Relative fader levels on a drum kit

[frist44]

I've the idea of "build the kit from the OH's" when mixing some live drums. My sucks and I end up having the OH's about half of what the individual close mics are at.

Does most everyone use a lot more OH than close mic?

Brandon

[Jules]

Whatever works...

[wwittman]

Well, yes whatever works, of course...

but also, yes, if they are really OVERHEADS then mostly they are cymbal mics.
And probably will be lower in the balance than other close mics, which will all have some cymbals in them as well.


If you plan on building the sound from the "overheads" you need to start that way when you place the mics and get that sound to really BE the overall drum sound.
For me, that almost always means getting them away from literally 'overhead'

[Slider]

Originally posted by wwittman
Well, yes whatever works, of course...

but also, yes, if they are really OVERHEADS then mostly they are cymbal mics.
And probably will be lower in the balance than other close mics, which will all have some cymbals in them as well.


If you plan on building the sound from the "overheads" you need to start that way when you place the mics and get that sound to really BE the overall drum sound.
For me, that almost always means getting them away from literally 'overhead'

Yep...exactly.
If you want to use them as the main mics move them around a bit.
Over the drummers head or out front or whatever.
Glyn Johns style is always a good way to go.

[DirkB]

Originally posted by frist44
I've the idea of "build the kit from the OH's" when mixing some live drums. My sucks and I end up having the OH's about half of what the individual close mics are at.

Does most everyone use a lot more OH than close mic?

Brandon

Ok, of course this is all very relative, but in a rock mix with a ORTF or XY stereo setup for overheads, they tend to be 10-15dB lower in volume then for example the kick and snare mic. However, lots of parallel and serial compression going on, so it's very hard to say what is how loud.

If I'm going for a whole kit sound, I like a mono overhead, which will most likely be a bit lower and more backwards (drummer perspective) placed.

Good luck,
Dirk

[TML]

Go slow when placing the close mics......don't crank them.......get used to the blend....or else you'll retreat back to the usual.......I recently tracked with an xy 4 feet in front of the kit.......aimed at the toms....nice....used phase swithces on pres to get them most punch.
Tim

[Kenny Gioia]

It also depends on the drummer.

I'm not a cymbal basher. So I can put up 2 pencil condenser mics. One on each side of the kit pointing towards the snare. But angled enuff to get the whole kit including the Hi Hat.

Than I mix in the close mics with as little as I can get away with. If it's sparse enuff I'll use very little close stuff.

But usually it's 50/50.

Definitely spend time getting those kit mikes sounding great first.

You can always replace close mics with samples.

Bad overheads are hard to overcome.

Good Luck

[7rojo7]

I tend to put the faders right on the drums, this way I can use 1 mic on the kit, I just mult it and use patch cords of different lengths for stereo.