pipelineaudio
Well-known member
I see a lot of overhead posts, and would like to share some ways I like to do em.
I've got two techniques for overheads that I'll usually go between
1 is for a traditional sound, and 2 is for a more exagerated more stereo sound
1: A classic M/S pattern. I'll take 2 414's or C-12's or two older RCA ribbons thatll do figure 8...I'll just list the 414 method to make it simple. Usually Ill go to the front of the drumset while the drummers playing, and listen for a spot with a good mix of the drums, maybe a spot a little cymbal heavy. Depending on the session this spot may be actually over the drummer and drumset, but usually I'll go for a more room/overhead sound, in front of the drums a bit. I'm looking for a spot that get all cymbals evenly, which gets tricky when the drummer has a LOUD cymbal in the center. Most important of all I want a spot where the kick and snare *SOUND* centered.
As soon as I find that spot I set one 414 to cardiod ( SOMETIMES figure 8 in which this would change to sort of the Blumlein technique ) and point it where my ear was " seeing " the center. Next I set another 414 to figure 8 and set it almost touching the top of the other mic...totally perpendicular to the first...its hard to describe the placement but imagine that one is pointing right where you think it should while the figure 8 mic is pointing so that only it's side is facing where they seem like they should be.the mics can be end to end or one can be above or below the other just so that one is exactly 90 degrees off axis of the other one.
If you have an M/S decoding box you can set it right now and record the decoded signal, but I like to leave them separate for the most variability at mix time. Here's how to decode them...
Take the cardiod mic and send it to channel 2 of your mixer, pan it CENTER and leave it down at -inf
Take the figure 8 mic and split it somewhere at the patchbay put one of the splits and send it to channel 1 on your mixer, take the other and send it to channel 3 ( I am explaining it this way so that it feels right, you can send to whatever channels you like ).
Set channel 1 to unity gain and pan it hard left. Set channel 3 to unity and flip its phase and pan it hard right.
NOW set your mixer to mono. Channel 1 and 3 are carrying the exact same info but out of phase with each other so they should cancel. Adjust channel 3's fader up or down till they totally null each other out..you should hear nothing. Flip the console back to stereo. So we got two channels playing the same crap, spread out and out of phase...worthless trick right ?
Here's where the magic happens. Slowly raise channel 2's fader up. First you will hear some gawdawful phasing fx and then youll hear the sound opening up. If you do it right you will start to hear a HUGE wide sound, yet with NOTHING missing from the center compared to regular overhead techniques. Big, wide and still mono compatiable!
Here's how it works: channel 1 carries the figure 8 mic Left + ( left side in a positive direction phasewise compared to the right side or leading phasewise by 180 degrees) and Right - .
Channel 3 carries the figure 8 Left - and Right + because its phase is flipped.
Channel two carries the cardioid mic Left + and Right + equally, since it is only picking up one source.
Put them together...in the left channel ( L+ R- ) the cardiod mic amplifies the left side ( L+ + L+ = more L
) and yet cancels out the right side ( R- + R + = not much R ). On the right channel it does the opposite, L- + L+ = not much L and R+ + R+ = more R.
now buss these three channels to two channels if you need to process them.
if youve got a pair of 1176's or an 1178 around you got yourself a classic sound easy. But all sorts of devices will work great here. One tried and true is to EQ with a shelf around -6dB at around 8-12k ( not so popular now that everyone makes treble crazy mixes) then on to a compressor with a fast attack and sloooow release, similar to how you'd compress a bass guitar. In this case, the compressor will act upon the whims of the kick drum, giving that classic pumping cymbals effect. Listen to an OLD aerosmith album for this, or even Led Zepplin.
The great thing about M/S is that, done right itll still be pretty strong in mono.
These tracks should be good enough to be the ONLY ones for your drumset( tho I still stick close mics on everything )
ok on to 2
2: Good ol' spread em out WAY stereo overheads. I'll do this when Im more interested in cymbals and impact than a whole entire drum sound. The trick here is to take a pair of small diaphragm condensers ( okatava mc/mc 012's are perfect for this ) and try to get them equidistant from the snare, yet still keeping the cymbals balanced...GOOD LUCK... you'll need a cooperative drummer for this one. Make sure he hits the cymbals equally hard for the most part and set them in a convenient pattern. One more problem...try to keep them an equidistant height above the toms ! Once you think you got it put the console in mono and nudge one mic or the other till you hear the MOST center info...its real easy to loose the center this way, tho its not so important as in an M/S rig.
For this setup youll be best off with a multiband compressor on mixdown. You REALLY want to avoid mud buildup, but yet you dont want the kick and snare deciding youre cymbal behaviour in this case. See if you can figure out the " boom " wavelength of the kick drum ( start around 80 mSec ).
Set one band from about 180Hz down to DC attack around 80Msec, release around the start of the next measure...threshold and ratio to taste. The trick is to let the boom thru while shutting it down and killing the mud by slowly fading it down
Set the higher bands to ditch the snare a bit and the highest bands to controlling the cymbal behaviour, depending on whether you want them to CRASH or you want them to have a long even country style zing, or if you want them to pump up and fill the spaces between kick and snare.
