What's your preferred overhead technique?

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BradynWestbrook

BradynWestbrook

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I'm new to this, obviously. And I know there's several ways to do it, and that neither is best. But which ways would you say are easiest to do without running into phasing issues? I'll be using two SDCs if that is relevant.
 
I love me a spaced pair that LOOKS like it's cool and picking up everything, with the left OH so much further away from the snare that it's wildly obviously out of phase with the other OH! Oh and don't forget to angle the mics outwards because we're not micing drums here, just cymbals! We'll just fix it in the mix!

:facepalm: :p

In all seriousness though, judging by what I read alot of people doing, videos and pictures I've seen, it seems to me my above sarcastic statement is actually reality in a LOT of cases. haha.

To answer your question, I've recently got into Recorderman, but having them a few inches higher/further than the standard two-drum-stick-from-the-snare measurement. Instantly gave me more ambience, and a more balanced image of the whole kit. The standard Recorderman tends to focus and really punch up the drums but sort of de-emphasize the cymbals. I'll do the Recorderman with close mics.

I used to like a spaced pair, but they seem to always take longer to set up and test and get the phase right. It's like, ok, getting them in phase in easy (just measure and listen) but then the actual sounds you are recording may not sound great. So you move em to pick up more china cymbal or more/less hats, etc, and then they're out of phase again. So finding a happy medium between the two takes a lot more time then doing a quick Recorderman. That's my flavor of the month anyways. Great for lower ceilings also.

As for Glyn Johns, it's cool and all, but if you're close mic'ing, I've found the mic nearest the FT sometimes gets phasey issues when you bring in the FT close mic.
 
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Ooh la la...

My preferred technique is to have the overheads as underheads, that is, under the height of the cymbals. That's partly because I found that one drummer in particular that I play with used to hit the drums so hard at times that the cymbals overshadowed everything. By having the mics below the height of the cymbals, that really cuts the cymbal wash but makes them no less dynamic.
I'm not really a good representative of drum recording expertise. However, I do believe that all the ways that exist to capture drums are valid and you'll not be losing anything by trying out all the styles that get suggested. You simply can the ones that don't net you the sound you desire. I find, for example, that simply using two overheads, snare and kick doesn't net me the sound I want. I don't know if that's to do with the room I record in {kids room, bunkbeds, carpet, stage/riser, low ceiling, small space}, the mics I use {Superlux and Behringer drum mic sets, EM700 stereoset as O/Hs}, my shabby technique or bum placement of the mics or the DAW I use or a combination of all or some of that but whatever it is, I found close miking the 5 toms, sending them through my mixer, combining that output with the 'overheads' and recording that to two of the tracks on the DAW {with snare and kick on their own track} gets me the sound I like.
I place one O/H to the drummer's left {either just behind or sometimes more at a 90 degree angle}, pointing towards the snare, the other one diagonal to his right, pointing across the toms to the snare.
It sounds unwieldy, but it works.
But others here get great recordings with 4 mics. So some will supplement their O/Hs, some don't.
The French they speak in Senegal is not the same as the French they speak in Belgium which is not the same as the French they speak in Geneva which is not the same as the French they speak just outside Paris. But they all understand French.
 
Forgive me for my lack of knowledge, but what is recorderman?
 
I use a variation Recorderman/Glyn Johns.

But I'm trying to figure out why you even ask this question. What will getting 3 pages of people telling you what they do accomplish?

Try them all out and see what works for you. It's really that simple.
 
I like quite a high overhead pair of omni mics, but that is hugely dependant on having a decent room.
Mics of choice would be km56's. I try to balance the whole kit as much as possible, paying particular attention to snare, toms and cymbal, and against the reverb of the room.
In the mix I squash them a bit to bring out the reverb from the snare and use close mics to bring the punch and fine tune the balance.

Here's an article on drum overhead mic choice and placement which you might find helpful to start with.
 
RAMI said:
I use a variation Recorderman/Glyn Johns.

But I'm trying to figure out why you even ask this question. What will getting 3 pages of people telling you what they do accomplish?

Try them all out and see what works for you. It's really that simple.
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I would try them all out if I knew what they were. I said I know there's loads of ways to do it, I just don't know what those methods are, if that makes sense. I'm trying to see what everyone else does, then try them out and pick what works best for me.
 
Standard overhead L/R stereo spacing with two Yamaha subkicks. :D
 
I use a Rode NT4, a fixed XY stereo condenser. I aim it at the snare using a string to line it up so that drum has no phase issues and I let everything else work itself out.
 
I wonder if I would even recognize phase problems if I heard them !
 
Spaced pair. I've tried XY and didn't like the narrowness of the stereo field, although it does put things in phase perfectly. I have not tried ORTF or mid-side (can't try this one actually).
 
Spaced pair, equidistant from the snare. I used to have to place the mics away from the ceiling (8' tall-drywalled) until I filled the open joists in my basement with rockwool. Now I get best results placing the mic's as far away as possible, with the limited ceiling height. Boom stands mounted to the ceiling joists, make this quite easy.
 
Oh yes as Jimmy said I place them equidistant from the snare 2nd rack tom and kick (as best as I can, this isn't always a straight line).
 
Guitargodgt said:
Spaced pair. I've tried XY and didn't like the narrowness of the stereo field, although it does put things in-phase perfectly. I have not tried ORTF or mid-side (can't try this one actually).
Click to expand...

Mid-Side does a nice stereo field, and you just have to decide on the center position you want to use, and then place both mics there...so no need for measuring distances of each mic...and it folds to mono perfectly, so no phasing issues at all.

Only extra bit of work is the M/S matrix...but for DAW user's it's pretty simple, or there are external boxes that can do that for you during tracking. I have a 4-channel pre that has an M/S matrix option on each pair of channels.
 
miroslav said:
Mid-Side does a nice stereo field, and you just have to decide on the center position you want to use, and then place both mics there...so no need for measuring distances of each mic...and it folds to mono perfectly, so no phasing issues at all.

Only extra bit of work is the M/S matrix...but for DAW user's it's pretty simple, or there are external boxes that can do that for you during tracking. I have a 4-channel pre that has an M/S matrix option on each pair of channels.
Click to expand...


The reason I said I can't is because I don't own mics that would let me do it. XY isn't that fickle about position either it's just a matter of moving them around till you get what you like. I think I end up with a spaced pair because the results can be replicated (at least for me) quicker.
 
I tried spaced pair and XY over some recording sessions and wasn't very impressed with the results. Now ORTF is my favourite one, but I'm interested trying the recorderman.
 
There is always the mono one microphone overhead option.
 
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