nasty high hat bleed. I almost always use one on snare bottom though:D
 
Hi hat bleed will be a nightmare man. Unless you record the snare seperately with the mic, but could be difficult to get the drummer to play the part once without the snare and the second time only playing the snare. You could always record the drum track the way you would usually record it, then record about 6-10 snare hits with the condensor mic and use these as samples. Then use wavelab or something like that and make a montage so you have the original kik and snare running together. (kik - track1, original snare - track2, blank - track3). Now make a new blank track in the montage and place your new recorded samples in this track to match it up to the original snare track. Make sure you follow the dynamics of the original snare roughly to give a natural sound. This is easier than you might think to do.
 
ecktronic said:
You could always record the drum track the way you would usually record it, then record about 6-10 snare hits with the condensor mic and use these as samples. Then use wavelab or something like that and make a montage so you have the original kik and snare running together. (kik - track1, original snare - track2, blank - track3). Now make a new blank track in the montage and place your new recorded samples in this track to match it up to the original snare track. Make sure you follow the dynamics of the original snare roughly to give a natural sound. This is easier than you might think to do.
Click to expand...

That's a very nice trick. Thanks for sharing. Nice application for drumagog, actually.
 
I have used the v67 under the snare a few times & liked it every time.
 
I just used a 414 on a snare today, rocked my world. first time i'd ever used soemthing other than a 57. oh man, it was fun to get away from that beast. being limited by cash has kept it on the snare for me for tooo damn long.
 
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