Mic cables , Loud Drummers

[Blor007]

Hi I got 2 question:

Question 1 ​

I have a drum recording room with a multicable of 30 meters leading to my attic where my mixing desk is.

In what way will the 30 meters affect the quality of the sound going from the mic to the mixing desk???

There are no pre-amps in the drum room so it's :
Mic---> 30 meters of cable ---> mixingdesk preamps
(I'v got a soundtracs m-r series)

Question 2 ​

The drum room does not have very good acoustic treatement (will be my next step) and the drummers cymbals are !extremly! loud , they are bleeding in everywhere , same thing for the hi-hat.

Wich overhead mic's are most likely to pick up the most snare/floor tom?

I'm currently using a AKG C1000 and a Shure SM94 (gonna buy a identical mic extra, I don't know which one yet...)

I'v heard prof.bands just recording without cymbals and then playing it with cymbals.
I maybe thought about using 2 Studio Projects C1 as overheads...
But then I have to buy one extra so I just can't try it out , otherwise I would


Thx for your help and reading time

 

[mshilarious]

Hi I got 2 question:

Question 1 ​

I have a drum recording room with a multicable of 30 meters leading to my attic where my mixing desk is.

Should be fine.

Wich overhead mic's are most likely to pick up the most snare/floor tom?

The short answer to that question is all of them . . . floor toms are low frequency, which tends to travel everywhere. Snare is really loud. But if the cymbals are even louder, try moving the overheads more towards the drummer or even behind.

I'm currently using a AKG C1000 and a Shure SM94 (gonna buy a identical mic extra, I don't know which one yet...)

Haven't used the C1000, but it doesn't seem popular here due to its shrill brightness. I used to have a pair of SM94s, which is neutral for most of the spectrum, then rolled off in the highs. If you are looking to de-emphasis cymbals, I would get another one of those.

 

[silentman]

In ideal situations you want to keep even your balanced cable runs as short as possible, but as you know we don't live in an ideal world. 30 meters should be okay as long as you meet a few criteria:

1. Make sure you have a good quality cable. Typically, the longer the cable run the better quality cable you will need to keep your high frequencies from getting attenuated.
2. If the inputs to your pre-amp are designed well, then that will help the problem as well.
3. Make sure that you run the audio cable perpendicular to any AC lines.

Okay that's it for the cable length question, now lets get on to your drum miking question.

You should be able to get a good drum sound with just the overheads first. Try moving them around to get the sound you want. Make sure to pay close attention to the phasing between the mics by trying to keep them the same distance from the snare and bass drum. One good setup, and the one that I use, is to put one mic about 2.5 feet directly over the snare and one (the same distance from the snare) over the drummers right shoulder pointing at the snare head as well. This does a really good job of picking up a more balanced kit sound. You can then add in tom/snare/kick mics for more attack, AFTER you get the overheads sounding good. Hope that helps.

-JV

 

[mrface2112]

i would start with getting the drummer to not beat the crap out of the cymbals (and especially the hihat). this is known as "technique" and goes a LONG way towards making a usable drum track.


cheers,
wade

 

[Blor007]

very nice comment m8's !!

I will keep these tips in mind and thx for the very quick reply's !!

 

[nuemes]

Haven't used the C1000, but it doesn't seem popular here due to its shrill brightness.

Yeah, stop using the C1000s. It's a shrill mic, has a brittle high-end that may be part of the issue you're hearing with the cymbals being too overbearing. Very over-rated mic.

 

[silentman]

I use MXL 990's. They don't work that great for vocals, but with some decent preamps they work great as overheads.

-JV

 

[NL5]

I have found that if you raise your overheads, you will get less cymbal and more snare/tom. I have mine 8-10 feet high (although this may not be feasable for everyone.

 

[silentman]

I have found that if you raise your overheads, you will get less cymbal and more snare/tom. I have mine 8-10 feet high (although this may not be feasable for everyone.

Raising the overheads will work (if, like you said, you have the ceiling height to accomodate them), but if your room acoustics sound crappy it won't help you much.

JV

 

[NL5]

....but if your room acoustics sound crappy it won't help you much.

Quite true.

If your room acoustics suck, I would fix that first.