THE DRUM MICROPHONE / MICROPHONES THREAD

Re: Microphones

Shure offers a quality drum mic set. I have the four piece set, but they offer a complete 6 piece set with 4 drum mics (1 bass drum - 3 snare/tom) and 2 condenser mics for cymbals, which should be more than enough for cymbals since being that a lot of cymbals wind up bleeding thru the vocal mics. I really need one more mic for my floor tom, but our board is pretty much maxed out anyways, so I'm making do for now. As far as quality, I think they are great.
 
Re: Microphones

I can probably have you something in a couple of weeks, we just purchased a Yamaha AW-2816 recorder. I'll send you a demo once we figure out how to use the thing. This sucker has one heck of a learning curve attached to it.
 
Re: Microphones

I have the SHURE 4-piece kit as well. I like it lot for my 6 piece. I use 1 on the snare, 1 between my 2 floor toms, 1 between my rack toms, and of course that beautiful kick drum mike. It's awesome. Haven't recorded seriously with the mikes, but they are awesome live. If I had the cash, I get individual mikes for each tom.
For overheads, I have 2 SHURE SM-57s, but only use them in larger settings or when we play outside. Inside small bars, my cymbals are loud enough.

Oh, BTW, if you have something like a floating-tom system (a la Ludwig's Vibraband), the clips included in the SHURE pack are a pain.

Good luck.

J
 
Re: Microphones

Here's what you could get if you decide to go with seperate mics instead of a kit:

Samson Q-kick bass mic

Nady cm-88 condensors (for overheads and hi-hat)

The venerable SM57 (or equivelent) for everything else.

These are all very inexpensive microphones, but they will serve their purpose well.

Are you needing a mixer as well? And if you already have a mixer, how many inputs can you use? I'm sure you already know that condesor mics require phantom power.

I have made recordings using only the Samson and two Nady's, and it sounded good, albeit very acoustic jazzy-sounding. For more punchy stuff you should close mic your kit.
 
Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

I didnt really know where to post this thread so sorry if its in the wrong place. But basically ive got a live gig coming up in where in need to mic my drums and ive never doen it before. i was wondering if anyone with experience could help me with this.

My kit is a 10,12,14,16,20 yamaha stage custom advantage. i have zildjian zxt cymbals 14 hats, 16 crash, and 20 ride. zildjian a splash 10" and a 20" sabian paragon crash.

i really need this help soon cos the gig is on the 21st march.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

Yea, we need more detail to help with this.
How many mic's do you have and what kind are they? How many channels on the mixer are available for your drums? Then we can talk room size and shape, etc..
Some gig's I just mic the kick, snare, and one overhead, bigger gig's I have a mic for all the tom's, kick, snare, hi-hat, ride, 2 overheads, and sometimes we use another mic up high and about 3 feet in front of the kit for a ambiant addition to the mix.
Usually just micing the kick, snare, and an overhead works very well.
Hope this gives you some ideas on where to start anyway.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

Yes more info please.

Here is the heirarchy of how I like to mic things (most important stuff first), all depending on available inputs for that gig and size of band, and all that stuff.

1 - Bass Drum mic. I've used just a bass drum mic more than any other microphone setup.

(adding mics)

2 - snare drum mic, positioned between hats and snare to pick up both

2b - one mic on snare and one mic near the hi hats (or as an overhead, see #3)

This is also a very common configuration for me with kick and snare/hats mic. Many times though, my gigs are small and the hat and snare needs little help.

3 - a single over head microphone is added to pickup toms and cymbals and ambiance of the kit. Note for small gigs (like jazz trios) this is sometimes the first setup (and only).

4 - two overheads

5 - big loud gigs, close mic on each tom tom. For my old gig that meant a lot of mics, a lot of cables and a lot of channels. Sometime it takes longer to set up mics than it does drums!
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

Stu is on top of his game here. Without knowing size of the venue, indoor, outdoor, your own P.A., who's running sound, keeping it as simple as you can is the best way to go if no one knows what they're doing.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

I may have to disagree with Stu about the primacy of overheads on some gigs. I engineered on a gig for a friend last night for which we just used close mics - IMHO, most rock bands end up with way too much of the cymbals in the mix half the time anyway, so unless the room is fairly large overheads are often pretty inessential.

We ran last night with four microphones on the drums - one microphone each on the bass drum, snare and floor tom and one mic between the two mounted rack toms. The sound was actually pretty nice, all up. If the room had been larger then overheads might have been a good thing, but they have a nasty tendency to pick up all the foldback and other ambient stage noise and muddy things up.

In order to get a nice overhead sound you typically need condenser mics, and having two condensers sitting fairly wide open on stage when they're not 100% needed is not really best practice IMHO.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

finnhiggins said:
I may have to disagree with Stu about the primacy of overheads on some gigs.

I have overhead usage pretty late in the primacy department. I'm not sure what the disagreement is?

