Question for Steve (Remoteness) re: drum mic

[MichaelPatrick]

Last night tracking a live jazz ensemble I used two mics, an Earthworks QTC-30 on the "knee" and a KSM44 "kit" mic in cardi over the drummer's shoulder. Sounded good. Can't wait to mix.

[leddy]

Originally Posted by Remoteness

...And, that's one mic --Pretty crazy stuff; Right?

Nice job!

Did you play around with the mic positioning or did you place it and go with it?

I don't really get to play around with mic position too much because I'm playing bass on the gigs while I'm recording. I can check things a little in headphones. Certainly not ideal, but it's all I can do. Sometimes I get lucky - other times not so much, but I always learn something. It's a steady gig so I get to keep trying.

I've also tried cardiod mics (Beyer MC930 and M160) but the results were not nearly as good as the omni. The M160 wasn't too bad.

Thanks again for helping out a rookie.

[Remoteness]

Sweet!

Keeping it simple and extremely efficient is the way to go.

IMO, you can always add mics (when necessary) as long as you have that one perfectly placed mic in the mix.

For me this concept has been around since cira 1982.
I came up with the idea because the band I was mixing live sound for had a lot of musicians and singers.
The venues we performed in rarely had enough working channels so everything can be heard properly.

The knee mic technique has been used on many sessions since then.

With that said, it does work well if the drummer mounts a cowbell in that same area.

[springer]

Hi Steve and fellow slutz,

I tried the "one mic at the right knee" technique the other night on an electronic jazz trio and I think it would be great for rock drums. However for my tastes on jazz drums it is missing the hi-hat and cymbal 'ping'. It seemed to capture much more of the snare/toms/BD than my other "one mic" technique which is over right shoulder which I think would be cool for rock. It sure was fun experimenting tho...

Setup specifics:
AKG c480/ck62 omni with -10db pad. Clamped onto xtra (non-used) tom peg. mic sitting right near 1 o'clock on the BD pointing up towards crash cymbal.

[Remoteness]

I hear you...

The "one knee" or "one Shoulder" mic technique is only two options.
Keep in mind you can place that single mic anywhere you wish.

We did a Jazz trio recording in an Italian Restaurant near MSG a couple of months ago.

I spec'd out the "over the shoulder" mic but my engineer for the date changed it and positioned the mic in front of the kit.

It sounded very good and was much better that the original position.

The ideas you find in this forum are starting points.
If they work for you -- Awesome.
If not -- Change the placement or try something different.
It's all good and anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

[Tom Hakala]

I was recording last week and the night was already a disaster when the desk broke up. We had to use this cheap 6 channel ALTO mixer to get the sound back for the last band. Well ALTO gave me only 6 channels to record, vox x2, guitar x2, bass... well so only one mic for drums. I had no time to think about pretty much anything than to get the sound back and the last band on stage. But I still wanted to record it.

So I remembered Steve's single drum mic trick and gave it a shot. Had no time to test how everything sounded. Just stuck my AT4040 close to drummer's right knee slightly pointing to the snare.

This is how it ended sounding:

http://koti.welho.com/thakala3/stuff...c%20at4040.mp3

just wanted to share !

[jdmmobile]

Someone beat me to it. It is the most natural drum placement I have found for toms. There is a sweet spot (depending on drummers crash height with combination of ride height) that you can find. Right over the right shoulder pointing at toms or over the knee, both spots are cool. Thanks Steve-o

Jimmy

JDM Mobile "Anywhere"

JDM Mobile | Remote location recording and broadcast company.

[Remoteness]

It's pretty wild that broken consoles in cheesy clubs got me to come up with this technique.

As many of us know, you'd be lucky to have a complete set of 16 working inputs because those dead channels seem to never get fixed.

This single mic technique came out of necessity.
Sometimes I had two channels available for drums, but most of the time it was only one...
If I had a second channel to use for the kit it ended up on the hi-hat because of the way the drummer played his kit.

Now-a-days I rarely use a hi-hat mic.

Crazy stuff!

Originally Posted by Tom Hakala

I was recording last week and the night was already a disaster when the desk broke up. We had to use this cheap 6 channel ALTO mixer to get the sound back for the last band. Well ALTO gave me only 6 channels to record, vox x2, guitar x2, bass... well so only one mic for drums. I had no time to think about pretty much anything than to get the sound back and the last band on stage. But I still wanted to record it.

So I remembered Steve's single drum mic trick and gave it a shot. Had no time to test how everything sounded. Just stuck my AT4040 close to drummer's right knee slightly pointing to the snare.

This is how it ended sounding:

http://koti.welho.com/thakala3/stuff...c%20at4040.mp3

just wanted to share !

[nickynicknick]

Originally Posted by Jim vanBergen

I also love the fact that you also use the TLM103s in spite of the many people on the Gearslutz board who slam this mic. I love my pair in "monolith black" as Neumann calls them, and use them for drum OHs, inside piano, on strings, etc... love 'em.

I absolutely love 103's on Toms...there are worth a check there....will check out the right knee LDC...sounds interesting

[Remoteness]

Originally Posted by nickynicknick

I absolutely love 103's on Toms...there are worth a check there....will check out the right knee LDC...sounds interesting

I'm with you on this one...

I used C414s on toms in the studio with great success.
The TLM103s are awesome on toms and snare drums.