Overhead mic placement?????????????????????????

[jeam25]

Hi!

I am a little confising with the drum overheads placement.
I saw a few articles about it and the most of all says the 3 to 1 rule and i understand that
but also says that each overhead had to be at the same distance from the snare. And i dont
understand that. Fisrt i put the overheads about 2 to 3 feet from cymbals but exactly where ?
And the distance of the from the snare to the left mic it has to be to the right mic?
I mean that the snare has to be in the center of both mics ? To prevent phase problems?
I note when i try to put the overheads like this (snare center) the left overhead its ok
from the snare equal to the right mic but a little far from crash and h.hat.Its ok
that ? I put the mic pointing down.

And last i hear the X-Y form but i dont know how to make that.

If you have photos or know a site where i can see examples please let me know.
But shure let me know what you know and what you think first.

thanks for all!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think this is just what you're looking for:

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

[Riad]

I think this is just what you're looking for:

http://www.saecollege.de/reference_material/index.html

Sometimes the web can be an unbelievable source of information on just about any topic, most of the times it's crap.

This is one of the best sites I've seen for right-to-the-point information. Thanks for the link it was very helpful to me, and I bet others.

Rob

[silence_of_stone]

you know that is a really GOOD site. I have never seen that one before, but I was just thumbing through it and there is some good stuff in there for sure.
I wish they would shrink some of the diagrams though. I hate having to scroll sideways to read something.

[where02190]

Threre are no "you must do it this way" rules. Experimentation is the key to success IMHO. the impirtant things to watch are phase and time alignment. Listen in mono, monitor phase analysis, and most important, use those two incredible tools you already have, your ears.

[dbrunell]

Yeah, that is a good article.. I think most of us would agree though, that there's no substitute for experience. And we get experience by trying a lot of different miking techniques and placements, and using different mics.. and listening carefully to the results. Any article or book about recording techniques is a starting point for gaining experience by doing. Just because famous engineer 'X' says you've gotta use an SM57 on the snare, doesn't mean you've gotta do that. If you like to use a ceramic mic duct-taped to the bottom of the snare, and you like that sound, then go for it!

The article talked about miking the top and bottom of toms, two mics on the bass drum, etc.. which is great if you have a large selection of mics and a lot of time, but sometimes simple is better. Recently, I've miked the drums of the blues band I'm in, with just two overheads in a stereo 'Y' configuration, and a mic inside the bass drum. The overhead mics are Oktava MC-012s, and the bass drum mic is an SM58. These are all cheap mics, but I got a surprisingly good sound this way. Unfortunately, I don't have the mix online yet, to give you an idea of the sound. And yes, the stereo spread is rather narrow, but in this case it worked fine, because I was recording the whole band live, and it gave a 'natural' ambience to the recording.

db

[spookster]

I checked out that website rogga. Very cool! I'm going to try out that overhead technique next time I record drums. Instead drawind the stereo image right down the center of the kit, it makes sense to do it in a diagonal manner. This alone could help with some huge phasing issues and help to create a more accurate stereo image. I'm gonna send that link to everyone I know.