Buying Drum Microphones for Home Recording

Spectator#1

Good idea, bad idea?

http://www.musicstore.de/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/MusicStore-MusicStoreShop-Site/en_EN/-/EUR/ViewProductDetail-Start;pgid=?SKU=DRU0010089-000&ProductUUID=0&JumpTo=OfferList

I don't have too much to play around with, but I want to get a set of drum mics for home recording, and the fact that there are two overheads included here is swinging me towards these guys. Has anyone used them? Any feedback/advice?

unclebill98

I'd not be a fan of budget mics...in the whole you get what you pay for thing. But if you gotta get some cheap mics then they should be ok. Don't expect to last long if they ever used live, but in the safety of a studio they should be ok.

Just remember that most mic's will only do a good job as long as the sound source if good. So as long as the kit is tuned right you should have little issues.

If its doable you could get a decent kick/snare mic and 2 overheads. Mess around with diff mic placements to get the best sound for the song. How many times does a drummer hit the snare/kick to warrent using the same priced mic on the toms????

Spectator#1

Thanks for replying. Good point, I'm always distrustful of those package deals, you can't imagine professionals going in for them, so it always seems that they're intended for amateurs like me who don't know too much about what they're doing.

Do mics like the SM57 and the D112 age well though? I was looking at some second-hand ones and I'd like to build up a high-quality (and second-hand if necessary) collection rather than get a set I'll want/need to replace in less than a year. A friend recommended what appears to be the standard mics for each, the two above mics for snare and kick respectively, and the AKG C1000 for overheads. Would you recommend anything else?

Also, should I be worried about micing hats seperately and what about the underside of the snare?

TelePaul

Spectator#1 wrote: »

Thanks for replying. Good point, I'm always distrustful of those package deals, you can't imagine professionals going in for them, so it always seems that they're intended for amateurs like me who don't know too much about what they're doing.

Do mics like the SM57 and the D112 age well though? I was looking at some second-hand ones and I'd like to build up a high-quality (and second-hand if necessary) collection rather than get a set I'll want/need to replace in less than a year. A friend recommended what appears to be the standard mics for each, the two above mics for snare and kick respectively, and the AKG C1000 for overheads. Would you recommend anything else?

Also, should I be worried about micing hats seperately and what about the underside of the snare?

Hey. The 57 is nigh-indestructable but be careful of knock-offs on e-bay. If you're on a budget, check out www.naiant.com for some high quality budget overheads, alot of engineers I know of are using and loving them. But as unclebill said, the quality of your drum sounds will depend alot on how your kit is tuned and the quality of your cymbals, as well as the room you're recording in.

I would be an advocate of using as few mics as possible as to avoid excessive bleed and phase issues. Generally, the hi-hat will be picked up enough with the snare and left overhead. If you're limited in the amount of tracks you can record to at once, the hi-hat is usually the first to be sacrificed. The 'recorder-man' method uses only three mics to record, so it's really all about how you place the mics.

As for the snare, good question. A really good snare sound is a mix of top-side and under-side micing, with the top sounding fat (or phat!) and the bottom offering more treble, which can sound harsh. It's all about how you mix the two sounds. However, you can definetely get away with one and EQ to taste.

Spectator#1

Yeah, I'm gonna put a good bit of time into tuning etc before we start recording.

The problem is; where we rehearse at the moment is very cold, and I think a little damp, so I haven't had a good opportunity to really get my teeth into experimenting with tuning. It looks like we'll be able to move into one of the guys sitting rooms for the first week in January while his parents are away, which is a nice, big sounding, reflective room, so I'll be able to give it a good bit of time in there, and hopefully record in there too.

I had a look at that site, looks good, might see about getting two overheads there and then sorting mysef out with a decent second-hand SM57 and a D112 for the bass drum. Thanks for all the advice guys, keep it coming, I'll never not need advice on this stuff!

TelePaul

Spectator#1 wrote: »

Yeah, I'm gonna put a good bit of time into tuning etc before we start recording.

The problem is; where we rehearse at the moment is very cold, and I think a little damp, so I haven't had a good opportunity to really get my teeth into experimenting with tuning. It looks like we'll be able to move into one of the guys sitting rooms for the first week in January while his parents are away, which is a nice, big sounding, reflective room, so I'll be able to give it a good bit of time in there, and hopefully record in there too.

I had a look at that site, looks good, might see about getting two overheads there and then sorting mysef out with a decent second-hand SM57 and a D112 for the bass drum. Thanks for all the advice guys, keep it coming, I'll never not need advice on this stuff!

