He has mixed and/or produced records for At The Drive-in, Coheed and Cambria, Sparta, As Tall as Lions, Davenport Cabinet, Quiet Company and hundreds of other bands over his 26+-year career. If placed correctly, the overheads will capture the entire drum kit, in phase and with the same basic frequency balance and tone.Be aware that even if you plan to use a substantial amount of the close-mics in your drum mix, you still have to get the overhead placement right. The CVO is an overhead condenser mic … Our experts offer industry-proven tips and tricks to help you get the most from your gear. To achieve a balance requires thinking about how the overheads will bisect the drum kit left to right, front to back, or top to bottom.You need to consider the drum kit in all three dimensions to exploit the available choices. I prefer to create a new "audio center" that is offset from the physical center of the drum kit. Really. For the music lover who has (almost everything). If you thought the last choir microphone had enough letters in the name, think again. As you might expect, the balance changes dramatically as you move the mics from front to back. The drum kit can be split right down the middle, as shown in Figure 1. The up and down adjustment can be used for several critical effects: MIKE MAJOR is a mixer/producer/recording engineer from Madeira Beach, FL. You want it all to match. If microphones … Naturally the image gets wider. I have also observed that most right-handed drummers have more "stuff" on the left side of the kit (as you're facing it); so this offset creates a better balance left to right and makes for a more interesting stereo image.The biggest drawback to this approach is that the hi-hat and right side crashes end up having much less distance to travel to the OH mic than anything does on the left side. The panning that exists naturally in the overheads guides you as to where to pan your close-mics. From lecture halls to houses of worship to performance venues, SLX-D delivers transparent, 24-bit digital audio and rock-solid RF performance with easy setup and rechargeability options in a suite of versatile wireless system configurations. The kick may end up with a bit of a bias to the left side but it does not create the same problem that the snare can create. There should be but one drum sound, not a collection of mics that are mixed together. The distance of the OH mics from the snare makes this fairly easy since the polar pattern continues to widen as it gets farther from the mic capsule. November 19, 2020, Gemma Stenberg | When it matches, the stereo image remains solid, no matter what you do. If you break it down (and you should), it's a wonder that you can ever get all of the mics to work together harmoniously. Whether you’re a content creator, musician, or simply just love listening to music we have you covered. Naturally, if this were the case, you would have to abandon your X/Y or ORTF pair. Musicians like Adam Levine trust Shure both on stage and in the studio. The snare is so important to the drum sound that it should be captured by the sweet spot of the mic whenever possible. Do Not Sell My Info (California Residents). A company we have yet to see on our list is Shure. I like to keep the snare as much on-axis as possible even while aiming for the rest of the kit. Position the microphones seven to eight feet above the floor, to allow people to walk under them. The two components, near and far, are in agreement.You should try to make sure that everything still makes sense in the new, modified stereo image, including the toms and cymbals. November 25, 2020, Marc Henshall | The center-panned snare mic is obvious and definite, but the overheads will try to pull the snare more to the right. November 22, 2013, Shure Incorporated | You can, however, measure the distances from the snare to each overhead mic to ensure that the time arrival of the snare is the same in each overhead mic. Today, Davida is a Corporate Public Relations Manager, responsible for public relations activities, sponsorships, and donation programs that intersect with Shure at the corporate and industry level. Copyright © 2009-2020 Shure Incorporated. But you can. What you want to be "on-axis" is dependent on what you choose as the focal point for the overhead mics.If you are looking for a more cymbal-centric overhead balance, the cymbals will be the on-axis focal point, as shown in Figure 3. Even if you go so far as to filter all of the lower frequencies from your overheads (a common practice for some), there will still be noticeable interactions with the close mics. It takes awareness and understanding of how the sound propagates from the drum and out through the room, and how the mics respond to that phenomenon. In a perfect world you should try to get the kick as centered as possible, but centering the snare is crucial. He recently wrote the book Recording Drums: The Complete Guide (excerpted for this blog post), available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Guitar Center and most online book retailers.You can hear some of Mike's work and connect with him via his website:www.mikemajormix.com or connect via Facebook or Twitter.