Pictures of Mic Technique - drums

[Motterpaul]

I just had this idea for a thread - post pictures of your fave mic technique for various drums... I suggest we post both good and bad...

I will start with the snare. There are many technique for snare. My preference when possible is to use just one mic but to try to get the wood, and the snares. I get this but NOT drilling down on the snare head, but pulling it back somewhat to get some snare sound.

To me, this is bad - you get the sound of hitting rubber bucket bottom, no snap or snare sound at all. I love this image, a guy trying to get a great snare sound, but (assuming he is only using one mic) will not get much snare sound at all.

This is the better method for me - you get some of the snare sound from the bottom head (you may not even need a bottom mic)

Then, of course, there is the two-mic method: usually the bottom is put out of phase, but this should only be done if it truly sounds better that way when you listen to the full set.

 

[loudboy]

If you don't have the time/tracks/mics/etc. you can take a sample of the bottom snare, and use Drumagog to lay it in later.

Works well, w/no bleed from the rest of the set...

 

[hellbender]

It helps to understand how a mic is designed to work and things like off axis rejection, phase and such when opening this can of worms.

 

[ItsaRat!]

The top "method" was someone's mic comparison method IIRC (SOS?).

 

[hellbender]

It's not difficult to capture all the sound of drum, like a snare with one maybe two mics. Pretty straightforward. It's trimming the bush afterwards to get the actual drum sound separate from all the other noise.

The off axis rejection characteristics that are built into the mic help in this respect. But it is incumbent on the engineer to identify and sequester the frequency range of the drum where the energy is and whack off all the fuzz around it.

There is only so much room in the mix for everything and if amongst the finely manicured, tightly controlled instruments sits this big unkempt snare sound, it's just all for naught.

 

[Motterpaul]

Yeah, the top is from SOS. The picture is for comic relief more than anything, not a serious mic placement for recording.

hellbender, as enticing as you make the snare sound, in my opinion a lot of snares I hear lately are a little TOO trimmed. I like it to sound like a snare, like in this video



But lately I have been hearing more snares that sound like this:

 

[speedemon]

Yeah, the top is from SOS. The picture is for comic relief more than anything, not a serious mic placement for recording.

hellbender, as enticing as you make the snare sound, in my opinion a lot of snares I hear lately are a little TOO trimmed. I like it to sound like a snare, like in this video



But lately I have been hearing more snares that sound like this:

I like the Smithereens snare too, but it is from the 80s, like me! lol Current snare goes "clang", thats what the kids want now.
Actually, I like how it is recorded as a whole, though its not what I listen to.