what's that freakin buzz??

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michael.butler

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I posted the following in the drum forum, but thought I might put here as well.

Here goes:

I've one year old pearl masters. 3 toms.

In the drum room, everything sounds great. No buzzes or strange vibrations can my ears detect from the toms. Back in the control room, everything sounds great too, EXCEPT for the middle tom. I mic the 3 toms w/ 2 57's close, so 1st and middle tom share a mic, and middle and last share one. I've always gotten nice results w/ these toms & 2 mics b4,

But now... here's this. A very obvious buzz/vibration coming only from the middle tom that's very obvious recording, but can't be detected next to the drum.

I have tried:

-switching out mics/changing mic positions
- tuning retuning ALL of the drums
-lotsa different deadenings on each drum (o rings, moon gels etc)
-REMOVING each drum from the room should the noise be a head phasing problem
-tightened all hardware

With some of these adjustments, the noise seemed less noticeable but there all the time.

Now, granted, the heads aren't new, but they're all smooth and clean.

I'm completely stumped and somewhat irritated. And IT"S JUST THE MIDDLE TOM....AND IT'S ONLY PICKED UP BY THE MIC>>!

Any thoughts??

michael.butler



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06-24-2002 03:55
 
Thanks Blue. I do believe I'll ultimately find that it's a tuning issue.

Michael
 
Are you sure that the room you're playing back in doesn't have a resonance? If you can, feed an audio oscillator into your monitoring system and "sweep" the room at or near the levels you monitor at - Then again, it could be a tuning problem - if that particular tom is exciting a mic holder's resonant freq. maybe the buzz is being overshadowed in the drum room by the drum sounds, but being picked up by the mic since it's in tight contact with the mic. Maybe try hanging the 57's from a taller stand by their cords? Another possibility - snare resonance? Dunno, I'm not in the room with it, just some more places to look... Steve
 
It sounds like some sort of "sympathic resonance" to me too. I would think, as knightfly pointed out, that one of your mic stands is resonating, and being picked up by the mic its in contact with.
Maybe try shock mounts on all your drum mics?
 
Blue Bear Sound said:
I had the same experience at this remote session, described --> here
Click to expand...

damn...you have to be "drug free" to remember a session way back in early 2001...or before:D

I gotta agree with some of the above thoughts...sympathetic vibrations...whatever.

I work on sailboats, and sometimes the engines just hit the "sweet spot" that will vibrate the hull to holy hell and back. Ya nudge it a 100rpm in either direction, and it's gone. same thing with drums... go up to about 5000rpm...and you'll never notice it!!
 
"go up to about 5000rpm...and you'll never notice it!!" Hell, go up to 10,000 - Dave Weckyl, eat yer heart out :=)
 
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