Shailat wrote:
>>Your suggestion of placing overheads in different places and higer-lower would
severe the phase problems will a stereo micing configuration would most likly eliminate these problems.<<
Not true. Phase problems can occur with any mic placement involving more than one mic and/or a very "live" room with lots of reflections. Makes no difference whether the mics are "stereo" or not, although in fact it does help to listen in mono and make sure two sides of a stereo configuration are not phase-cancelling each other. This is because two sides of a stereo signal are more likely to be very close and cancel each other than two distinctly different signals.
>>You mention that you the majority of your sound comes from the overheads.
I feel that that is a mistake...
you will not acheive a good rock sound from using the majority of your sound from the overheads - I assure you.
<<
Hmm, I sure wish you'd tell that to George Martin, Jimmy Page, Glyn Johns and countless other great rock producers and engineers who recorded drums exactly the way I suggest. I'm sure they would really like to know that they didn't in fact achieve a good rock sound that way.
>>The overheads should provide a good blend in order to fill the close mic sound and ambiance and cymbls. How do you add effects to your overhead? is the cymbls a main feature in your sound? were does your low end and punch come from ? <<
If you have decent mics, a good drum kit and a decent sounding recording room, and your mics are placed correctly, they will pick up the entire range of the drum kit. If you stand 6 feet back from a good sounding drum kit, you can hear everything, right? Plenty of low end punch, plenty of high end in the cymbals. Considering that a good mic is supposed to be picking up everything that your ears hear, what makes you think anything would be missing? It isn't. It's only when things are close miked with directional mics that you don't pick up everything so you need lots more close mics.
I don't generally add effects to the overheads - possibly a tiny bit of compression or reverb for the overall sound. But, in general you don't need effects if you start with a good sounding drum kit, a decent sounding room and a couple of decent mics. This is how people used to record prior to the mid 1970's, when it became fashionable to close mic everything in a really dead room so that artificial ambience could be added later. Like I said earlier, either way can work, but lots of people have now forgotten that you don't have to have artificial effects if your instruments and room sound good to begin with. There are still many engineers who prefer to try and record things so that not the least bit of EQ, compression or reverb is needed. It's a challenge, and a great exercise, and it's especially good for home recording enthusiasts because lower grade outboard gear often sounds cheesy anyway.
>>How do you pan your overheads ? if the mics are not placed on the same plane how do you get a natural sound?!? panning a bit to the left and then more to the right?.<<
Since the mics generally end up roughly left and right I can still pan them left and right and they sound good. The fact that one may be lower than the other is only to achieve balance in the first place, so it doesn't sound unnatural.
>>I would be more then happy to hear your drum recording. Please upload a mp3 for me to hear.<<
OK, just to make things interesting, I will make an MP3 of a rough mix, where there is NO EQ or reverb or anything added, so you can hear the raw tracks. I won't be able to do it till the weekend, but I'll let ya know.
--Lee