Microphones for drums - on stage

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patricck20

New member
Hi all,

I am thinking of micing up my drumkit (Tama starclassic bubinga - Mike Portnoy stile big double bass kit), and would need help in choosing the right microphones for live performance, as I am a musician and not a technician – I don’t know much about gear.

So my basic idea is:
Kick: Shure Beta 52A + Shure Beta 91A
Snare: 2x Shure SM57 (top and bottom)
Hi-Hats : Shure KSM137
Toms: Shure Beta 98AMP/C
Floor toms: Shure Beta 27
Overheads 2x KSM32 or KSM44 ?

Would you recommend this setup? Or any good ideas ? Thanks

Regards
Patrik
 
Are you playing such large places that the drums need to go through the PA? I've been looking at mic kits and from what I can gather, the mics you have listed are pretty nice, good enough to record with, IMO. I am just not sure how much gain you get live unless playing a large venue.

Usually it is the drums that is kicking the sound up to begin with in smaller clubs.
 
I'd be happy with that kit, but to be honest, on stage, unless the room and PA are very, very supportive, subtlety isn't really needed.

Things like top and bottom snare miking, with the usual polarity switch is a favoured technique by many, but lots of people find the top 57 and good eq is as good. When you work venues where the drums own volume is already loud, then the changes swapping mics make is masked - often quite a bit. I'm intrigued why you'd not use identical mics for the two kicks - I've always found that lets you hear the difference more clearly than different sounding mics and eq? The thing with drums is that there really aren't too many absolute rules - each kit and drummer work very differently.

It's like the overheads - so much depends on what you actually use them for? Some people use them for the metalwork only - so they're almost close-miking cymbals, while other people distance them a little and they're actually cymbals, toms and maybe even a bit of snare too - so in the venues I either play at or provide sound for, my drum miking is frequently compromised by the space and volume - Sometimes I may even place mics, knowing I won't need them at all - but you mic them up just in case. It's very frequent to look at the faders on the mixer and see kick, snare and overheads doing most of the work - with the hats and toms loud enough by spill into the others, when balanced with the real sound.
 
absolutely nothing wrong....................or right with that list. Those are all very dependable mics but will they produce the sound you desire ?
 
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