Tips & Techniques:Drums - Room mics facing walls away from kit

mw

This tip works best in fairly large drum rooms and less well in small ones.

Try facing 2 condenser mic's facing AWAY from the kit pointing about 6 inches from any hard surfaces to the far left and far right of the kit (like a concrete or brick wall) it helps if the mic's are set to cardioid pattern with their rejection side facing the drum kit and the pick up pattern facing the wall.

Perhaps filter out low frequencies if they add uglyness to the drum tone.. Pan these wide, compress and blend in with the close mic's and use them to add 'zing' or high frequency ambience or "depth" to the snare and cymbals.

This has elements of the boundary effect as used by PZM mic's. You can read more about it here.. Pressure Zone Microphones - History and other information

Photos below shows a Royer SF12 over kit, usual suspect Sennheiser MD421's on toms, Manley mic on ride, AKG 451 with 20db pad on hihat and Neumann M149 mic's pointing into far corners facing away from drum kit

LAstudio · 9th January 2008

... and try gating that so the gate opens with each snare hit.

Jules · 10th January 2008

thumbsup

and vary the range of the gate between total to mildly gated... see what you like best

This can allow a low volume of the ambient mic's to alway be there but a higher volume 'bang!' at each snare hit..

you can experiment with sending key signals to the gates from the toms as well as the snare - too see if you like 'the room opening' on each tom hit too....

therealtaxman · 22nd January 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jules

thumbsup

and vary the range of the gate between total to mildly gated... see what you like best

This can allow a low volume of the ambient mic's to alway be there but a higher volume 'bang!' at each snare hit..

you can experiment with sending key signals to the gates from the toms as well as the snare - too see if you like 'the room opening' on each tom hit too....

nice technique..I haven´t heard about the "gated" room mics..it hears interesting I´m gonna try it

drummerboyfarr · 1st March 2010

nice tip guys!
Thanx

8th January 2008	#1
John Suitcase Lives for gear Joined: Jul 2005 Location: Phoenix, AZ Comments: 2,358	A variation on this idea is to point your condensers up into the far corners of the room, facing away from the kit. This gives a little less slap, and a little more wash to the room mics. Works great in less than ideal rooms, and doesn't have the cymbal brass that on-axis room mics sometimes have. About 2 or three feet back from the spot where the back wall meets the sidewall meets the ceiling, pointing right at the junction of the three surfaces. __________________ Come Mix With Us! Stems for over 100 songs! Mixoff.org

10th January 2008	#3
Jules Gearslutz.com admin Joined: Apr 2002 Location: A Yank in London, UK Comments: 18,942 My Recordings/Credits Thread Starter 2 Reviews written	thumbsup and vary the range of the gate between total to mildly gated... see what you like best This can allow a low volume of the ambient mic's to alway be there but a higher volume 'bang!' at each snare hit.. you can experiment with sending key signals to the gates from the toms as well as the snare - too see if you like 'the room opening' on each tom hit too.... __________________ Jules Add your reviews to the new reviews area! Gearslutz on Facebook Follow my GS picks on Twitter

9th January 2008	#2
LAstudio Lives for gear Joined: Dec 2004 Location: L.A. Comments: 762	... and try gating that so the gate opens with each snare hit.

1st March 2010	#5
drummerboyfarr Gear interested Joined: Dec 2009 Comments: 5	nice tip guys! Thanx

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