Micing the underside of a snare.

Both of those mics are small diaphragm condenser mics. The mic most engineers prefer is the ubiquitous SM57. That being said, placing a small diaphragm condenser mic under the snare might be ok if you keep the gain low. Now, let's examine why you mic the underside of the snare. Such a set-up is looking to get the distortion that the snare provides to the snare drum sound. So, I would place the mic as close as possible, turn the gain all the way down and then slowly turn it up while watching the levels. When hitting it really hard gives you a signal at about -6 dB leave it there. Now check it with the drummer hitting it and adjust the gain accordingly. It must be that low because it has so many high frequency transients. It is literally like a hi-hat. Now check the recorded sound to see what it sounds like and readjust the gain so you don't hear any clipping. I suggest placing it close because the small diaphragm will give you a good deep sound at the distance. Try it with your voice and you will hear what I mean. Close give you that "voice of God" sound. Good luck,
Rod Norman, engineer. Check out this link. 13 correct ways to mic up a drum kit | MusicRadar
ManInMotion711 said:
What kind of mic should i use for this? At my personal disposle i have a Audio Technica AT 2021, and a CAD GXL 1200. Would either of these work?
Click to expand...
 
I like a good ol' SM57 on the bottom, not pointed directly at the snares, and squashed to infinity. Set the compressor to the fastest attack and slowest release, and max out the input gain to really slam the compression. That'll give you a really nice sound from the snares to mix into the top mic/overheads/room mic.
 
Damn. Thanks for the reo overload.:D I have to spread some around evidently as I can't give any back now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top