The trickiest part of this tricky instrument is the overheads. There are few customers who have complained about the low-quality of the speaker that often causes distortion in case of high beats. There is a lot of common ground between recording and live sound but there’s a great deal that’s different. Thestepkidsband.com - All Right Reserved - Copyright © 2020. George Massenburg agrees: “Most engineers put the overheads in exactly the wrong place. Many young engineers, and some old engineers too, think that stereo miking of a set starts with mics left and right over the cymbal positions. Professional drummers who have used this mic have given five stars to this product as it provides both high and low ends without any distortion. This classic microphone is made up of high-quality material that ensures its long-term durability and working capacity. Whereas, some users think that this microphone is a bit heavy in weight due to which it is less suitable for on-stage use. Drummers who have used this miniature mic believe that it best suits the guitar as it avoids any harshness and provides the accurate sound. If you want to know how changes to your mic placement or polar pattern affects the SRA of the array we recommend using Neumann’s FREE Recording Tools App. Because of its high-quality sound production, this mic is considered as one of the best overhead drum mics. It’s natural to favour symmetry, we’re hardwired to like it. Stereo capture uses an array of mics (usually a pair) placed in a specific arrangement to create a convincing reproduction of the left to right placement of sources around that array. This is an exact science and can get complicated. In a smaller spaces, my preference is to use cardiods in XY over the snare, correctly oriented for the kick/snare centre line. Another suggestion is that cardioid mics are the default. It’s a good question and one we probably don’t consider closely enough. Nope. Some are very specifically defined like NOS or ORTF, others less so, like AB or Decca Tree. It takes a lot of time and exertion to get the perfect equalization of recording when using various mics on a drum kit. With this method, you can start your drum mix with the overhead sound. If that is the case then that’s fair enough, though the examples I’m thinking of have tended to try to cover the whole kit and are even sometimes used in addition to a close mic on the ride. While we can often play fast and loose with this when recording narrow sources like individual players, these things make a big difference with wider sources. Seems a pity though! This stereo condenser microphone is specially designed for studio purposes, but its capacity to handle high sound pressure makes it suitable for the live application use too. The ability of this mic to avoid the sound distractions and vibrations provides complete isolation from the outer world. Don't think of them as cymbal mics, but more as "everything" mics. Phase cancellation is a huge issue in drum recording. By using cardioids and angling them in on the snare you end up with little meaningful positional contribution from the level differences introduced by the polar pattern. Similarly to the Tama mic stand, this K&M drum mic stand does not feature wheels nor a counterweight. Overhead mics are often thought of as those mics that capture the cymbals. Anything that ‘works’ is fine but I do return to my question - Why do people use spaced cardioids on drums? For me there’s a bit of procedure that doesn’t vary — I do the same thing essentially every time. Article Content. In this case using cardioids for overheads is potentially beneficial, allowing you to mitigate to some extent the influence of the low ceiling you’re probably recording under - a high ceiling is the single best thing you can do for your drum recordings after getting the right player and drums, with mics and preamps coming a long way down the list compared to having a high ceiling. But with one mic, balancing becomes easier as it allows you to make quick compositions resulting in incredible sound. Since the drum set is essentially a mixture of different instruments, capturing each of their unique sounds as accurately as possible is a challenge. In this case using cardioids for overheads is potentially beneficial, allowing you to mitigate to some extent the influence of the low ceiling you’re probably recording under - a high ceiling is the single best thing you can do for your drum recordings after getting the right player and drums, with mics and preamps coming a long way down the list compared to having a high ceiling. So why do it “properly”? The main one is practical - you can mount an XY array on a single stand, very useful when space is tight. Like so many things it depends, but if you are trying to create the impression of listening to a drum kit then a suitable stereo array at head height some distance in front of the kit would be the “correct’ way to do it. The low frequency of this microphone avoids the background sound distractions and vibrations to record the natural sound of instruments. This isn’t necessarily wrong, the mics are being used for a different purpose and in a very different environment. Using these overhead drum mics the sound will be indistinct and thoroughly mixed if the coordination is not cared for. To check I wasn’t imagining it I checked with the team and beyond. The overheads are the unifying element in any drum sound. This is what classical engineers spend their time thinking about all day because an orchestra is wide and this stuff really make a difference! Because in this example the mics are parallel the polar response isn’t very significant. Make sure to invest in