Nice big reflective rooms can be good for drums, generally not much else. Bear that in mind if recording vocals or guitars.

unclebill98

SM57 are great all round mic's. I use them on snare's top & bottom. Also, there good for hats. Studio's use pencil mics for hats mainly due to having little room to get the mic close enough.

2x SM57 for snare bottom/top. Only do both if you find your not getting enough from the o/h

2x 1" condensers for overheads. Atleast they can double up for another use. I find the C1000's to be very thiny and not really much use for anything else other than acoustic guitar micing in a M-S mic setup. Either AKG C2000's/C3000's. They are good all rounder mics and if u then upgrade to better overheads they do make great mic's for toms.

For the kick I got a Senn e602. I am very happy with it. The AKG 112 and Shure Beta52 are roughly the same price and same spec. I do love the Shure Beta91 for the ultimate kick sound.

Start off with 2 o/h, 1 kick and 1 snare mic. See what sound you get and add on as you see fit from there. I have 4 E602's for the toms, don't get much use and there useless for anything else other than drums. So, always get mics with dual purpose in mind.

Don't forget the phase issue and drum tunings and you should be set. The naiants are good mics so +1 from me on them. Look at SE electronics/Rode, great mics.

jtsuited

those akg c1000's are really not very good. especially at drums. save your money and get rode NT5's. Pretty much sound exactly like neumann 184's. And I have A/B'd them on a drumkit.

Doctor J

The Audix Fusion set is very decent, well worth checking out.

Niall - Dahlia

The Fame mics would be a bad idea in my opinion. Buy quality mics and build up your collection piece by piece, otherwise you'll regret it in the long run. You get what you pay for, and it's true for any piece of audio equipment.

+1 on the NT5's though, they served me well when I was home recording, great as stereo overheads, versatile too; great for acoustic guitar, hi-hat, even on the beater side of a kick for the "click". I find the C1000s ok for acoustic guitar if there's nothing else to use, but I wouldn't rate them on overheads.

Go the second hand route for 57's and D112's, preferably from somebody you can meet, like on adverts.ie. Don't buy 57's off eBay unless you are 100% positive of the sellers reliability, you wouldn't believe how many counterfeit mics Shure get eBay to pull from sale every day. SM57 and D112 are dynamics, reliable and sturdy, they're not delicate like condensers, so it's viable to buy them 2nd hand without too much worry.

You can never have enough 57's floating about. Top and bottom snare, nice for toms aswell. 2 is enough to get you started, on the snare, let the overhead(s) take the toms. D112 is reliable, decent on a bass amp too. Audix D6 is better in my opinion, but a bit pricier. D112 is a standard kick drum mic though so you're in good company and won't go far wrong with it.

If you get a large diapham condenser (something like the Rode NT1/2A or SE2200) you can maybe save yourself some cash and go with mono overhead. If you position it carefully you can still get a nice overall image of the drums/cybols and you won't have to worry about phasing. Plus, in the future when you do have a pair of condensers for stereo overheads you can use the LDC as a room mic.

So my advice would be 2 57's, a D112 and a LDC. Stereo is for noobs!

Buy smart and plan for the future!

Soundman

unclebill98 wrote: »

I have 4 E602's for the toms, don't get much use and there useless for anything else other than drums. So, always get mics with dual purpose in mind.

Do you mean e604's by any chance? They are great on loads of other things such as vocals, brass, guitars or anything really, if you are referring to them. Can give a nice effect compared to normal mics you would use due to the nature of their frequency response.

unclebill98

Soundman wrote: »

Do you mean e604's by any chance? They are great on loads of other things such as vocals, brass, guitars or anything really, if you are referring to them. Can give a nice effect compared to normal mics you would use due to the nature of their frequency response.

Doh! Yeah, e604's. Oh the shame! I've not used them on anything else really. I use 414's for brass/vocal/guitar app's. Still they smell nice and new

Maybe I'll dust the box off and give them a try out and see what happens

teamdresch

99% of the time I don't mic under snare or hihats.
In fact, if I've got a limited number of mics then under snare and hats would be last on the list of places I'd put them.

Spectator#1

Nice one for all the help guys, I ended up digging deeper into my pockets and splashing out on a new D112 and two SE1As, the sm57 is on it's way too, should be set for recording now. I'm sure I'll have more questions, so you haven't seen the back of me in this forum yet!

Ronan