Non guitar- Drum mic's

Anyone who plays drums or knows what their bands drummer uses, what mic's do you use? I need good set of about 12. Any suggestions?

Do a search on the Canadian Musician Magazine website. They have regular columns written by respected percussionists and soundmen. Somewhere in the back issues and archives you should find what you need. They offer a lot of good info on every aspect of making music with all kinds of instruments, including the business decisions that go into building a successful career. Enjoy! :)

a set of 12 ?!

wow, that's a lot :)

im wondering...do you need them to mic your drums live or in the studio ?

i'm the sound engineer for two small clubs (mostly hardcore and metal bands), and i never used 12 mics on a drum kit :) now...i prolly would if we had that many good mics :) hehe ok ill tell you what i do...i believe this is pretty standard :

snare drum / toms : shure sm 57s ... i guess most people use those ... i mic from the top and try to point the mic as close to the rim as possible, since it gives a more ringin snappy sound...now for the tomes i try point the mic closer to the center of the tom the lower the tom gets...(that make sense?)

some people use the old sennheiser 421 for toms, i never did that...

the good thing about the sm 57 is...you can use it really well to mic guitar speakers as well...standard choice

bass drum: akg d 112 ... nice and fat sounding ... if you have a hole in your resonance skin (is that the right word) then experiment with different positions scootin it back and forth...the nearer you get to the beater pad...the kickier...the nearer to the resonance skin the boomier...if you want to hear the attack of the beater, you should have a hole, if you want a soft warm tone without a lot of attack, you could also mic the resonance skin (i never do that)

now this is a matter of personal preference but i often use the shure sm 57 on bass drums, since it gives you a really neat "ticking" sound (think pantera) plus it doesnt feedback easily, which is sometimes a problem with mics inside the bass drum

for overhead mics i sometimes use akg c 1000s which are alright...might wanna check out different c o n d e n s e r mics...however in small clubs i almost never use overhead mics because those cymbals are always loud enough :) i put up overhead mics so the drummers are happy, but i always switch em off on the mixing desk :) now dont tell anyone...btw a lot of people say if you use overhead mics, you should put a lo pass on those channels...i dont think this is true all the time, since they also get a lot of signal from the toms and the snare...which then sound "thinner" ... depends on what kinda sound you want.

for hihats ... theres special mics, mostly condenser...however i never use them not even on big stages, since i find that the hihat sorta takes care of itself...its pretty loud and tends to bleed in all other microphones, at least snare and higher toms...its prolly different if you do some serious recording...but for live i think you can save a few bucks here

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make sure that you get tom and snare clamps for those mics, you can adjust the angle of the mic to your liking, screw it tight, then remember where you put em on your shells and youll get the same mic position every time...plus theres not so many mic stands that are always in the way :)

hope this helped some if you got any questions go ahead

ike

I was thinking of Shure, but they are pretty expensive, i need it both for live and recording. Thanks alot for the advice both of you :)

Hey, SuperCoolSlides suggestions are great, especially for live stuff. He gave a great list of durable gear that will get the drum sound to ring through well.

Coming from a more recording-oriented stance I'm gonna have to differ on a couple of his suggestions. Either way you go (live or studio) I've found that I prefer a Beta 52 over a D112 for an all-around rock sound. The Audix D6 sounds like it kicks EVERYONE's ass at being a heavy-sounding rocking bass drum mic. For toms, 57s are great to catch the snap of the stick but they leave something to be desired in the nice full bassy sound of some toms. I suggest getting a nice pair of condenser overheads (MXL 603s for $169 a matched pair!?!?) to make up for the 57's lacking upper bass range. You can completely bypass this step and get the absurdly rad-sounding Sennhieser e604s at $300 for a three pack. They sound like condensers and stand up to a lot of banging. Always 57s on the snare, but try a condenser in there too and see what cool sounds you can get, maybe place one pointing right at the side of the snare (the shell). Make sure you spend ample time figuring out phase-correlation when recording, it will save you a ton of EQ headaches later. I suggest adhering to the 3:1 rule.

never tried out the beta 52 ---

audix hm i think we dont even get those here in germany :)

hey wired, miking the side of the snare sounds like an interesing idea i´ll try that sometime :D

about the snappy stick sound for the sm57s on toms...thats exactly the sound i prefer most of the time...its a matter of preference i guess :)

hey suffer, if those shure mics are to high-priced for you, theres lots of copies out there...but unfortunately i cannot really tell you which ones are great and which ones arent...

if you find a cool music store, try renting some mics to check them out ... might spend a couple of bucks for rental fees (5-10 $ per mic/day around here), but its a lot cheaper than spending gazillions of dollars on mics and then discovering that they are not at all what you were looking for ...

Yeah man, everyone I've talked to is just ****ting their pants over the Audix D6. It's apparently supposed to have a killer bottom end with a good 'click' anywhere you place it. That leads me to believe it's a heavily EQ'd mic, I don't know how good it sounds personally.

... 3:1 rule???

Yeah, the 3:1 rule simply states that if you have two mics picking up the same source, place them apart at least three times as far as the mics are to teh source itself. This helps prevent phase cancellation and a nasty reduction in the thickness of your sound. It's ultra ultra ultra-important to have proper phase alignment between multiple mics on guitar amp miking because you'll lose all that fat low-end beef if things aren't set up right.

ok i checked...we do get audix mics here in germany...so one of these days im gonna rent an audix d6 and see what it's like :D

by the way...i remembered that i got a really really great kick drum sound when i used a pzm mic...i cant remember which one i guess it must have been the shure beta 91... but i'm not shure..ehm sure ;)

anyways it had a really punchy, full sound...almost sounded as if it had a built-in compressor, which it didn't of course...

speaking of compressors...i always use them on bass drums...if you set them right, they can do wonders...especially when you have lets say metal drummers, who nearly always tend to play "softer" when they play lots of double-bass at higher speeds ... and then when they go into a "normal" bass drum pattern they kick the pedal a lot harder :)

plus most compressors have noise gates, which can help make the sound tighter, too

If you are doing it on a budget I have known people to get a really good drum sound with two SM57s.

Point one at the kick drum about 4 ft back and suspend the other over it (as an overhead) pointing at the drummers head. Move 'em around a bit to get the best sound you can and off you go.

Thanks alot, everyone for the good advice and suggestions. :) Gave me a bit more options to look at.

Originally posted by Dr_simon
If you are doing it on a budget I have known people to get a really good drum sound with two SM57s.

Point one at the kick drum about 4 ft back and suspend the other over it (as an overhead) pointing at the drummers head. Move 'em around a bit to get the best sound you can and off you go.

its always possible to get a cool roomy drum sound with just a couple of mics...but i doubt this approach would work in a live situation ... especially the one sm 57 thats 4 ft away would prolly be in the way and i doubt it would pick up any kick drum attack ...

I wouldn't of posted it if it didn't !

As for live sounds, well we never used to mic the kit unless we went well above the 1K PA we used to gig with. Once you are doing that well it is usually the venues problem as the PA will be in house.

Just ask your drummer to used the backs of their sticks if you need extra volume !

I use the other end of one of my sticks,i play crosshanded so the one i hit the snare with.

Me 2 however as I’m playing a Yamaha DTExpress II kit at the moment I usually just turn the fader up !

The cymbals are way too compressed however it is a lot better than nothing and I don't have to do a separate sub mix to two inputs !

My cymbals are insane on recordings, sounds like im hitting trash can tops. Thats why im looking for quality mic's, good condensiers.

I would literally spend an hour setting up the kit before i would record the track with my old band. Tt drove everyone crazy, but i cant stand when it sounds like crap.