Large or small condenser overheads for a bad room with good drums

T

tollywilson

New member
I'm about to invest a bit of money into getting some drum recording equipment. I have a great kit (Ludwig classic oak) with some terrible cymbals (not to bothered about) and its in a bad room (very long with massive walls and many windows - sort of like a large pool house. I would like to get some overhead mics to record the kit with in a John Glyns method. Being only 17 and working in a pub, I don't have much disposable cash but have saved up about £250 for this.

I will try and acoustically treat the room to some extent but I am not allowed to damage the walls. (I will try to make a makeshift wall out of blankets and wood to rest on one of the beams making it smaller - then repeat on all four sides.

The question I'm asking is should I get some small condenser mics for this situation (I really like the Lewitt 040's), or should I buy another NT1-A with the money. I know just how much the NT1-A's pick up and thats what I'm worrying about - If the mic will pick up too much for the bad room, but doing research, it said the John Glyn method was much better with large condensers.

At the low cost I'm working on, which option should I go with, or is there any other options I could consider?
 
I never use overheads in a bad room, preferring to close mic all drums and let the combined leak capture the cymbals.
 
You answered your own question - you have a bad room. The John Glyns technique is a minimalist mics setup that uses the room to provide the clarity and sound. His technique in a bad room will give a wonderful capture of a terrible sound. wonderful spaces can be recorded very well with simple techniques. Terrible spaces need the space component reducing to as low as possible and the instrument component capturing as isolated as it can be.
 
I have found that pencil mics capture cymbals well.
Other than that I have Samson drum mic kits all over the drums.
I don't think bleeding is good enough for cymbals.
If you already have a NT1A, then experiment, before spending more cash.
 
While I wouldn't say my rooms are bad, they're small which is about the same thing. I've been using SDCs for years with great results. KM-184's and Earthworks SR-71's specifically. Either X-Y or mono to avoid phase crap.
 
To answer the question, I have used both large and small condenser mics, I find it depends on what sound you are after, I am always changing my mind but if I listen to the recording 6 months later I could not tell you which I used. I have used 2 x nt1’s as overheads with good results. Currently I use a stereo lcd with 3/4” diaphragms. This works well with eliminating phase issues.

However as stated, the room sound is important.
Cheers
Alan
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top