tom micing preferences

  • Thread starter Thread starter michael.butler
  • Start date Start date
M

michael.butler

New member
I usually close mic them all w/ a 57 each. I'm not liking the sound anymore, and it's hard to say just why. Too punchy? A little boomy too?

I guess I want rounder, warmer sounds. It's a Pearl master series kit. The drums sound great in the room...just not to my liking when recorded.

Does anyone use large condensers for toms? That's what Im thinking of trying next.

Michael
 
I had all 57's for toms at one point an then I bought the Sennheiser 421's. I noticed a difference right off the bat! They (the toms) sounded more clear and more "robust". The 57's are still great mics obviously but on my setup the 421's smoked em'. My drums are Tama Granstar II with embassadors on top and bottom.

RF
 
As I've been saying for a while, I like C-1000's on rack toms (small diaphram) and a C-3000 on floor tom (large). It works for me. YMMV.
 
I've been doing some experments myself. I liked the SP B1 over the toms. It also picks up the snare very nicely. For the floor tom I've been using an AT pro 25. Add a pair of MXL 603's for overheads and your favorite kick mic and your ready to go. At lease that's what I'm doing this week....
 
Thanks for the input folks. I'm definitely gonna be doing some experimenting!

michae
 
On the toms, you should check out the little square Sennheisers... they sound fab through just some plain old Makie preamps, and I can only imagine if you used somethig better. Thye also sound great on some guitar cabs. Excellent mics.
In the example here -->from a few years back we used the squares on toms with mackie preamps, and a Beta57 on snare, EV RE20 on kick.
Make sure you choose "high quality download" or it'll sound like dogshit and pause it and let it load for a minute or two so it doesnt cut in and out on ya...
 
track rat, how are you going about placing the cs1000 over toms and such? i use it and i find it very difficult to get any use out of it other than overhead. how are you mounting and EQing it for toms? and are you using just one for all your toms, or one for each tom?
and tubedude,
what of these square sennheisers?? whats their model name, i'd like to find out more about em. what kinds of overheads, if any did you use on the "i dunno" recording? which, if i might say pretty much rocks!
 
I use them one mic per pair of toms. For instance, yesterday I tracked a kit with two rack toms and one floor tom. I placed one in between the two rack toms about 6" out pointing at the rims. The other one was a C-3000on the floor tom again out around 6" pointing just aove the rim. On bigger kits (four rack toms and a floor tom) I put one C-1000 per pair of toms as described above and the 3000 on the floor tom. For the most part I've been using them withh HHB mic preamps (we're talking drums here) and except for the low end roll off switch, I run them flat to tape. I try to relie on mic placement for tone and EQ only to fill in what I can't get through moving mics around.
 
dcptnsdcvd said:
track rat, how are you going about placing the cs1000 over toms and such? i use it and i find it very difficult to get any use out of it other than overhead. how are you mounting and EQing it for toms? and are you using just one for all your toms, or one for each tom?
and tubedude,
what of these square sennheisers?? whats their model name, i'd like to find out more about em. what kinds of overheads, if any did you use on the "i dunno" recording? which, if i might say pretty much rocks!
Click to expand...

If they are square mic's, they are either the discontinued 409's (Tommy Lee used these on his toms with Motley Crue for several years.) or they are the new updated eVolution version, which is model #609.

[image]http://www.vintagetones.com/images/sennheiser-e609.jpg[/image]

They are awesome microphones.
Plus, the fact that they are really "thin" (The mic is side-addressesed) you can get them in close to the toms without interfering with cymbal placement....a great thing if you are mic'ing a kit where the cymbals are really low.
To me, the drawback, is that they are a great "target" for an inexperienced drummer....and I wouldn't want somebody whacking on my mic's.

http://www.vintagetones.com/products/mics/sennheiser/e609.html

I personally am using ATM Pro25's, which is a Kick mic, but sounds great on the toms, and I like the fact that it's a hypercardioid because I don't really need to gate them, or if I do so that there is complete silence between tom strikes, it's very light gating.
Like i said, these are great, but I've been using 603's for overheads for a few months, and I really haven't even needed to use the tom mic's.
We're getting ready to make the jump to recording on a DAW, so that's when the tom mic's will come in handy, because I'm going to wind up "building" my drum tracks once the initial playing is recorded.


Tim
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top