Mic for snare

OK, I have a vintage Gretsch round badge kit, and am using CAD mics. I think the tom and snare mics are TM-411. The toms sound great, but the snare, not so much. bothers me because it is the nicest sounding wooden snare I have ever heard. the CAD mic does not pick up the high tone. The snare just sounds flat, and low. Does anyone have a suggestion for a mic that will acurately record the sound of the snare?
Thanks

Shure SM57 is a good standby. Or a Crown 700 condenser. More importantly, what are you plugging it into? There's alot of things you can do with EQ.

Finally a reply! I mean I posted this almost 3 minutes ago, I thought no one would ever answer! LOL
I record my drums to track my progress, and look at what I need to work on, (OK, that's everything!) I have a 16 channel mixer, (Sound Tech ST162). I plug that into a digital camcorder, and play back on my computer. I am realatively happy with the sound of everything except the snare. It is hard for me as I am also rather hard of hearing. Have been all my life. I am 54, a hot rodder, worked in motorsports, a compteative pistol shooter since 1980, and recently decided to start playing drums again! It only took hours of recording to get the levels close. Still not sure they are where they should be but are close now. My ST162 has some limited EQ function, but not much. I am not a sound engineer, or pro musician. I am really just looking to accurately reproduce the live sound. Of the mics you mentioned, do you prefer on over the other?
Thanks!!!

I love my Shure SM57s and 58s just because they can take a beating and still sound great. But I'm thinking maybe what you should try is just two mics: get a dynamic in or in front of your bass drum, and then put a pencil condenser mic overhead about two drumstick lengths above your snare to pick up everything else. You'd be surprised at how good that sounds.

As for microphones that work well for snare drums. The Shure SM57, Audix I5, Shure Beta 57. These are my three go to microphones and of the three the I5 is probably the most robust with the head of the microphone being made of metal and not plastic like the SM57. If you're reading between the lines, they can take a good stick hit or two, lol. In real life they sound very close to one another with the Beta microphone having a bit more edgy upper mid range quality and higher output..

I would also check your mic placement because by placing a cardioid (directional) microphone too close to the snare's head, there could possibly be a proximity effect build-up which will cause the sound to have excess low frequency energy which, in most cases, will give the appearance of less high frequency response or high tone from your drum. If the low EQ control on that channel of your mixer is boosted, back it down a bit and see how it sounds. Try lifting the snare microphone to about two inches with the mic head just over the back hoop of the drum. Now position it or tilt it that it sees the entire surface area of the snare drums batter head.

That's where I start and I then fine tune the position of the microphone from there.





Dennis

And where were you before I bought all those other mics! LOL. My kit is a a 5x14 snare, 2 9x13 mounted toms, a 16x16 floor tom, 20 x20 floor tom, and a 14x22 kick. Then I have 14 inch hats, (Sabian B8 Pros), 20" sabian ride, 18" Zidgian crash, 18" pasties crash, 10" sabian AAX splash, and 18" sabian B8 pro china. The drums are all round badge, (except the 20x20 which is Slingerland, and one of the 9x13 toms wich is round badge), and origianlly owned by my father. He bought the kit used (snare kick and mounted tom), in about 1961. Those pieces were made no later than mid 50's. He later added the 16x16 floor tom, it was made possibly as late as the early to mid 60's. I added the second mounted tom, and the 20x20 floor tom. I was looking for an 18" RB Gretesch floor tom, VERY hard to find. I got this Slingerland 20x20 because of the history around it. It was made in 1958, I got it from the second owner. He got it in 1965 at the age of 14. His dad was a bar tender, and did a lot of parties for a profesional drummer. This drummer came over and gave this 14 year old kid an hour lesson, and this 20x20 floor tom. Very generous of him, even though he got his drums for free from slingerland. You may have heard of him, his name was Gene Krupa! I am pretty sure he rolls over in his grave when I play this drum!
Anyway, I have mics on everything, except the 20x20, (some cymbals share mics using 4 mics for all the cymbals). For my purposes my set up is fine, but I am a little particular and would like it to be better. When I feel comfortable enough to post something on youtube, I will need to have it better, right now it does serve to allow me to hear what I sound like from the other side of the kit. I do find it helpful.

Audio tech, thank you very much for the helpful info!
will give it a try, and thanks for the mic suggestions!

audiotech said:

As for microphones that work well for snare drums. The Shure SM57, Audix I5, Shure Beta 57. These are my three go to microphones and of the three the I5 is probably the most robust with the head of the microphone being made of metal and not plastic like the SM57. If you're reading between the lines, they can take a good stick hit or two, lol. In real life they sound very close to one another with the Beta microphone having a bit more edgy upper mid range quality and higher output..

I would also check your mic placement because by placing a cardioid (directional) microphone too close to the snare's head, there could possibly be a proximity effect build-up which will cause the sound to have excess low frequency energy which, in most cases, will give the appearance of less high frequency response or high tone from your drum. If the low EQ control on that channel of your mixer is boosted, back it down a bit and see how it sounds. Try lifting the snare microphone to about two inches with the mic head just over the back hoop of the drum. Now position it or tilt it that it sees the entire surface area of the snare drums batter head.

That's where I start and I then fine tune the position of the microphone from there.

Dennis

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+1 on the SM57 for snare...and sweet looking HH pies you have there!

I really like the ATM 35. They are discontinued but show up on eBay periodically. Very small, they clip right to the rim and are not big and clumsy like the SM57 or other dynamics. They are condensers, however, and need phantom power.

The sound out of these small mikes is truly amazing and they can take very high SPLs.