stereo overhead image with LDCs

  • Thread starter Thread starter treymonfauntre
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treymonfauntre

treymonfauntre

Magic Bag Of Sounds
I'm going to be recording some drum tracks tonight. I'm close miccing all the drums and I really just want a good stereo image of the cymbals. The music is going to be drums and a bass guitar playing slightly overdriven funky style bass riffs. Its really agressive and fast. Chaotic almost, but still groovy as hell.

I have a total of 3 tracks to spend on cymbals, and the following mics:
MXL 990 - MDC trapped in a LDC body.
MXL 991 - MDC in a SDC body!
Studio Projects B1 - LDC
Shure BG5.0 - got this for free, its an early 90s (?) handheld condenser that sort of looks like a beta 87.

the drummer has a hi hat, 2 splashes, and a ride. i tried doing the little 2 drumstick technique on a live recording the stereo image was really narrow.. almost non existant. if i just put one mic pointed at the hi hat and another at the ride it will probably pick up the crashes perfectly and sound nice, but i'm worried about the snare being majorly off centered. if i'm close miccing it is this even all that much of a concern?
 
How much experience do you have with micing up a set? If you place the overheads correctly, especially with those mics, you should get a pretty good stereo image. I'm using some 57's right now, most arguably NOT good mics for a drum set, but they're actually giving me a pretty decent sound.

Just remember with the overheads, don't put them left/right in relation to the drummer, or what you would consider the "front and back" of the set. If you look at the set from above, draw a straight line through the snare and kick drum. You'll notice that line is at an angle. Place the overheads perpendicular to that line on the sides of the set. That should help give you a truer stereo image.

If you already knew what I was talking about in that last paragraph, I'm sorry, I just figured I'd write that in case someone read this who doesn't know that.
 
I like to keep things simple, so I would just do an ORTF pair (990/991 should work) in front of the kit. You won't get a ton of snare that way. I used to do the A/B technique you mention back when I close mic'ed everything, but it's not as reliable, you can get either phase problems or big differences in levels on various cymbals depending on how close your A/B pair is.
 
i never knew what ORTF meant and i like reading articles about drum recording and never see it mentioned, i guess most places prefer x/y
the thing is, the splashes are in front so those mics might be pointed almost directly at them. i might feel the need to throw something on the hi hat. thanks for reminding me to read up on ortf, its pretty much exactly what i wanted!

and i'm mixing digitally so phase isn't really a huge issue for me between the overheads and close mics. i can see it / hear it / fix it :)
 
treymonfauntre said:
i never knew what ORTF meant and i like reading articles about drum recording and never see it mentioned, i guess most places prefer x/y
the thing is, the splashes are in front so those mics might be pointed almost directly at them. i might feel the need to throw something on the hi hat. thanks for reminding me to read up on ortf, its pretty much exactly what i wanted!
Click to expand...

I do use XY, but you mentioned you wanted a wider stereo image.


and i'm mixing digitally so phase isn't really a huge issue for me between the overheads and close mics. i can see it / hear it / fix it :)
Click to expand...

No, the issue with A/B is not phase between snare mic and overheads, it's between cymbals in the two overheads, and it's very tough to fix.
 
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