I've got two techniques for overheads that I'll usually go between
1 is for a traditional sound, and 2 is for a more exagerated more stereo sound
1: A classic M/S pattern. I'll take 2 414's or C-12's or two older RCA ribbons thatll do figure 8...I'll just list the 414 method to make it simple. Usually Ill go to the front of the drumset while the drummers playing, and listen for a spot with a good mix of the drums, maybe a spot a little cymbal heavy. Depending on the session this spot may be actually over the drummer and drumset, but usually I'll go for a more room/overhead sound, in front of the drums a bit. I'm looking for a spot that get all cymbals evenly, which gets tricky when the drummer has a LOUD cymbal in the center. Most important of all I want a spot where the kick and snare *SOUND* centered.
As soon as I find that spot I set one 414 to cardiod ( SOMETIMES figure 8 in which this would change to sort of the Blumlein technique ) and point it where my ear was " seeing " the center. Next I set another 414 to figure 8 and set it almost touching the top of the other mic...totally perpendicular to the first...its hard to describe the placement but imagine that one is pointing right where you think it should while the figure 8 mic is pointing so that only it's side is facing where they seem like they should be.the mics can be end to end or one can be above or below the other just so that one is exactly 90 degrees off axis of the other one.
If you have an M/S decoding box you can set it right now and record the decoded signal, but I like to leave them separate for the most variability at mix time. Here's how to decode them...
Take the cardiod mic and send it to channel 2 of your mixer, pan it CENTER and leave it down at -inf
Take the figure 8 mic and split it somewhere at the patchbay put one of the splits and send it to channel 1 on your mixer, take the other and send it to channel 3 ( I am explaining it this way so that it feels right, you can send to whatever channels you like ).
Set channel 1 to unity gain and pan it hard left. Set channel 3 to unity and flip its phase and pan it hard right.
NOW set your mixer to mono. Channel 1 and 3 are carrying the exact same info but out of phase with each other so they should cancel. Adjust channel 3's fader up or down till they totally null each other out..you should hear nothing. Flip the console back to stereo. So we got two channels playing the same crap, spread out and out of phase...worthless trick right ?
Here's where the magic happens. Slowly raise channel 2's fader up. First you will hear some gawdawful phasing fx and then youll hear the sound opening up. If you do it right you will start to hear a HUGE wide sound, yet with NOTHING missing from the center compared to regular overhead techniques. Big, wide and still mono compatiable!
Here's how it works: channel 1 carries the figure 8 mic Left + ( left side in a positive direction phasewise compared to the right side or leading phasewise by 180 degrees) and Right - .
Channel 3 carries the figure 8 Left - and Right + because its phase is flipped.
Channel two carries the cardioid mic Left + and Right + equally, since it is only picking up one source.
Put them together...in the left channel ( L+ R- ) the cardiod mic amplifies the left side ( L+ + L+ = more L
) and yet cancels out the right side ( R- + R + = not much R ). On the right channel it does the opposite, L- + L+ = not much L and R+ + R+ = more R.now buss these three channels to two channels if you need to process them.
if youve got a pair of 1176's or an 1178 around you got yourself a classic sound easy. But all sorts of devices will work great here. One tried and true is to EQ with a shelf around -6dB at around 8-12k ( not so popular now that everyone makes treble crazy mixes) then on to a compressor with a fast attack and sloooow release, similar to how you'd compress a bass guitar. In this case, the compressor will act upon the whims of the kick drum, giving that classic pumping cymbals effect. Listen to an OLD aerosmith album for this, or even Led Zepplin.
The great thing about M/S is that, done right itll still be pretty strong in mono.
These tracks should be good enough to be the ONLY ones for your drumset( tho I still stick close mics on everything
)ok on to 2
2: Good ol' spread em out WAY stereo overheads. I'll do this when Im more interested in cymbals and impact than a whole entire drum sound. The trick here is to take a pair of small diaphragm condensers ( okatava mc/mc 012's are perfect for this ) and try to get them equidistant from the snare, yet still keeping the cymbals balanced...GOOD LUCK... you'll need a cooperative drummer for this one. Make sure he hits the cymbals equally hard for the most part and set them in a convenient pattern. One more problem...try to keep them an equidistant height above the toms
! Once you think you got it put the console in mono and nudge one mic or the other till you hear the MOST center info...its real easy to loose the center this way, tho its not so important as in an M/S rig.For this setup youll be best off with a multiband compressor on mixdown. You REALLY want to avoid mud buildup, but yet you dont want the kick and snare deciding youre cymbal behaviour in this case. See if you can figure out the " boom " wavelength of the kick drum ( start around 80 mSec ).
Set one band from about 180Hz down to DC attack around 80Msec, release around the start of the next measure...threshold and ratio to taste. The trick is to let the boom thru while shutting it down and killing the mud by slowly fading it down
Set the higher bands to ditch the snare a bit and the highest bands to controlling the cymbal behaviour, depending on whether you want them to CRASH or you want them to have a long even country style zing, or if you want them to pump up and fill the spaces between kick and snare.