Miking Snare Played With Brushes

  • Thread starter Thread starter crawdad
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crawdad

crawdad

Dammit, Jim, Shut Up!
I just tried this and got some nice results doing the following:

Octava 012 close (cardiod capsule), about 2 inches above the rim, pointed to the center of the drum.

MXL V93 as a single overhead.

Here's my question. Although I liked what I got, I'm wondering if anybody uses a different technique or different mics for the same purpose. I thought of using the Behringer ECM 8000 as an overhead and a SM57 for the close mic, but opted for the others because I really wanted to capture the nuances of the brushes. I'd love to hear how others might approach this task.
 
Sounds like a good idea, Crawdad.

Brushes would definitely make the snare sound different, so I can see why a mic like the mc012 might be a nice choice for that. I just got my V93, and I'm anxious to try it out as an overhead.

Does it give a pretty flat response like it's figures suggest? I am hoping so, as the Rode NT2 I used to use exaggerated the cymbals and hi-hat too much for my taste.
 
Chess--I'm not sure if I am qualified to say if the V93 has a flat frequency response, but it does seem to capture what my ears are hearing in the room. I used it on a ride cymbal as well(I did separate tracks, as I'm not a real dynamo as a drummer!) and it didn't seem to boost the high end of the cymbal--just get a nice picture of what it sounded like. Bear in mind, I was playing the ride with a brush. It was all real delicate stuff and I liked what I got with the V93. I think you're gonna like yours. It seems to do a lot of things well.

After eight years of AT 4033 exclusively, I am still becoming acclimated to the new mic flavors I have picked up. I'm still in the experimental stage--learning what seems to work with what and discovering the different shadings that different mics impart. I'm dying to try the V93 on a female voice again. My daughter sounded killer on it. I also got a great Tele/Fender sound using the V93 with the pad. Unbelievable, that day!
 
Try a AKG 414 on your snare for, well, EVERYTHING!!! :) I haven't used anything else since I tried that....makes clients VERY happy!!! :D

Ed
 
I would think for really delicate drum work the ECM8000's would be a good choice, but only if you have a nice room. I think for that you also might want to try 2 overhead mics in general. That way the left side picks up the hat stronger and the right side picks up the ride stronger, or reversed depeding on how you pan your drums.

Beezoboy
 
hey, sonusman, i read somewhere (i think it was in the 'drummers studio survival guide') the same suggestion, but for brush only.
i don't have a c414, but i'm looking into buying one. do you have any samples you can post? do you use it for rock/pop drums?
 
Snare with brushes

I recently recorded a jazz session where the drummer played with almost exclusively with brushes. What I did was double top mic the snare. I used an sm57 a little farther back than I normally would for rock drums and, right next to it, I used a Neumann TLM170 set to cardioid. Those two combined picked up the full characteristics of the snare and the brushes. The 57 picked up a little more of the attack frequencies and the TLM170 picked up the resonance of the snare and the brush sounds. The drummer said that he had never gotten a better recorded sound with his brushes.

Since you, or I for that matter, probably don't have daily access to a Neumann...any decent condenser combined with a 57, or something similar, should give a full bodied sound for the snare and still pick up the subtleties of the brushes...

Good luck...
 
I would think a combination 57/mc012 on the top and bottom of the snare might be interesting to hear.
 
i'm going to try something similar this week- akg d3700 on top, mxl 603 bottom. i've been doing 4-mic drum miking only, and now i'm going to start miking the whole kit. i'll post something in the recording techniques forum next week, if anyone's interested. my setup will be 2 behringer ecm8000 as overheads, sennheiser e604 on toms, audio technica atpro25 and akg c3000 on kick, akg d3700 and mxl 603 on snare, and mxl 603 on hi-hat, also a sp c3 as ambient mic. i might try the c3000 on snare just to see how it reacts.
 
I've used C-3000's on floor tom many times and it sounds great. The only problem you might run into with it on snare is hi hat bleed (my only complaint with condesors on snare). You might want to try the hypercardiod pattern with the hats to the rear of the mic.
 
For brush work you may want to try a mic on the bottom of the snare. This will add a little sparkle to the sound, just remember to reverse the phase on that mic ( any small condensor cardioid should do the trick)

Safarisound
 
sonusman,

i use the 414 on the bottom of the snare 90% of the time. sounds awesome.
 
Thanks for all the great ideas! I do appreciate the thought and input. You may make a good engineer out of me yet!
 
I havn`t tried this, but what about using two ECM8000 (omnis)
and a Jecklin disc three feet or so above the snare. You will need a good sounding room. My guess is that you can eq the high frequencies coming from the symbals by the way you angle this rigg. Well, what do you think?
Ola
 
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