overhead placement help

[organik]

hey peeps !

okay so my drums are in a small room
my other issue is i cant afford better OH mics right now so i have the cheapest pair of (embarressed to even say it) behrringer stereo sdc's
i placed them in a recorderman setup and get a decent sound......trouble is obviously the mics are shite and sound very hollow and nasaly....

so i was thinking either 2 things, looking for opinions on or other suggestions....
leaving them recorderman and throwing up the mono at 4033 i have center image....for a lil more girth LOL

or mono 4033 centered over kit and use the crappingers for a hh mic and a ride mic ??

any other suggestions etc would be cool

[organik]

no one ? LOL

[beebay007]

Don't be too embarrassed with the behringers. Yes they are cheap, but in a small room, its more than likely that the hollow nasally sound is more because of your room than the mics. Unless you got cheap mics because you spent thousands of dollars on acoustic treatment and had nothing left for the mics..

[Kronos147]

You could try the Glyn Johns approach. Put the AT in front of the kick at about rim height and move it until it sounds good. Measure from the center of the snare and put the SDC's equidistant from the snare, one over the snare and slightly to the left, pointing at the floor tom. The other near the floor tom, just peaking over at the snare, pan that one right, the over the snare left. Remember, all three mics are the same distance from the center of the snare.

See how that sounds!

[organik]

actually i did treat the room pretty well.. i did make many bass traps with 703, and clouds it improved the room greatly and the drums sound great in the room, all the close mics are great etc, but not getting enough meat from the oh at all

[fooman]

Depends what kind of sound you want and are ok with...
I mean I use crappy SDCs in my low-ceiling room with good results. I have to massage them a bit with EQ and compression based on the song and drummer, and I also set up room mics. That has helped a lot.

I just bought a second Shure KSM44 LDC, so I'm going to be using those as stereo OH's now. I found that the one I had was so good on the kit that I'd get another and toss away the cheap mics.

If I had to stay with a pair of cheap SDC's, I'd try to grab a pair of SM57's or something as room mics and use them to help get a better image of the kit along with the cheap mics. Also make sure the drummer is actually a good player and can hit the drums properly. When I record a bad drummer, no matter what I do it will not have the punch and weight that a track played by an experienced and controller drummer will have. Finally, learn to use plugins creatively and learn how they can work with your room. I find that the SPL Transient Designer can make my room seem a bit bigger without smearing things like reverb can.

[organik]

Originally Posted by Kronos147

You could try the Glyn Johns approach. Put the AT in front of the kick at about rim height and move it until it sounds good. Measure from the center of the snare and put the SDC's equidistant from the snare, one over the snare and slightly to the left, pointing at the floor tom. The other near the floor tom, just peaking over at the snare, pan that one right, the over the snare left. Remember, all three mics are the same distance from the center of the snare.

See how that sounds!

i was doing the recorder man with good results now, but im just not getting enough mids form the oh, ill try the at in front of the kick rim level equidistant and blend it in see if that gives me some oomph... THANKS !!!

[organik]

Originally Posted by fooman

Depends what kind of sound you want and are ok with...
I mean I use crappy SDCs in my low-ceiling room with good results. I have to massage them a bit with EQ and compression based on the song and drummer, and I also set up room mics. That has helped a lot.

I just bought a second Shure KSM44 LDC, so I'm going to be using those as stereo OH's now. I found that the one I had was so good on the kit that I'd get another and toss away the cheap mics.

If I had to stay with a pair of cheap SDC's, I'd try to grab a pair of SM57's or something as room mics and use them to help get a better image of the kit along with the cheap mics. Also make sure the drummer is actually a good player and can hit the drums properly. When I record a bad drummer, no matter what I do it will not have the punch and weight that a track played by an experienced and controller drummer will have. Finally, learn to use plugins creatively and learn how they can work with your room. I find that the SPL Transient Designer can make my room seem a bit bigger without smearing things like reverb can.

yeah i hear the ksm's are great as OH.. i dont have many mics so im a bit limited, i have a SP C1 i can utilize and an AT 4033, the pres left avail for them would be a dbx stereo tube pre and 1 api 512c.....
just trying to find the right combo to get the kit sounding as big as i can with what i got...they sound pretty good as is , but even with eq's etc i cant seem to get the toms to have that extra body it needs from the OH's

i ussually the drummer, (playing 13yrs) so thats not much of the issue, i Tune my drums meticulously, sometimes evenin thirds to the key of the song , so they sound good, but really just need some extra meat overall...
im using logic now so i dont have any of the uad plugs etc, running pretty stock on plugs.... like to get a good sound going in to start ya know.

[sethmeister]

Have you tried just the mono 4033 by itself?

[organik]

Originally Posted by sethmeister

Have you tried just the mono 4033 by itself?

i have before and it sounded good, have not tried it in my new room yet.... i like to have a stereo spread a bit thats why i was thinking of going mono 4033 and use the sdc's for hi hat and ride pan them to taste l/r to give a little spectrum in the cymbals..... i guess ill just have to futz around...