Mic In Snare's Way / Mic Bleeding

  • Thread starter Thread starter Whyte Ice
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Whyte Ice

The Next Vanilla Ice
Whenever I'm recording drums, the mic is always in the snare drums way making it a little more difficult to play and if I switch positions, I either don't get the sound I'm looking for or their is horrible bleeding from the other drums.

And while on the subject of bleeding, whenever I'm miking say the kick drum, I can never get it isolated enough, I can always hear the other drums in the recording pretty loud.
 
Get that snare mic up a bit pointed toward the center of the snare but from the back of the snare -- it's out of the way and still gives you the right sound... 'of course you didn't mention the mic, so that may be the culprit too!

Depending on where the kick mic is positioned, you can get a lot of bleed -- normally this can be handled by gates during mixing.... also - putting the mic inside the kick close to the pedal (within 6 inches) can give a more solid beat (and some pedal "click" if desired) and at the same time mask a lot of the bleed.

Bruce
 
I'll second Bruce's comments, and add that you shouldn't be too worried about bleeding unless it's excessive. The kit after all is one instrument.

Mark
 
The snare drum mic I'm using is an SM57 and how many inches away from the center of the snare should I put the mic?

Another thing is I don't have a front head on the kick drum and the sound I get out of the kick drum without a head is what I want so could this be the source of the bleeding problem?
 
No, I'd rather just mic with my SM57 but are they're just clip-ons without the actual mic with it?
 
I am wondering about the gate issue myself, I am recording a hardcore band and I was getting alot of cymbal leakage in the tom mics so I used a low pass filter which helped tremendously.But, when I solo the toms there is still some cymbal bleed which I assume I could eliminate with gates?Should I just track first with the bleed then use a low pass filter and gates on the toms while mixing down?Is there a preferred method?
 
Why worry about it? What problems could arise from a little bit of cymbal being in the tom mics?
 
Whyte Ice said:
No, I'd rather just mic with my SM57 but are they're just clip-ons without the actual mic with it?
Click to expand...

not that im aware of..i might be wrong though
 
Have you tried a turnique to stop the bleeding? HOw about some gauze? HA HA HA!!!
Just kidding.
Actually I agree with bruce for the most part. But I would gate the drums going to tape rather than during mixing. But that's just me, not the law.
Markd also made a very valid point. The kit is one instrument, and you may want to rely more on your overheads to get your overall sound, and the close mics for the point of the sound of each drum as well as body.
Most engineers in the big studios rely on the overheads.
peace..Hitman.
P.S. Have you considered an LP Claw or the Gibralter Claw. They both clip onto the rim of the drum and you can still use your trusty SM57 with its clip!!
H.
 
Whyte Ice said:
No, I'd rather just mic with my SM57 but are they're just clip-ons without the actual mic with it?
Click to expand...

There most definately are.
2 brand come to mind.... LP and Mic-Eze. LP are the better of the two but both work well.

LP Drum Claw

Mic-eze. Scroll down page a bit.

Some people don't like the clips because of rim vibrations, but I've never had a problem.

Mark
 
Whoopysnorp said:
Why worry about it? What problems could arise from a little bit of cymbal being in the tom mics?
Click to expand...
First,I am recording a hardcore band and soloing the toms theres an extreme amt. of cymbal leakage.When I listen back to the tape and apply eq to the toms to get a tight metallic sounding tom mix and boost the highs for the toms I am also boosting the cymbal highs which produces an ear piercing cymbal mix.I have overheads, hi hat, mics which pick up the cymbals fine.I used a low pass filter tonight which I found last time helped it cut the cymbal leakage considerably but I still have a little leakage which I assume is leakage that's lower in frequency than the filter and I didn't want to lower the filter more as to cut the high frequncies in the toms which help to give you that metallic sound naturally when the drummer rolls through the toms.The tom signals are alot higher than the excessive leakage so I know I'll have enough room to use gates. Otherwise, recording a rock-n-roll band I'd not worry so much about the leakage but considering I want to apply eq to just the toms and not the cymbals I want to rid the excessive leakage.
 
harley96 said:

