sm81 for tom/oh

  • Thread starter Thread starter DuoToneBand
  • Start date Start date
D

DuoToneBand

New member
I am in the market for some oh's for my kit, but I want them to sound good seeing as i have paiste signature cymbals and a DW kit. I would like oh's that would also pick up my toms. I really like the cymbal sound out of a sm81, but am wondering if that will be able to pick up my toms very well, espeially as i have 16 and 18" floor toms.

BTW, i have a sm57 on the snare and beta52 on the kick.
 
No, that was phrased perfectly. Sometimes we're a little slow with responses.

The SM81's are BEAUTIFUL mics, although somewhat pricey. If you can afford 'em, jump on it!! I rate those higher than most mics for overheads. How they pick up the toms will depend on placement. I saw pictures of your kit and if you can manage a couple of dynamic close mics, you could do one for each pair of toms and it would be pretty full in conjuction with the overheads.
 
I'm sure there are better OH mics...but i've never gotten to use them because they are so darned expensive! In a real person's price range, it is VERY hard to find something better than the SM81's for overheads. I use them for all my recording, and at least twice a week live, and they have served up great sound every single time. I've actually never used close mics on the toms or hats or anything...I just always use the 81's in either an X-Y setup or some type of spaced configuration. Just make sure that you play around with the flat/rolloff/cut switch to find what works for you. My one complaint with them is that they have a 10db pad, but you turn it on by twisting a ring on the body of the mic. That ring gets twisted REALLY easily. You may want to tape it in place to keep that from happening.
 
So i think i am going to pickup a pair of sm81's when i find a good deal on them used. Or i can talk to my below-cost guy at Guitar Center and see what he can do. If anyone has a pair of used sm81's or a single mi for that matter, email or pm me.
 
Another decent option I just thought of would be a pair of M-Audio Solaris mics. I was able to get them for $230 each, so I'd be interested to hear what your GC guy could come up with. They have also done a very good job of picking up the depth of a kit, and are somewhat darker in tone than the SM81's. I do have a clip of each so you can compare, but also keep in mind that these were recorded close to a year apart, with very different equipment.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/4/sile2001music.htm

Yes, both of these have some phase issues evident in the cymbals, because I'm still learning positioning techniques :D

'Demo Track' was with the SM81's, into a Presonus Digimax LT and then my Motu 828.

'Praise Adonai' was somewhat more complicated, as I had to use a Behringer 6 channel mixer to premix the drums down to a stereo channel. No EQ ability in post processing.

The other mics on both of these tracks are a Shure Beta52 on kick, and an SM57 on snare. You'll probably be able to tell that it was the same kit. Amusingly, the kit was in the middle of the living room of the apartment the drummer shares with 3 other guys....and in the year between these recordings the kit didn't move one inch! Drummers......what can I say???
 
2 things

So i dont have to worry about the toms being piked up throught the sm81's? They will be there? Eventually I am going to get my own drum mixer, and mix aeverything myself, so kick and snare an be on there own tracks, and then the toms will be miked and mixed with the overheads, but because i an using a Firepod, i only have 4 tracks avalible for my drums.

Does anyone have a used pair of sm81's??? PLEASE. Give me a price.
 
DuoToneBand said:
2 things

So i dont have to worry about the toms being piked up throught the sm81's? They will be there? Eventually I am going to get my own drum mixer, and mix aeverything myself, so kick and snare an be on there own tracks, and then the toms will be miked and mixed with the overheads, but because i an using a Firepod, i only have 4 tracks avalible for my drums.

Does anyone have a used pair of sm81's??? PLEASE. Give me a price.
Click to expand...
Just to give you a heads up...you'll probably find that it's not that easy to find a decent SM81 used. The main reason is because if anyone has an SM81 that's in any kind of good shape, they most likely won't want to get rid of it :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top