Snare res head mic.

[Cult_Status02]

Well, I know a lot of you like the sm57 on top and then sometimes a different mic on the res head of the snare. So what do you guys prefer and why? I recently used my AKG perception 200 with the 10 dB pad on and put it about a foot under my snare. It has a great kick sound and adds more snap to the snare. It works great hand in hand with my sm57 on top of the snare. The sm57 picks up the tone, while the perception really gets the snap of the snares. The only problem with it is that the perception on bottom obviously picks up any chain noise, but with a bit of WD-40 that was remedied easily.

Playing with the placing one could easily do 2 OH mics and then one perception-esque mic placed to pick up both the snare and the kick...if you've got a minute and the mic, give it a try.

 

[Fletcher]

While some guys seem to think it's the best thing since sliced bread I've never gotten an 'undersnare' mic to work for me for love nor money.

I've found that mic'ing the shell of the snare drum [like 6" off to the side aimed at the shell of the drum between the top and bottom rim] gives me both the "crack" and the "sizzle" I want from the snare drum... far better than top and bottom mics and I have never had "bleed" problems [make sure you keep the H/H in the microphone pattern's "null". Believe it or not; hyper cardioid and figure 8 pattern mics seem to work best in this application.

Best of luck with it.

 

[tarnationsauce2]

I love using undersnare mics.
You must always remember to invert the bottom signal, or it will sound like crap!
I use a CAD E350 on cardiroid, and the -20dB pad on.

I find that I can get a great fat, fresh, lush sound using an underside microphone.

You can listen to these guys on myspace. I was the AE / mixer for them. I used A SM57 top / E350 on bottom.
http://www.myspace.com/wideeyepanic

 

[cpl_crud]

You must always remember to invert the bottom signal, or it will sound like crap!

That is a fallicy.
You only need to invert the phase of the bottom mic if you're getting an out of phase signal.
There was a thread covering this topic not to long ago, I'll try to find it. But, if you don't know what you're doing, or you're unsure, you should listen to both mics, first in phase, then with one phase-reversed, and see what it sounds like.

Automatically assuming that you need to phase-reverse leads to not thinking about what you're doing. And, in my experience, all my bad gigs are ones where I didn't stop to think about what I was doing...

EDIT
Here is the thread I was talking about. You're looking for boingoman's post about phase
https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=191381&highlight=snare+phase

 

[formerlyfzfile]

I have recently (finally) obtained great results using a Sennheiser 441 underneath the snare. Drummer had a pretty crisp attack with his playing so I was able to get a nice sound out of just that bottom mic and the overheads.
(actually I was not able to get a very good complimentary sound out of the sm57 on top so I dropped it .... time unfortunately did not allow any more tweaking).

I have also had very good results, as Fletcher said by mic'ing the side of the shell ...... be carful of POPPING if the mic is near the hole in the shell.

-mike

 

[Cult_Status02]

You know, I bounced over to that linked thread and one of the guys said that if you tune the drums right, you won't get unwanted resonance...well I have to move my tom mics back (mostly on my floor tom) because it's always rumbling subtly. I've tuned it many different ways and can not get it to stop, what would you guys suggest? Also, instead of starting a new thread I'll ask this...I've got a metal band to record and they want that distinct clicking sound like metal music always has, how does one get that? I am using a beta 52 and I was wondering if the click comes from the source, micing position, or EQ. I know I can put the mic about 6 inches from the beater head and get a good click, but not quite what I'm looking for. Thanks guys.

 

[tarnationsauce2]

You know, I bounced over to that linked thread and one of the guys said that if you tune the drums right, you won't get unwanted resonance...well I have to move my tom mics back (mostly on my floor tom) because it's always rumbling subtly. I've tuned it many different ways and can not get it to stop, what would you guys suggest? Also, instead of starting a new thread I'll ask this...I've got a metal band to record and they want that distinct clicking sound like metal music always has, how does one get that? I am using a beta 52 and I was wondering if the click comes from the source, micing position, or EQ. I know I can put the mic about 6 inches from the beater head and get a good click, but not quite what I'm looking for. Thanks guys.

A metal click sound is a combo of all the things you mention. Just remember if the source is missing the frequencies to begin with, it'll be hard (if not impossible) to get a good click sound from the bass drum.
Use wood or plastic beaters. Wood is usually best IMO.
Use a Falam-Patch at very least, at most use a Danmar Metal kick pad (or similar - metal).
EQ, Parametric... fairly narrow band in the 3-6k region. Toy with the bandwidth and freq center to find the sweet spot.
Mic in the bass drum, 2-8" from the beater source (aimed at the point-of-contact). The closer the more extreme and focused, but less of the drum shell resonance.

 

[skydye]

Setting the Mic's on drums is an art.
The two things to remember is the more Mic's the more the sound will bleed.
The sound is the two Mic may sound perfect. Back back of the sound of sound thing hit the Mic's a different times. Thing of an open big concert. Where you have stage speaks and towers in the crowd. As the wind changes so does the sound.
This may not seem like a big deal in a studio but its the same idea. You want to work hard on getting the phasing right. If you start getting cross phasing. You'll start have the waves crossing out each other

 

[formerlyfzfile]

One quick and dirty (and cheap) trick you can do also is to tape a quarter to the beater of the kick. that will give you a good "click" sound.

The material of the heads (skins) are important too ..... drums with calf skin heads arent real condusive to a metal sound. lol. I am going to go out on a limb here though and guess that if the band is metal the drummer prolly doesnt have a vintage set with calf skins on it .... but just in case ......


-mike

 

[Cult_Status02]

Haha, no they don't have any calf skin heads. You know one way I found to get a good "click" from the kick, but not make it sound like a sample, is to put an SM57 about 6 inches out from the front of the kick. I took off my res head so it makes it easier to place but I basically have my Beta 52 about 12" from the beater and then the 57 about 3 feet from it.