low overheads

M

monster

New member
hey, I'm looking into buying a new pair of overheads at no more than $300/pr. As I've read elsewhere, I want to try to drop them below cymbal level, to the drummer's elbow or tom level to enhance drum sound and deemphasize cymbal sound. I'll also have a dedicated snare/hi-hat mic and kick mic. Does anyone have a mic recommendation with this goal in mind?
 
If you want to de-emphasize the cymbals, lower them in the track. I guess that your placement would work, just try it out. I try anything at least once. As far as mics, there are tons of them out there. What mics have you used so far? What brands are you confortable with?
 
jblount comes through again! I haven't used a damn thing. I have a shure 57 and a akg 414 tl2 but that's it. I bought these before I played drums for vocals, acoustic/elec guitar. I'm thinking about selling the akg and buying 2 overheads and a Kick mic. The overheads I'd like to also use on acoutic guitar and perhaps more. I'm just looking for a place to start...
 
I just got a adk A51 V. I just tried it out yesterday. Its ok on vocals, but sounds amazing on the guitar and for an overhead. Its large diaphragm so you can use it for lots of stuff. The list on them is about 140. But if you look around and ask you can prob get them cheaper. Ask jake, he got one for like 108. Im sure you can get 2 for less than 300.
 
I've been looking at threads for overheads the last several days and haven't event seen these. How would they compare to oktava 012's, rode nt5, akg c1000, shure sm81, etc? the way you describe them they sound pretty good....
 
Alot of people have really liked the mk012. Someone was talking about hitting up GC on their holiday special and getting a pair for $99. I havnt used any of the others you listed, so maybe someone else can help.
 
Jblount said:
If you want to de-emphasize the cymbals, lower them in the track.
Click to expand...

i would agree with the MK012 recommendation, but would disagree with the above statement. If you lower your overheads levels in order to get "less cymbals", that means you are getting your drum sounds primarily from the close mics. that's fine, if that's what you like, but most top engineers usually prefer to capture the meat of the kit sound with the overheads, adding close mic tracks (and more distant room mics) to fill out the sound.

so it seems the real problem is how to get a better kit balance from your overheads. my recommendation is to spend a lot more time experimenting with overhead positioning, including trying Recorderman's method. it may also be useful trying moving the kit to different spots in the room. With enough experimentation you should hopefully be able to get away with mic'ing an entire kit with just your overheads and a kick mic.
 
spot on littledog. I'm planning on 4-channel recording for a while to be upgraded in the future. I'd like to do kick, snare and 2 overheads. I want strong tom sound in the mix, though, and I'm worried about the overheads picking up too much cymbal and not enough drum. I know that most of this is positioning. But before I bought the overheads I wanted to know if anyone had opinions for mics (maybe I want a "darker" mic, etc.).....
 
Thats why I sudgested trying the placement. If thats the sound you want, then go for it. There is no right or wrong as long as it sounds like you want it to.
 
dont discount an obvious work around: quieter, darker cymbals. try some duct tape on the underside of the cymbals, cuts a bit of brightness and sustain. not too much though...

some "dark" OH mics could help too. for your price, maybe the stapes if they ever come out again. if you could somehow find a pair of earthworks SROs.. that might help. and of course those behringer ones might be worth checking out. although from what i hear, they overload easily.

those are all omnis,, so you better have a decent room...

speaking of that, maybe a pair of beyer m55's (dynamic omnis) from rockngroll on ebay (just write him and ask for them) might work as well. they are sort of "lo-fi", but some people love them. they will really soften up the cymbals.
 
I'm with you on the cymbals. I'm playing sabian right now, with an hhx 21" dry ride, 16" hh dark crash and 14" aa hi-hats. My room leaves lots to be desired, however. It's a small 3rd bedroom- 10' x11'. I'm not sure the omni's are the right thing to do....
 
i love hhx's.


too bad about those aa hats... sound nice live, but in a studio i think they project a bit too much.



one way to modify your hat sound for not too much cash is try to find an orphaned one. (top breaks, bottom goes for sale for cheap)

mixing top and bottom hats is pretty fun. my quick beat top with wuhan bottom sounds way better than the quick beat on top and bottom. (i would never want to record it though! very piercing.)
 
yeah I definately like playing the aa's live but I'm looking for something better for recording. Have you played hhx hats? They sure go for a lot on ebay.
 
played HHX's at the store, for all that is worth. i thought they were more interesting sounding than the Ks.

great cymbals generally arent cheap. although, there are many cheaper cymbals that sound pretty good. wuhans for example, are pretty decent. their basic cymbals are more in the AA sabian and A Zildjian model, but are a bit more "trashy" in a cool way. less controlled, more harmonics. kinda what you would expect from a chinese cymbal trying to sound like a turkish one.

what is always suprising to me is finding a really great drum shop with lots of used cymbals and trying them all out (annoys the other customers, but what are you gonna do). generally, the more expensive, good rep ones sound better, but cymbals are not very consistant- so you can find cheap ones that sound pretty good as well.
 
i've had good results using rode nt-5's and i've used the ld oktava mk319's...

the nt-5's are really excellent, if not a bit surreal ( like 'em trashy)

the mk319's were darker and trashier, but seemed to lack control.

overall i prefer the nt-5's.

i've not used the mk012, but have heard good things.
 
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