Drum microphones

[mwollin]

I have two questions regarding micing drums
1. I have a matched pair of Oktava MC012 that I use for overheads, what is the best way to position them?

2. Currently I use an akg D112 on my kick, a shure sm57 on the snare amd the Oktava MC012's for overheads. However I also have another shure sm57 and an akg c2000b. Given my current setup, how can I use my 2nd 57 and the c2000b in my current setup while recording? I am micing a 5 piece kit (bass, snare, 2 mounted toms, and a floor tom) with 2 crashes (one on either side of the kit) a ride and hi-hats.

~Mike
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[Mr_Seven]

I use the same Russian mics and love 'em. I had an old time analog engineer come in two weeks ago and he placed them about 3.5 feet apart from each other about 6 feet up over the hi hat and floor tom facing down.

I use sm57 for snare and a md421 for the kick.

As for the other 57, suggestions are: under the snare or for the hi hat. Which ever is more important for your sound.

[mattm]

my preferred overhead technique is to use a coincident pair, such as XY or MS. as your mics are cardiod, you choices are limited to XY or spaced pair. although it is impossible to achieve accurate phase and image relationships with the spaced pair, it can sometimes be desirable. the main thing to remember is to keep them equidistant from the snare. you don't have to be super accurate about it - i just use a guitar cable or whatever is lying around to adjust the distance (like using a piece of string). if you set them up this way, the snare should be in the centre of the image and, hopefully, both it and the bass drum will be in phase. don’t forget that you should move your overheads around until you are satisfied with the image.

you could use the AKG on the hi-hats and the 57 under the snare, or vice-versa if the AKG can handle the SPL. note that you'll probably have to phase reverse the snare bottom, as the skin is moving in pretty much the opposite direction to the top skin, causing the two mics to appear electrically out of phase.

this page has some useful links: Microphone Techniques and if you wanna get right down to it: Intermediate Stereo Microphone Technique or refer back to this page: Introduction to Sound Recording for the whole publication.

~matt

[Dany]

I recently discover the evolution series from Sennheiser. There great sounding and not too expensive.
So sometimes I use a Sen. Evolution 602 inside the Kik and a TLM 170 from Neumann outside of the kik. On snare sm-57 or Beyer 201. Toms Sennheiser MD 421, if not, Sennheiser evolution 604, or some sm-57 will do. Overheads... usualy 2 u-47 fet (really), or Km-184 (a little more expensive but very versatile, and way cheaper than U47...) For room mics... Rode NT2 will do.

I dont record drums on my 001, I track on a TDM, so I dont have to bother with a limited number of inputs.

Good luck in your shoping.