Techniques for micing the ride

[illiummusic]

I have a drums session tonight and I am looking for techniques for micing a ride cymbal.
I have tried this a few time in the past with minimal results. Are there any tricks?
Distance, placement, type of mic, polar pattern, etc? Any feedback on what hasn't worked as well as what has is also welcome.

I would like to try to avoid turning this thread into a "Why do you need to mic the ride?"
thread. My drummer is great, and has very good control over dynamincs. There is a part of the song that I need the ride to stand out more so than usual and I don't want to have to overly compress the overheads to make that happen.

Thanks guys

[Matt_Weston]

Placement: under ride usually gives more isolation.
Mic: small diaphragm condenser, I use cardiod but I wouldn't mind trying hyper or super if I had them
Distance: maybe 5 or 8 inches... I've found that nearer to the bell is better but not right at the bell and not right at the edge...

That's my experience. Good luck!

[AlexLakis]

I agree with the above, get an SDC and put it in pretty close, just outside of the bell. Micing it from underneath may result in a more "gongy" sound than you may be going for, tho. Don't be afraid to re-position if you're not getting the sound you want! Experiment!

[illiummusic]

Thanks for the replies!

I'll definately try that. The few times I have miced the ride I used a LDC
and if it was to close there as this honky ring I couldn't get rid of. But when
I backed it off there was too much bleed from the crashes. Haven't used an
SDC though so I'll try that.

Also, anyone use a ribbon for this? I have a Royer at my disposal that I could use.
This is what I have to use for the ride, either
AKG c460
Mojave MA-200
Royer R-121

So I would guess the AKG would work best. I'm using it on the hats so if that's the case
then I'll do the ride section last and move the mic.