I would suggest close micing on all toms as a last resort. Not for sound quality issues, just for logistical reasons. I find it much easier, and passable to run an "area" mic overhead for most gigs, before considering close micing.

Mind you, I love close mic'd drums the most. Just some gigs don't call for it (or most gigs, I would surmise).
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

I dont like overheads to hard to control feedback. I just use 1 kick, 1 snare, one between my rack toms 1 on my floortom. The hats and cymbals bleed through enough.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

Ok, I see where the overhead complaints are coming from.

Maybe not the best choice for loud/rock music, but great for accoustic/jazz/lighter music.

Yes they do pick up too much cymbal for loud music. But for lighter accoustic music, I prefer a single overhead for overall ambiance over individual close mics.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

Stu_Strib said:
I have overhead usage pretty late in the primacy department. I'm not sure what the disagreement is?

I would suggest close micing on all toms as a last resort. Not for sound quality issues, just for logistical reasons. I find it much easier, and passable to run an "area" mic overhead for most gigs, before considering close micing.

Mind you, I love close mic'd drums the most. Just some gigs don't call for it (or most gigs, I would surmise).

My primacy argument was really with you having overheads before close-micing the toms. That's great in a jazz context where the stage volume is pretty low, but for most rock/pop gigs I'd go close-miked long before I put overheads in. Cymbals carry just fine acoustically for the most part anyway.

I'd tend to add mics in this order, for a 5pc:

1) Bass drum
2) Snare drum
3) Floor tom
4) Mounted toms (one mic between two)
5) Mounted toms (one mic per drum)
6) Single overhead
7) Stereo overheads
8) Hi-hat mic. Not that I use this much.

I don't actually like hi-hat mics at all. I worked with a very good engineer once who basically told me that he only puts a mic on the hi-hat because if he doesn't then the drummers always go "Why aren't you miking my hats, man?". Generally speaking hats have plenty of cut and show up just fine anyway. I've not seen many drummers where their hats seem acoustically quiet from out front of the kit - generally it's the opposite, to be honest.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

With toms I have always seen it as all or nothing. It don't think it makes since to just mic one tom. That would sound mighty strange (dum dum DUM) I would either mic all toms, or mic no toms. The one mic for two side my side toms I think is a good way to go if mic's are limited.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

Dannar said:
With toms I have always seen it as all or nothing. It don't think it makes since to just mic one tom. That would sound mighty strange (dum dum DUM) I would either mic all toms, or mic no toms. The one mic for two side my side toms I think is a good way to go if mic's are limited.

The only reason I would run a kick/snare/floortom rig would be just to help the low end carry from the floor tom out into the audience. You don't turn it up loud, you just give it a nice tight EQ so that you're just hearing the bass and mix it nice and low. Otherwise I tend to find you the the opposite to what you're describing through a mix: DUM Dum dum.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

There are all kinds of ways to mic stuff up for all kinds of different gigs. I was just trying to supply a common sense approach to achieving a good sound with progressively more gear. I.E., what is the most important sequence if you were to add one piece at a time. As usual with everything drumming, it is a tradeoff, and you have to find what is acceptible to you. Unfortunately, the venue and sound guy for that event will probably have more say than yourself. I usually try to get as much stuff as I can, because I think drum sound is very important, but not every "engineer" sees it that way.

finnhiggins said:
My primacy argument was really with you having overheads before close-micing the toms. That's great in a jazz context where the stage volume is pretty low, b

Which is what I thought I said. Sorry if it weren't read that way.

My sequence was more of a logical, adding gear one piece at a time, as in if he added one mic at a time, what would he add. For me, close tom micing is always last (except for big loud gigs, like I said) because of the logistics.

A single overhead is fine (and maybe even better) for softer events.

As far as the Bass drum, snare drum and hi-hat mic in 2b, that is just to emphasis the importantness of those three elements of a kit. They are the three most used, so why not be the first to be micd, if you are on a mic budget, or not enough inputs?

I don't like "close" micing of hi-hats, but a nice condensor mic over in that area acts more like an over head for the hats and percussion elements (mostly the tamborine) I mount over there. I wouldn't use a mic hat on a simple 4 piece setup, rather a mic pointed at both the hat and the snare (losing seperation capabilities, but easier logistics).

If you are going to close mic toms, I really dislike putting one between two toms, because then you lose the ability to control the output level and mix it with the other mics.

As far as no overheads because the cymbals bleed through the other mics misses the point. First of all, high quality directional close tom mics pick up very little cymbal. Secondly, if you overhead the kit, you can adjust the overall ambiance of the kit, and have enough control and seperation for the cymbals that you can mix the cymbal volume in wiht the other instruments. This is why I don't like an "area" mic on toms, because you don't have the separation capability.
 
Re: Micing up a drum kit for live performace.

hey. tahnks for all the info, the site, and stu were very helpfull. sadly im not sure what mics they are as the place where the gig is giving them to us for the gig. but thanks anyway. if i get more info ill post it. for now its a relatively small close cieling room. like a small pub.
cheers!
chris
 
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