a drum mic and you’re all good to go. Friend of the blog Mike Exeter agreed: “I agree about the live thing - that is a good observation. Rode’s company mics are known for their high-quality construction. Drum Overheads - A Stereo Pair Or Cymbal Spot Mics? So many people don’t do this and as a result the snare is off to one side in the overheads. The coordination of all these drum overhead mics allows the finest drum sounds to be achieved in live as well as recorded sessions. We suggest keeping it simple with just one mic if you are kick-starting your drum recording in hopes of the best results. In a recent conversation among the team we were discussing what the thinking was behind the apparently common practice of using a spaced pair of cardioid mics, often facing inwards, as a pair of overheads on drums? Thus, the mic will capture the sounds made by the drum from above, allowing the player to deliver his performance without any impediments. Definitely either side of an axis running through the kick and snare. I'm looking at buying a pair of drum overheads as an upgrade to the AKG C451s I've had for a couple of years. Unlike other microphones, this mic has an LED audio peak holder to pick up the beats accurately. Don't think of them as cymbal mics, but more as "everything" mics. This stereo condenser mike is perfect for you to record instruments because it has an extended frequency response that records the sounds of instruments in high quality. Look at where Omar Hakim’s overheads are. Rode M5 Overhead Mics. Then you can add the other drums to the overheads to enhance an already great sound from the drum-kit. The term used to describe this is the SRA or Stereo Recording Angle. There they are covering the cymbals without attention to image. My feeling it that they’re not listening. Some people see XY as a bit of a “boring” choice but I’d prefer to think of them as reliable. I don’t know what they’re hearing but if you first imagine that probably the most important role of a rock and roll or R&B set is to have a very strong kick and snare centre image, it follows that your overheads want to be equidistant from your kick and snare so you have a balanced centre image. If placed correctly, the overheads will capture the entire drum kit, in phase and with the same basic frequency balance and tone. 140 dB … Even though it is a miniature overhead drum mic, but due to its high-quality construction, it is strong enough to be a part of every musical instrument. Width in particular is exaggerated, to the point where this isn’t wrong, any more than recording a grand piano from the perspective of someone with ears three feet apart with their head under the lid is “wrong”. It contains multi switchable filters that strain the sound by eliminating every background noise and provides you original and music. Specific changes in mic setup will affect the presentation of sounds arriving from different angles and how and from where they appear in the panorama when played back over loudspeakers. Stereo relies on the creation of a convincing phantom centre image. Just one mic can be a savior here as it gives an instant punchy sound by just placing it anywhere near the kit. The difference between a pseudo-stereo effect and stereo capture is that an impression of vague “width” isn’t the same as a specific stereo position, though for sounds in the centre of the stereo image the difference is less notable. Do you have any suggestions or advice to make my decision a bit easier? On the other hand, most of the speakers have praised this microphone for its durability and high-frequency response. Also with drum overheads for it to sound like the drummer hears it, BOTH the kick and the snare need to be considered as the centre of the overheads as they are normally the only instruments placed in the middle of the mix and if you just place them equidistant from the snare it will be off center. It might be that these mics are being used in a way which is closer to being “cymbal mics” rather than overheads, being used to capture the sound of the cymbals as spot mics in the same way as the tom mics are being used to capture the toms. Centre Line Through The Kick - Snare Is Off To One Side, Centre Line Through Kick And Snare - Both Are In Centre. How does sound appear to come from between the speakers when there is no speaker there? On the other hand, some customers have complained about its characteristic to provide low-end sound. If the idea of a pair of overheads is to capture a stereo picture of the whole kit, rather than be cymbal mics, then exactly what is this arrangement trying to achieve and where does it come from? So what is happening here? This does introduce possibly the biggest factor to this subject, which is that usually these mics are being used in combination with close mics on the kit and the “everything out to the sides” sound these overheads will create, don’t leave us with a hole in the middle of the kit because that hole is amply filled by the close mics - Maybe people do it this way because the stereo image doesn’t matter if you’re constructing it from close mics and just want a “stereo-ey” haze of cymbals around your close mics. A coincident array works because the centre of the stereo image is off axis by the same amount for both mics and as sounds move away from the centre they move into the most sensitive axis for one mic while moving further into an area of reduced sensitivity for the other. In drum recording kit isn ’ t make it the ideal approach to step up your quality! 180º SRA using parallel cardioids is 40º be used efficiently for live performances for drums can be with. 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