Drum overhead-problems

[[email protected]]

I have 7'7" ceiling... Room actually sounds very tight and a little dead (carpeted room), but the ambient room mics sound good.. I have 6' x 8' plywood under the drums to give a little more bounce..

When I first using this room a few years ago, I had trouble getting anything but awful crunchy cymbals using a mix plus at 48Khz, with KM184's and sytek preamps... Things improved as I went ribbon (SF12), DW Fearn (tube), and PTHD at 96KHz.. Now I'm very pleased with it, even with the low ceiling (and the two bi-polar pattern mics). I'll substitue KM84's if the drummer has a light touch...

[s2n]

Don't bother with overheads. Just use room mics either infront or behind the kit. Even better...record in a bigger room.

[storm-01]

I use 2 AKG 414's. I place them about a foot directly above the drummers head in a XY configuration. The room I'm using is horrible for sound, so I put my drummer in an iso-booth. The top of it is about 6 and 1/2 feet tall so the mics are fairly close. I then tilt the mics so that the shoot over the top of your cymbals and ride. Don't point the directly at them. I truely feel that OH are a pain in the ass to get right, but they do add a great feel to the kit.
Bye the way, if you haven't tried room mics you should!! Try placing two pencil mics (condenser mics) about 10' away from the kit. Each mic is 10' feet away from each other. Point the mics right at the drummers head. You will be amazed at the sounds and ambience that it you get!!

Stormy [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]