mic placement for drums

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SteveDW

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placements, angles, distances, internal vs. external, while using Sennheiser E604's on all drums, and MD421-II in BD. opinions, advice, comments, (pleasant please) . am both, curious, and need to know.
tnx.
steve
(first post)
 
SteveDW said:
placements, angles, distances, internal vs. external, while using Sennheiser E604's on all drums, and MD421-II in BD. opinions, advice, comments, (pleasant please) . am both, curious, and need to know.
tnx.
steve
(first post)
Click to expand...

Hi Steve,

well-do you have the drum mounts with the 604's?

Mount them on the kit and Play around with them some-move them back and forth to see what works for YOU!
Everybody has their own "Ideal Drumsound", that they are shooting for.

Mic placement will depend upon tuning...some tuning sound good mic'd really tightly, and some sound good with a little distance.

For instance. I use EV Mic's and LP Claws.
With the mic's really close to the heads-they just don't sound that great...but If I turn the claw "out"-so that it is farthest away from the tom-and then angle the mic to pick up the center of the drum-it sounds pretty much how I want it to sound. (with smaller toms this may not be needed, but with large diameter drums-you need to give them a little "room to breathe".
Now, I personally never liked the 421 for Kicks...I did like the MD441 for kicks (it's a long rectangular Hypercardioid that is awesome sounding when it's aimed at or just below the mallet strike.), But I love the 421 for toms....we used to have a pair that we used for kicks, but I just never liked the sound I was getting out of them.
Go to the "Search" and look up Recording Drums-you'll come up with a blue million answers.

What works for me May or May not work for you...I mean, My smallest tom is a 15" and my Kicks are 28" in Diameter-and alot of the stuff I do-doesn't always apply to smaller drums.
For instance, you can take a 16" Floor and tune it really low (just past "Wrinkles") and it can record GREAT, but that doesn't apply to my 20" Floor tom-it's just too low and "floppy" sounding, you see what I mean? So, with my 15",18", & 20" Toms... I have to put a bit more tension on the heads than someone using a 13", 16", & 18" setup.


Tim
 
understandable.......just shooting for opinions, :) as, in the near future, i am going internal with the 604's (which do at present have the rim mounts).........another thing i MAY have to question, soon, is weather i'll need a second mic on my new snare........14x10, thinkin i may need a second out of phase from underside to pick uf, snares, havent had it to stage yet (going this weekend)........so i will get to hear what is what with it.
tnx,
steve
 
SteveDW said:
understandable.......just shooting for opinions, :) as, in the near future, i am going internal with the 604's (which do at present have the rim mounts).........another thing i MAY have to question, soon, is weather i'll need a second mic on my new snare........14x10, thinkin i may need a second out of phase from underside to pick uf, snares, havent had it to stage yet (going this weekend)........so i will get to hear what is what with it.
tnx,
steve
Click to expand...

Are you going with the MAYEA system?

That's what I have on the Kick drums, I started using the May's in 1990, and I love them.

The only reason I didn't put the MayEA system on the toms, is that I was triggering them originally...The Huge kit was really partially for looks....I used to play in a "Power Metal" band, and it just looked more Impressive having the huge kicks, but smaller sized toms looked kind of funny with the set....I built the set several years ago-and for awhile, they had to just sit in storage, so I didn't get to use them for recording...which means I didn't get to experiment with them in a mic'd situation until fairly recently.

There are pro's and con's to Internal micing the snare: if it's a metal snare...forget it, you're wasting your time. You'll have to glue foam to the inside of the drum to knock down the "ping" that will be louder than your snare strikes! Thee refections inside the drum are so strong....It just kind of sucks...I use an 8"x14" Brass "Free-floating" Snare made by Pearl...I was going to go with a MayEA mic in that, but I talked to a friend who has been a May endorser for years
...and he let me mess around with his kit....the metal snare needed more processing than if I had just mic'd the thing externally with a 57.

If it's a wooden snare-you can do it, and it will sound pretty decent...not quite the same as micing from above, but it can sound good.


Tim
 
i looked at going with the MAY system.......but they only sell them WITH mics..i already HAVE my mics, and just need the mounts.....so am looking at the SIB system, which is essantially an internal mount http://www.sib-drumsystems.com/ , as for my snare it is maple 14x10 and my kit is DW
 
SteveDW said:
i looked at going with the MAY system.......but they only sell them WITH mics..i already HAVE my mics, and just need the mounts.....so am looking at the SIB system, which is essantially an internal mount http://www.sib-drumsystems.com/ , as for my snare it is maple 14x10 and my kit is DW
Click to expand...

May does sell the Mount it's called the BM-1 or the MB-1.

They are roughly $100 each.

It works for Toms and Kicks...you just have to remove the "extension" in the middle to use it in the toms.


I'm not sure what the SIB mountings go for, but theey are probably less than the May system.

Actually-I've got one in the works! Hahaha

I've been designing one and refining it over the last couple of years. If I can get it where I want it-I'm going to market it.

Tim
 
i know "stateside" the SIB mount, is $45 kick, $35 toms, got mine from Glenn Noyes @ West LA Music http://www.westlamusic.com , by the time the $45 mount got to me, it ended up costing $97......so i took the piece to a friends machine shop, and he's adapted it slightly, and is making me 6 more, for toms & snare
 
this is the SIB mount.....if it accepts lol.
 

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