overhead condensers????

[charliechainsaw]

I'm wanting to get overhead condensers for drums. Would large condensers be more appropriate or small? My drums are tuned well and I play A Customs
cymbols in a finished basement. I have about a $300 budget. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Warhead]

Appropriate being one of those "eye of the beholder" terms I'd say they both have their advantages. You can net a lot of meat from using a pair of LDC (CAD M179's being a great choice in this position) and typically somewhat less of a real image from LDC's whereas small diaphragm mics typically sound more real or accurate. Then there are those mics that blow these stereotypes out of the water.

AT4041's are impressing me lately. Lots of people like the Oktava MC012's on overheads although I prefer those on acoustic guitars. In that price range the C4's are a good kit for overhead use.

The good thing is you say your kit sounds good which will matter more than any of this other stuff if you have reasonable gear.

War

 

[JazzMang]

I have gotten excellent results with the MXL 603s on some A custom cymbals.

 

[jtienhaara]

I use Shure SM81s (SDCs) which sound great on drum overheads as well as acoustic guitar and sometimes electric amp too, IMHO.

 

[charliechainsaw]

Thanks for the input guys. I guess I'll do some more reading before I make a final decision. Theres just too much to choose from.

 

[skaman]

beyerdynamic mce 530 stereo-pair is a good choice for your budget and sennheiser has some stereo-pair in same price range too. check out. but best choice is deffinitly shure SM81 but its expensive.

 

[Dot]

There's actually not that much to choose from if you know what's out there, charliechainsaw. Budget LDC's do a better job on OH's than budget SDC's. In your price range are Red5 Audio RV8, Studio Projects B1 and Oktava MK319. They've tested out as the best budget mics on OH's. There also might be some of those $99 GT33's floating around on the market, too.

 

[usernamebob]

Tested out as the best by who?.. Alot of people love the 012's.. I don't think you can say budget ldc's are better than budget sdc, it realy depends what sound your going for.. and which mic's your talking about in specific.

 

[Dot]

Tested out by us at The Listening Sessions - with several pro engineers in a pro studio using Millennia HV-3 mic pres and RADAR. We've used nearly every SDC mic on the market. A good, working pair of MC012's are, in our opinion, the best pair of SDC's on the market under $500/pair. But buying them now is a crap shoot. We've also tested a lot of LDC's on OH's, and have found that budget LDC's do a better job of handling OH's than budget SDC's.

I posted on this here a couple of years ago...
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=75145

Just our opinion. But we do have a little experience behind our conclusions.

 

[noisedude]

That was a good thread, until the last post:

Humm, well I hate to say this... but, maybe the drum set you were recording sounded like shit or the room sucked, or your ears are shot, or you don't know what the fuck your doing?

I guess people get irate when you disagree with them.

Charlie - A big factor is what your room sounds like. The more I record in rooms in my house, the more I find I have to try and get rid of the sounds they make. OTOH, though, I recently heard a clip that Ed Rei/Sonusman/UB802 did in Jake-owa's basement, the kit is not special, the mics were cheap, and the walls were just untreated echoey basement walls, but the kit sounded mint on playback. All Jake would tell me is that it was clever placement and good EQ. So it can be done!

 

[usernamebob]

yeah fair enough man, your opinions have way more experience and knowledge behind them than mine.. I guess I just thought it was weird that you'd sorta put it as a fact and not an opinion

 

[jtienhaara]

Oh sorry, I forgot to mention -- I bought my pair of SM81s secondhand for $320 on EBay, slightly out of the price range. But moreover they're usually much pricier than that, so maybe the SM81s were a bad suggestion... Sorry.

Nevertheless they do come up for cheap occasionally, if you're patient.