Drum Overhead Miking?

[Erik Braund]

Hi! I have been reading these boards for about a year, and i finally got my 001 setup with a G4. Anyway, i am having trouble with my overhead mics on my drums. I am using two Shure SM81's. I want to get a two distinctly seperate tracks.. On with the Hi-hats and the crash panned to the left, and one with the other crash and the ride panned to the right. MY Problem is, i am getting quite a bit of HI-Hats in my Ride mic.

I have the mics set about 7.5' off the ground pointing straight down at the cymbals.

Have any of you found a better way?

i also use a beta 57 on the snare, Senn 421's on the toms and a shure beta 52 on the kick. Any miking tips on those would be greatly appreciated, but i have managed to get pretty good sounds out of them.

Thanks for all your help!!
-Erik Braund http://www.jebonline.com http://www.theromancandles.com

[QuikDraw]

If you visualise the cardioid pattern of the SM81 mics you'll see that pointing them straight down is not going to yield a distinctively stereo signal. There's not much rejection off the sides of those mics. You need to point the mics in the direction you want them to hear.

You should probably try what is known as an XY configuration for your OH mics. Both mics will be over the approximate center of the drumkit almost touching each other. The mic that is on the Ride Cymbal side of the kit will actually be pointed towards the Hi-Hat and vice versa. The mics will be angled about 90 degrees to each other. Now if you visualise the pickup pattern of the mics you'll see that each mic will see a significantly different signal. This is probably the most popular configuration for overheads. Since both mics are in almost the same physical location it minimizes phase problems.

I've also had success with more distant mic'ing. Place each mic 5 or 6 feet either in front or behind the kit and point each one towards the physical location that you would like to be panned strongest in the L-R mix. This setup also yields good stereo separation, but you're more likely to run into phase problems due to the physical distance between the two mics.

Experiment with the mic placement until you get it just right. You want the overheads to do a good job of picking up the whole kit. They are the heart of your drum sound. The close mics on the rest of the kit only support the mix you have in the overheads.

Mike

[gerax]

I agree, but keep in mind that since the over heads (just as their name says) stay on top of the drum kit, it's almost unavoidable to have some bleeding of Hi-hat in the ride mic, I mean , in my opinion they shouldn't be used to pick up cymbals only (as many use to do), but the overall stereo image of the kit; also the Hi-hat falls in a tricky frequency range, very easy to bleed into other mic's pickup.

L.G.

[Eric Heil]

Gents,

I agree with everything both of you are saying with the small addition of using a Hyper Cardioid (high side rejection) and placeing them in an X-Y configuration 5-6 feet above stage/ground level and within 3 feet of eachother over the kit.

Anybody disagree?

Eric [img]images/icons/cool.gif[/img]

[kite]

Have you tried some pretty hard compression on your overheads -might help, but may also even up between dominant hi-hat etc...don't forget the stereo "link" switch!

[gerax]

Speaking of polar patterns, I think it depends a lot on the environment you're recording in: usually the more tight the pattern of the mic, the more you get proximity effect buildup (apart from side rejection), and a slightly less natural sound; when possible (i.e. not in live situations)I try to use simple cardioids, or even omnis, for a more linear response, provided that you can have the necessary isolation of the kit from other sources. Also I noticed that for stereo miking techniques phase correlation gets worse as the pattern is tighter; but that's just my opinion.

Cheers

L.G.