Underheads!?

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Bguzaldo

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I was pretty bored today and I decided to try some experimenting and see if anything catches. It was mainly with my overheads. I've always had this problem where I always got waaaay too much from the cymbals and not enough body and snap from the snare.

After putting the over heads in hundreds of different positions one of my stands fell over and it got me thinking what would it sound like if my overheads became underheads?

So I set them up with the heads of the mics facing up about 18 inches off the ground. one about a foot from the floor tom and if a laser shot from the edge of the mic it would just barely hit the rim of the floor tom(about 5 o'clock if your looking at it from the drummers POV). the second one was about 16 inches from the snare by my left thigh pointing between the gap of the snare and high hat.

I have to say, I have never ever gotten such smooth warm tones from the cymbals. I was just blown away. The snare had a nice snap too it, not much more body than usual but that's another project. I'm sure this has been done before, but just thought I'd share my discovery, maybe spark some creative interest.

Thanks
-Barrett
 
Bguzaldo said:
After putting the over heads in hundreds of different positions one of my stands fell over and it got me thinking what would it sound like if my overheads became underheads?
Click to expand...

Awesome!

And as for the term 'underheads'!! It's a winner with me.

I have the hugest respect and admiration for people who are imaginative and prepared to try something different.

I don't know whether anyone has tried this configuration before, but I shall have to experiment myself now.
 
Sweet! I shall try that sometime.

I assume your using some kind of LDC Hypercardoid/Bi-directional mic? I can't imagine pencil condensors would get the coverage from both the cymbals and the toms in the same way a hyper would.
 
I use a typical OH set up (high and wide) and a second set of mics almost in the same place as you describe as "underheads," and a 5th mic in front of the bass drum. I normally pan the OHs pretty hard, about 70% right and left, UHs panned about 30% right and left, bass mic right down the center. The first time I tried this set up I was surprized by how well it worked. Ive used this same set up for myself and several other (real) drummers and so far everyone has liked the results.

Another simple set up I have used has been to set two mics (one on each side) about 2-3 feet out on each side of the bass drum, about 2 feet high and aimed at the drummer's chest, and one mic about 6 inches to a foot in front of the bass drum. This set up works well with drummers who are heavy on the cymbals. I have a pretty dead room for recording drums and a huge cloud over where I set the drums which really helps to tame the harshness of heavy cymbal hits.

For what it's worth... I only messed up about 1000 drum recordings before I realized how important room treatment and mic placement really are.
 
I have seen older studio photos of Beatles with this type of setup where a mic is under cymbal maybe 2 feet.
 
We'll my new philosophy is 'don't buy new gear until you've tried everything' and for the record did use a pair of SDC just a pair of audix f15's, but i assuse LDC's would make more sense, I'll try those next.

Thanks for lookin,
-Barrett
 
Bguzaldo said:
I was pretty bored today and I decided to try some experimenting and see if anything catches. It was mainly with my overheads. I've always had this problem where I always got waaaay too much from the cymbals and not enough body and snap from the snare.

After putting the over heads in hundreds of different positions one of my stands fell over and it got me thinking what would it sound like if my overheads became underheads?

So I set them up with the heads of the mics facing up about 18 inches off the ground. one about a foot from the floor tom and if a laser shot from the edge of the mic it would just barely hit the rim of the floor tom(about 5 o'clock if your looking at it from the drummers POV). the second one was about 16 inches from the snare by my left thigh pointing between the gap of the snare and high hat.

I have to say, I have never ever gotten such smooth warm tones from the cymbals. I was just blown away. The snare had a nice snap too it, not much more body than usual but that's another project. I'm sure this has been done before, but just thought I'd share my discovery, maybe spark some creative interest.

Thanks
-Barrett
Click to expand...

Interesting, and chalk me up as another one who loves the term "underhead" :D

I thought a SDC pair was sort of the go-to set for overheads, anyway...?
 
I've tried this before for the toms and the snare. just because i kept hitting them with sticks. works well for the toms but not the snare(i coulda guess that)...
for the cymbals.........hmmmm....kind of brilliant
 
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