First,I am recording a hardcore band and soloing the toms theres an extreme amt. of cymbal leakage.When I listen back to the tape and apply eq to the toms to get a tight metallic sounding tom mix and boost the highs for the toms I am also boosting the cymbal highs which produces an ear piercing cymbal mix.I have overheads, hi hat, mics which pick up the cymbals fine.I used a low pass filter tonight which I found last time helped it cut the cymbal leakage considerably but I still have a little leakage which I assume is leakage that's lower in frequency than the filter and I didn't want to lower the filter more as to cut the high frequncies in the toms which help to give you that metallic sound naturally when the drummer rolls through the toms.The tom signals are alot higher than the excessive leakage so I know I'll have enough room to use gates. Otherwise, recording a rock-n-roll band I'd not worry so much about the leakage but considering I want to apply eq to just the toms and not the cymbals I want to rid the excessive leakage.
Click to expand...
 
Dam the Leakage!!!!!!!!!!!!!

harley96 said:

First,I am recording a hardcore band and soloing the toms theres an extreme amt. of cymbal leakage.When I listen back to the tape and apply eq to the toms to get a tight metallic sounding tom mix and boost the highs for the toms I am also boosting the cymbal highs which produces an ear piercing cymbal mix.I have overheads, hi hat, mics which pick up the cymbals fine.I used a low pass filter tonight which I found last time helped it cut the cymbal leakage considerably but I still have a little leakage which I assume is leakage that's lower in frequency than the filter and I didn't want to lower the filter more as to cut the high frequncies in the toms which help to give you that metallic sound naturally when the drummer rolls through the toms.The tom signals are alot higher than the excessive leakage so I know I'll have enough room to use gates. Otherwise, recording a rock-n-roll band I'd not worry so much about the leakage but considering I want to apply eq to just the toms and not the cymbals I want to rid the excessive leakage.
Click to expand...

Well,any recommendations and or preferred methods?
 
Harley

How do you place your tom mics?
I have mine almost verticle, pointing straight down near the edge of the toms and I get very little cymbal leakage. I also gate the toms after recording (plugin) with a nice long decay time so they've got plenty of "stuff".

Mark
 
Have you tried a noise gate? That should cut out any sound when the toms are not being hit. As far as leakage when the toms are being struck there really isnt much you can do.

It sounds like you need to adjust your tom mic positions if you need so much eq.
 
I'm using sm57's angled down at skin 1/2" past rim,but I don't have a compressor with gates. I have a rnc which does not have gates so I'm going to take the drum tracks to the school via adat and run them through the gates.thanks...
 
to harley69

hardcore music...its wonderful when you record drums because you dont have to worry about bleed over. It wont make one bit of difference if you pick up a little crash on a tom mic, actually, for your music, its probably better because it give it a more raw acoustic effect.
 
The gates should do the trick for you then. Your mic positions sound fine in theory but your ears are the real judge. Try to get the same effect you are getting through EQ by moving the mics a little and experimenting.

If your looking for a metallic sound you might try using some room reverb. That can give you a metallic type of sound depending on the settings. Or did you mean Metallica?
 
If your looking for a metallic sound you might try using some room reverb. That can give you a metallic type of sound depending on the settings. Or did you mean Metallica? [/B][/QUOTE]
Well, I'm looking to get a metallic sound out of the toms and kick which the kick is considerably easier to work with,as far as reverb this band is more of a in your face,kill your whole family, satan has arrived hardcore band but they are really tight and good at what they do and reverb in my opinion would tend to set it farther back in the mix,the only drum I'm thinking about using reverb on is the snare as to make it fuller and warm,the guitars are really heavy and are meant to be the focus that drives the band forward.So by turning the guitars up slightly louder than the drums, this will put the drums back a little in the mix anyways.But for the most part I need to work on eqing the drums without the leakage. If you've tried to eq the toms with cymbal leakage and raised the high end eq on the toms then you understand that you are also raising the high end of the cymbal leakage.Once, you listen to overheads which are predominantly to capture the cymbals only considering all the drums are miced individually and the eq'ed cymbal leakage it practically doubles the high end on the cymbal mix to where it's terrible.
 
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