basic whole kit micing

Drumquest2

Senior Member
At present, just using bass drum mic (the most important!), and would like advice about ]basic miking the rest of the kit. I know microphone techniques can be sophisticated and complicated and obviously they produce a superior sound; however, all I want to do is basically project the rest of the kit, i.e.snare, 4 toms, 2 timbalitos +cymbals* over and above acoustic volume and the' pick up' from the band's vocal mics.

I already have a mixer to cope with the extra mic channels and want to use the least time consuming and basic mic set up to achieve the above.

*( apart from snare, all off a rack).
 
There are many good threads here that discuss mic'ing techniques from basic to advanced. Try the search function and you'll find several threads.

For a basic sound reinforcement set up you could simply add a mic for your snare and an overhead mic (centered) for an overall capture that would include your toms and cymbals. Depending upon your stage set up and how much an overhead might capture guitar cabs or vocal bleed from the PA, this simple 3 mic set up will get you started and heard through the PA. If the toms end up sounding weak and turning up the overhead mic causes too much of an imbalance between your cymbals and toms (or unwanted instruments are bleeding into the overhead) then you will probably need to close mic all the drums.
 
There are so many to choose from.

What's your budget on an overhead?

You can get decent results from a $50-$100 mic like an MXL.

Personally I like the Shure SM81 but they are pricier.

As with so many things in life, you get what you pay for.
 
Is there a mic stand for the SM81 that clamps onto the rack crossbar? ( I don't want more floor stands!).

Personally I would stay away from mounting the microphones from the rack. There is just too much mechanical transmission of noise though the rack and into the microphone. If you can get a good iso mount for the microphone, it will be a slight improvement from directly coupling the microphone onto the rack. Every microphone on my kits are isolated from the drum kit or cymbal stands to keep unnecessary noise from entering the audio chain.

Dennis
 
That thread actually teach me a lot about mics! i was on the net looking for bundles, but I read 2 overhead+snare+bassdrums were the best.. Where do you put em overheads when you have two?? More at the front? overhead? rear? And nowhere I could find what happens when you mic cymbals.. where to place them? I think I never seen anyone use that either.
 
Re: basic whole kit miking

That thread actually teach me a lot about mics! i was on the net looking for bundles, but I read 2 overhead+snare+bass drums were the best.. Where do you put em overheads when you have two?? More at the front? overhead? rear? And nowhere I could find what happens when you mic cymbals.. where to place them? I think I never seen anyone use that either.

There's no secrets here, each and every situation is somewhat different. Just keep in mind the polar pattern of the microphones that you use, that's the global area around the microphone where it picks up the most amount of sound. The closer you position that area of the mic the louder that area of the drum set becomes. It's all a balancing act depending on the amount of microphones you use. For overheads it depends if you want a mono or stereo feed and also has a lot to do with the width of the drum kit. If you are setting up microphones for a small kit of three or four pieces, a single overhead will work if you're not going for a stereo separation. When you start adding to the kit and the width of the kit gets to be wider, I would go with two OHs just to keep the integrity of the balance of the kit. I usually use two overhead microphones as a stereo pair left and right of the inner kit. The positioning of these vary with the type of room, the microphones and exactly what you want to hear from the kit, more cymbals or less. If you want less, move the OH microphone(s) back towards the rear of the kit and lower them a bit. If you want more cymbals in your mix, position them to more above the cymbals and raise them in height above your drums. This is something you really have to experiment with, because no two scenarios are exactly the same and just moving a microphone an inch can make an appreciable difference in the sound pick-up.

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Dennis
 
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