Micing ride cymbal with sm57?

M

mjm620

New member
I have a million sm57s lying around...and I just bought a 2002 paiste ride. I love how it sounds and I would like to make it a little louder in certain songs. Search my posts for "little one"(mp3) for an example. I would like songs like this to have louder ride cymbal. WOuld an sm57 be good for micing this ride? Or any ride? What about micing highhats?
 
you could try, but the sm57 is better designed for percussive stuff. It won't capture the frequencies responsible for making a cymbal sound like, well, a cymbal. Plus it's tailored, which adds to the problem.

But hey, if you got em, then you're the master of your own destiny.
 
the real answer is, try it and see.
but......
probably it will make the ride sound harsh.
 
I'd think that you would get a "swoosh" kind of sound as the ride moved, seeing that the 57 has a cardioid pattern. also, the 57 has a pretty limited frequency range which would'nt pickup the details of a cymbal very well.
 
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I agree with everyone else, the 57 won't do much for your ride. However, if you have a modded 57 (without the capacitor or resistor, whatever it is) it might do better. Otherwise, a cheap SDC would do the job.
 
mjm620 said:
I have a million sm57s lying around...and I just bought a 2002 paiste ride. I love how it sounds and I would like to make it a little louder in certain songs. Search my posts for "little one"(mp3) for an example. I would like songs like this to have louder ride cymbal. WOuld an sm57 be good for micing this ride? Or any ride? What about micing highhats?
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well first of all i would send about 5 of those sm57's over my way, since you have a million lol ;] and second of all i would jsut buy some extra overheads to do the job properly.

my $0.02 :D
 
Suprizingly, I have just noticed that the 57 on my 16" floor tom picks up my 22" ride a great deal...and sounds pretty good at it! It's close proximity and was just going through the channels when I notice that mic had all the volume for the ride! So long as you still have condensers for overheads, you should be fine.
 
PhilGood said:
Suprizingly, I have just noticed that the 57 on my 16" floor tom picks up my 22" ride a great deal...and sounds pretty good at it! It's close proximity and was just going through the channels when I notice that mic had all the volume for the ride! So long as you still have condensers for overheads, you should be fine.
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I agree, it seems the off-axis coloration of the 57 makes the ride sound pretty good. Just mic your floor with it and bring it back a bit, I think you'll be happy with the sound. If you mic it directly with a 57...or any dynamic in that range of mics, I find it usually sounds too dark and dull. An SDC is your best bet in the end though.
 
in the original post he also asked about micing hi-hats with the sm57. next week sunday im going to play at a small club and was in fact thinking of micing just the hi-hat with sm57 what do you guys think? i havent seen the place but obviously if its small i just wont mic it. what do you guys think?
 
Don't directly mic cymbals with an sm57, or any dynamic I can think of. They just don't have that vibrant hi-end you'll find in an sdc.
 
A hi-hat is a pretty percussive item. I should think you'd get something there. And don't you see hi-hat/snare groupings for a 57 all over the place anyway?
 
sloom said:
A hi-hat is a pretty percussive item. I should think you'd get something there. And don't you see hi-hat/snare groupings for a 57 all over the place anyway?
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so you think it'll work?
 
For hi-hat, sure. You're probably not talking about the same subtlety as with a nice ride cymbal, or crash, etc., where you're getting a lot of overtones. It tends to be more of a defined, attack-oriented sound, and often of shorter duration than other cymbals.

Tic-tic-tic..., or swash/swash/swash...; and maybe it opens and shuts- a very defined, consistent kind of thing. In rock music, it's kind of an accessory to the snare drum.
 
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