stereo image from drum OH's

[DirkB]

Hi all,

A question on drumoverheads:

How do you position the mics to create your stereo image?
Do you keep the snare in the center? Or do you create a wide cymbal image (crash 1 l, crash2 and ride r)?

I'm always struggling, because I absolutely want the snare dead center and perfectly in phase, but this usually means that the toms (especcially with 3-4 toms) aren't spaced the way I want to.

So, do you care if the snare is dead center?
What's your approach.

Greetings and happy newyear,
Dirk

I DO like to have a clear Left Right with opposite cymbals....

So I like fixed access 'stereo' mic's, as they give me what I want.

Royer SF12
AKG C24
Neumann SM69
Neumann SM2

And with those Dirk - you just put em up 'in the middle'!

[Steve Smith]

I have a couple things I like depending on what is available... all od these assume a good kit, good player, good room... etc..

If there is a Royer SF12 around, I will use it in front of the kit a few feet and over the top... not using the kick as acenter point, but kind of between the rack and floor toms, pointed at the snare. If you tweak it right, the kick and snare end up in the middle. you can also do this with a pair of mics in a "modified" X-Y config..

If we are using 2 seprate mics, I just put em where they sound good for the spread, and then make sure they are exactly the sma distance from the snare and then kick.. this is a game of "less than inches", but they payoff is worth it, IMHO.

[Tim Halligan]

Is going for a dead-centre snare in the OH's really hyper-critical given that the snare is physically not smack-bang in the middle of the kit anyway? A little realism in the sound can't be a bad thing IMHO.

Happy New Year

Cheers,
Tim

Dirk, if you use 2 mic's you might like to use a mic cable in your two hands stretched out from the center of the snare to each overhead mic to get an equal distance. I always do this when using 2 overhead mic's..

That will keep your snare centred!

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally posted by Jules
Dirk, if you use 2 mic's you might like to use a mic cable in your two hands stretched out from the center of the snare to each overhead mic to get an equal distance. I always do this when using 2 overhead mic's..

That will keep your snare centred!

I actually cut a piece of rope for this exact purpose. I put a Magic Marker line in the middle of the rope and place that on the snare. Than I tape the two ends to the overhead mics and place them at the same height. I do keep them quite wide. Which hollows out the middle a bit, but is filled quite nicely with the Kick & Snare mics. I'm using a pair of Oktava MK012's

YMMV

[Ted Nightshade]

Originally posted by Jules
Dirk, if you use 2 mic's you might like to use a mic cable in your two hands stretched out from the center of the snare to each overhead mic to get an equal distance. I always do this when using 2 overhead mic's..

That will keep your snare centred!

You can do the same thing with the bass drum as well.

I've found that if there is bleed from the drum on other mics in the room, especially a stereo pair, or a stereo pair of room mics are set up just for this purpose, that you can use a single mic on overheads and with the stereo ambience/bleed things can seem very stereo indeed, even with a very small amount of the distance stereo ambience. Trippy psychoacoustics!

[DirkB]

Thanks for the responses.

To Jules: I actually also use a measurement tool to get the distance from snare to overheads exactly. For my own kit (I'm a drummer) I have (viewing from the drummers perspective) the kick a little to the right and if you would draw a straight line (looking from the top on my kit) through the beater point on the kick and the center of the snare, that is my symmetry line.
I then set the overheads equal distant from this symmetry ("mirror") line so snare and kick are in the center and additionally have the toms nicely in the stereo image.
However, for the really big spread on the toms or the cymbals, this doesn't always (on every kit) work to well. Also, clients kits are not always set up with recording a nice stereo image in mind.

So how do you all pan the toms: matching the overhead panning or?

Greetings,
Dirk

[Drumsound]

Originally posted by Tim Halligan
Is going for a dead-centre snare in the OH's really hyper-critical given that the snare is physically not smack-bang in the middle of the kit anyway? A little realism in the sound can't be a bad thing IMHO.

Happy New Year

Cheers,
Tim

I've always thought of the snare drum as the center of the set. Drums are my instrument and I consider the snare the physical and musical center of the drum- set.

[Overdrive]

A pair of matched AKG C451B in ORTF configuration 60-100cm right above the drummer's head do it for me.
Dead center snare, phase coherent, bright, very stereo. Mic pre is Great River MP2MH most of the times but recent punk group enjoyed Millennia HV3 (!).