To much snare on overheads!!

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GOODLAND

GOODLAND

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Everything in my drum recordings sound fine accept my overheads. They are picking up too much of the snare. The overheads are making the snare sound like crap. I am using 1 SM57 on snare, 3 Audix i5's on toms, 1 AKG D112 on kick, and two MXL 990's as overheads. Whats is wrong? I point the 990's away from the snare as much as possible but no luck. My room is treated with foam and sounds fine, so I know the room is not the problem. Please help me figure out what other mikes to use for overheads, or where to place my 990's.
Thanks.
 
GOODLAND said:
Everything in my drum recordings sound fine accept my overheads. They are picking up too much of the snare. The overheads are making the snare sound like crap. I am using 1 SM57 on snare, 3 Audix i5's on toms, 1 AKG D112 on kick, and two MXL 990's as overheads. Whats is wrong? I point the 990's away from the snare as much as possible but no luck. My room is treated with foam and sounds fine, so I know the room is not the problem. Please help me figure out what other mikes to use for overheads, or where to place my 990's.
Thanks.
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How do you have the mic's placed? How high and how far apart from the snare? What kind of configuration are you using? To be honest, most of your drumsound, including the snare should be coming from the overheads.


Tim
 
I have them placed on the right and left of the set directly over the crash cymbals on either side. They are about 2-3 feet over the cymbals.
 
GOODLAND said:
I have them placed on the right and left of the set directly over the crash cymbals on either side. They are about 2-3 feet over the cymbals.
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Try this.

Place the one on your floor tom side, behind the kit - about 4 to 6 feet from the center of the snare.

Place the other in front of the kit on the hihat side, the same distance from the snare, so that the two mic's are placed diagonally across the drumkit - and they should sit approximately 6 to 7 feet from the floor.

Then, when you play them back - play just the pair - and pan them so that the snare apprears directly in the middle of the stereo listening field.
Then start adding your individual drum tracks. (Kick first, then snare, then toms.)

This will give you a bit more of a true stereo field, and should split the kit more evenly, and should help with your snare issue.





Tim
 
Put down some other tracks and see if the snare is still too loud. If it isn't, you're fine. If it is, bring up the rest of the drums, or bring the overheads down.
 
I'd like to hear a clip. I'm not saying I don't beleive you and only you know what you want from your recordings. But I never even thought it was possible for the snare to overpower everything else in the overheads to such a point that it would be a problem. I WISH I had that prioblem.
 
I concur on this. How is it possible that the snare could be too loud? Usually it's a problem of not getting a prominent enough snare in the mix.

If it's a matter of trying to isolate the snare to its own track (due to wanting to EQ out any weirdness or something), you should probably look into retuning the snare so it sounds better, rather than trying to fix things later.

If it's genuinely too loud, what the heck kind of drum is it? I want one.

I'd be interested in hearing this as well...

Rick
 
I will try to get a clip of it up for you guys. I just am not sure that its normal for the snare to be putting big spikes of audio in my overhead tracks. This causes me to have to turn down my overheads just so they won't clip from the snare. This causes lesss cymbal sounds as well.
 
Could it be that my MXL 990's are not directional enough. Maybe some pencil condensers with more direction to them would give me better results. The 990's can't really be pointed anywhere because they are large diaphram. Do you think this might help to get some pencils?
 
I should be able get you a clip of the drums by tomarow if you guys are around.
 
You'd be better off just placing the mics further away from the snare. It doesn't sound like different mics are going to help with the level of the snare. It sounds more like an issue of placement.

Try compressing the signal with a fast attack and release to bring the cymbals up more.
 
The snare is tuned pretty high. I'll have the drummer tune it down. I think the snare was too sharp of a sound. It needs to be dulled down a little.
 
Yeah, it's really not normal to see the snare spiking through the cymbals. That's really strange. Is the drummer really heavy-handed? How loud do you have the overheads mixed in comparison to the rest of the kit? Very interesting...

Rick
 
MrBlackthorne said:
Yeah, it's really not normal to see the snare spiking through the cymbals. That's really strange. Is the drummer really heavy-handed? How loud do you have the overheads mixed in comparison to the rest of the kit? Very interesting...

Rick
Click to expand...

The drummer is a metal drummer and hits his snare pretty hard. The overheads are turned up enough to get the cymbals but I am restrained from going as High as I would like because of how much the snare is spiking in the Track.
 
GOODLAND said:
Could it be that my MXL 990's are not directional enough. Maybe some pencil condensers with more direction to them would give me better results. The 990's can't really be pointed anywhere because they are large diaphram. Do you think this might help to get some pencils?
Click to expand...


It's not a Large Diaphragm Condenser, it just looks like one; the 990 is a SDC in a large case. It's the same element as in the 603. I have the 990's and have used them as overheads, and they worked just fine for me.



Tim
 
i usually like crushers, because the snare usually sounds better in the overs than in a close mic. too much snare isn't usually a problem for me.

(don't know the pork pie)
 
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