Overhead Mics

F

FugginmugginDrums

Member
Im looking for affordable overheads for my kit because my band is starting to play bigger venues. My budget around 100 bucks. If anyone has any suggestions it would be gretly appreciated.

Thanks!
D
 
I say buy one good condenser as your overhead mic and this will solve all your problems. I have an AKG SE300B and it's awesome.

CAD and MXL make some fairly affordable overheads but I know they don't compare to my one AKG. Get one good one - buy once, cry once. Then you'll have the overhead for all occasions ;)
 
Bo Eder said:
I say buy one good condenser as your overhead mic and this will solve all your problems. I have an AKG SE300B and it's awesome.

CAD and MXL make some fairly affordable overheads but I know they don't compare to my one AKG. Get one good one - buy once, cry once. Then you'll have the overhead for all occasions ;)
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One overhead will pick up six cymbals? If i put it right smack dab in the middle?
 
FugginmugginDrums said:
One overhead will pick up six cymbals? If i put it right smack dab in the middle?
Click to expand...

Heck yeah! You'd be surprised how good a kit can sound with one mic overhead, and one on the bass drum. I normally take my one overhead, and if I point one drumstick up from my snare head, then place the second stick on top of that, that is where the mic will be placed, height-wise. Then I'd center it over the kit. Stick a mic inside your bass drum, and you balance your playing, you can make good recordings with just that!

Of course, it helps when the overhead is really good (like this AKG), and the console you're plugging it into has really good pre-amps and phantom power (this is where I would avoid cheap Behringer stuff and questionable USB interfaces with shoddy circuitry.
 
I have a set of Cad's, Pyle, and a few MXL's (Drum Cube and 2X 910's) and would rank them in that order for budget mics. The cigar overheads that came with the Pyle set sounds pretty nice actually. It was a 7 piece mic set for about $120 .... Pyle PDKM7. They work pretty well for live shows. For recording you might want some a little nicer. I really wouldn't recommend the Cad set, though they work ok for the rack toms.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q635wJNxiG8



Looks like the topic has been covered here too:

http://www.drummerworld.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-87360.html
 
For the last 20 years been I using 3 mic's. One Shure SM27 condenser overhead mic, audix snare and bass drum mic. Great sound easy setup! Denis
 
Bo Eder said:
Heck yeah! You'd be surprised how good a kit can sound with one mic overhead, and one on the bass drum. I normally take my one overhead, and if I point one drumstick up from my snare head, then place the second stick on top of that, that is where the mic will be placed, height-wise. Then I'd center it over the kit. Stick a mic inside your bass drum, and you balance your playing, you can make good recordings with just that!

Of course, it helps when the overhead is really good (like this AKG), and the console you're plugging it into has really good pre-amps and phantom power (this is where I would avoid cheap Behringer stuff and questionable USB interfaces with shoddy circuitry.
Click to expand...

I have a full set of Sennheiser mics for my drums. Would I have place the AKG higher up? I am quite interested in the AKG. Like you said, "buy once, cry once."
 
FugginmugginDrums said:
I have a full set of Sennheiser mics for my drums. Would I have place the AKG higher up? I am quite interested in the AKG. Like you said, "buy once, cry once."
Click to expand...

You could. But you don't have to. When you start mixing, what you're doing is mixing the ambient (overhead) with the direct (drum mics) to get a good balance. I've noticed that I'm just running the direct drum mics enough to get a good signal from the drum, but the overall kit sound is really coming from the overhead. When I listened to my instinct and just eliminated the drum mics one day, I found out I could do it with just two mics. But, it takes good tuning, and good playing to balance everything for the mic. With close miking on each individual instrument, you can work on levels after the fact, but that's not why I play drums. I self-mix myself before it gets to the microphone. A concept many people should know about.

Which Sennheiser mics do you have btw? Model numbers?
 
Bo Eder said:
You could. But you don't have to. When you start mixing, what you're doing is mixing the ambient (overhead) with the direct (drum mics) to get a good balance. I've noticed that I'm just running the direct drum mics enough to get a good signal from the drum, but the overall kit sound is really coming from the overhead. When I listened to my instinct and just eliminated the drum mics one day, I found out I could do it with just two mics. But, it takes good tuning, and good playing to balance everything for the mic. With close miking on each individual instrument, you can work on levels after the fact, but that's not why I play drums. I self-mix myself before it gets to the microphone. A concept many people should know about.

Which Sennheiser mics do you have btw? Model numbers?
Click to expand...

That is pretty interesting. I want to learn more about mixing and all the components that go into it. For the toms i use e604s and for the bass I have a e602.
 
FugginmugginDrums said:
That is pretty interesting. I want to learn more about mixing and all the components that go into it. For the toms i use e604s and for the bass I have a e602.
Click to expand...

Those are pretty solid mics. We used those at one of our stages at Disneyland on the drums and they surprised me. But then again, they're also being plugged into a Yamaha M7 console and the venue is pushing some 10K watts (we're all about overkill for a permanent installation). What are you plugging into?
 
Bo Eder said:
Those are pretty solid mics. We used those at one of our stages at Disneyland on the drums and they surprised me. But then again, they're also being plugged into a Yamaha M7 console and the venue is pushing some 10K watts (we're all about overkill for a permanent installation). What are you plugging into?
Click to expand...

They are plugged into a snake, and the snake is plugged into a Yamaha MG166cx.
 
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