Affordable and appropriate micing for cover gigs

M

MattM

Junior Member
Hello all, love this forum!

I have some cover gigs coming up and wanted to know what you all think about micing drums for this type of gig and maybe some affordable recommendations? I always find that bands sound a lot better when the drums are mic'd, and being the drummer of course I would love to hear them that way. :)

note: these are bar gigs that usually have a decent PA and sound person.
 
For something like this, just go to the store and get the most decent set of drum mics you're able to afford. You can tweak a lot of things for live sound so it doesn't matter all that much. If you're really un-happy afterwards, you can just buy individual replacements to the mic that you don't like as much as the others.
 
Thanks for the fast reply. Do most bar bands mic the drums? Do people generally mic all the drums or can you get buy with just a couple overheads and a bass mic?
 
Years ago, when Gary Chaffee published The New Breed, he states in his book that he advocates drummers owning small PA systems for their drums so they can keep up with their band mates. The idea is sound reinforcement, not so much to blast over the others guys in the band. Hard to believe, but alot of our nuances just get lost when you play with a relatively loud band. I've done this and he's right. I play better when I can mic myself up, because then I'm not slamming so hard and out of control.

That said, I've gone into small clubs with just a bass drum mic (I'd lay a Shure SM58 inside on top of my muffling blanket), and if I wasn't singing, I'd put up one pencil condenser mic and give those two lines to the sound guy (or just run my own PA). Obviously, if I have more time and space, I'd plug in more, but lots of times you don't have to. If I add my vocal mic to these two, I get very good coverage of the entire kit and its sufficient. I would start with just the two mics to get started, maybe a snare drum mic if you felt it necessary, but I've found that with a good overhead, a snare mic isn't that necessary.

But what's important is what you plug into. If the house already has it's own system, they might already have their own mics too. If they have nothing, you need your own PA, and you absolutely can't skimp on a good console with good mic pre-amps and EQ circuitry. So that's where most of your money will go - the system!
 
Great post, Bo.

Bo Eder said:
That said, I've gone into small clubs with just a bass drum mic (I'd lay a Shure SM58 inside on top of my muffling blanket), and if I wasn't singing, I'd put up one pencil condenser mic and give those two lines to the sound guy (or just run my own PA). Obviously, if I have more time and space, I'd plug in more, but lots of times you don't have to. If I add my vocal mic to these two, I get very good coverage of the entire kit and its sufficient.
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Where did you put your vocal mic to get this coverage?

My singer has a mic for the bass drum, and I have a 57 beta and a 58 - possibly two. I could probably get a condenser mic before Sat. Would I be in decent shape with this? Where would you suggest I place the 57 and 58? Also, my singer has a great PA system, but do I need my own mixer? Sorry if my questions are naive, I've never done any mic'ing. I'm basically wondering what I can do on tiny budget for this upcoming gig - with what I already have and maybe one mic purchase - to make it sound better. Eventually I'll buy one of those mic sets, I suppose. But even with that, do I need a mixer?

Thanks for your help
 
MattM said:
Great post, Bo.



Where did you put your vocal mic to get this coverage?

My singer has a mic for the bass drum, and I have a 57 beta and a 58 - possibly two. I could probably get a condenser mic before Sat. Would I be in decent shape with this? Where would you suggest I place the 57 and 58? Also, my singer has a great PA system, but do I need my own mixer? Sorry if my questions are naive, I've never done any mic'ing. I'm basically wondering what I can do on tiny budget for this upcoming gig - with what I already have and maybe one mic purchase - to make it sound better. Eventually I'll buy one of those mic sets, I suppose. But even with that, do I need a mixer?

Thanks for your help
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You're good to go with what you have there. I'd take the 58 and lay it down on your muffling pad pointing at the head, and just put the 57 on a boom stand overhead (I usually do two drumstick lengths above the snare - that usually allows it to pick up everything). When I sing, if I don't use a headworn mic, I have another SM58 on a boom stand coming from over my hi-hat, and when I'm not singing, that mic picks up everything else.

The fun stuff happens when you actually start EQ-ing the mics and giving them power to reinforce your sound. Remember, it won't be perfect, it'll be reinforced a bit. If you want perfect, then that means you're doing a soundcheck and there's a soundperson and all that. Which means you showed up four hours before the gig starts, and you have to balance that out with how much $$$ you're making on this gig ;)
 
I regularly mic up my kit for larger cover gigs. I've experimented a good deal but I now close mic all of the drums and leave the cympals to their own devices. My vocal mic and spill into the tom and snare mics plus the cut of the cymbals does the rest. I would always advocate mic'ing the bass drum, even if you don't mic anything else, it just needs that little buit of reinforcement. There aren't enough channels on the main desk, so I have my own little mixer from which I then send a stereo feed to the main desk so I control of my mix, which I monitor though my in-ears with my vocal, while the final outfront mix is delt with by our engineer. Nothing i have is terribly expensive, but it all works and I've had loads of compliments about my sound. The Mic's are a superlux full kit set I bought some time ago and the mixer is an inexpensive behringer. The most expensive bit of kit for the mics etc that I have are the beyerdynamic mic clips I bought!
 
I play bar gigs and we bring our own sound system so I am responsible for micing my own kit. I have this set of Digital Reference DRDK7 7-Piece drum mics. They sell for $199. It has 4 clip on snare/tom mics that perform like sm57's, and 1 larger "looking" bass drum mic that I am pretty sure is same mic as the tom/snare mics. It has two condensers which I never use. The mic clips are worth the price alone, because they work great on triple flanged hoops and diecast hoops alike, I have never had a problem with them, and I don't need any mic stands, except for the kick.

It sounds good enough for what i'm doing. The kick takes some eq to roll off some of the highs, but the mics are good and have no problem with the SPL's of drums. We even use one of the tom mics to mic a bass cab and it works fine for that too.

They come in handy on club gigs too, for some reason if you play at texas country music bars they have huge sound systems and nice stages, but the band is responsible for mics and mic stands.

I would recommend the digital reference pack it will get you started, if you have some extra money down the line spring for a nicer kick mic. I am thinking about getting an audix d6 or a shure beta 52a at some point. We don't bring subwoofers anyways so it might be pointless for me to spend all that money on a kick mic.
 
Toolate said:
Whats the point of the mic pre before the board?
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I don't think anybody is suggesting outboard mic pre's for live sound. People will use a nice avalon pre or ssl pre in the studio, on kick, snare, maybe overheads but it's not needed live, any advantage you would get will not be heard in the mix of a live band.

If you have a decent board with nice pre-amps and eq built in it will sound better.
 
Hi
In small clubs with no PA system provided....I typically use one overhead and bass drum mic. Denis
 
3rd paragraph of Bo's 1st post he mentions them but I think he was talking about a decent board with them built in- not external. Rookie with all this....
 
Toolate said:
3rd paragraph of Bo's 1st post he mentions them but I think he was talking about a decent board with them built in- not external. Rookie with all this....
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Yes. You need a decent console with good built in mic pre amps. At least Mackie VLZ. Avoid Behringer and Samson and just save up for a good one.
 
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