EH 12ay7 on drum overheads?

[mjau]

I keep hearing about people loving these on acoustic guitars, but has anyone used one or a pair on drum overheads? Any opinions?
muchas gracias...

[Ben Logan]

Yeah, I use one. I plug a Studio Projects B3 into the thing, set it about four feet in front of the drum kit, about chest high, in effort to capture a rough picture of the whole kit. Not exactly "an overhead" setup, but... Anyway, I find the sound to be more "open" than when substituting my other pre: FMR RNP. The trade off is that the cymbals can get kind of harsh sounding with the EHX 12AY7 if I set the gain too high. Maybe I'm clipping the signal on the pre - I can't see it from behind the drums! I would say the 12ay7 lends a surprising amount of clarity and openness, and a surprising lack of "warmth" when using it as a drum mic. My experience.

[AstroDan]

I actually used an SM57 as a single OH mic the other day. Unbelievable sounding toms. Then I put it 8" in front of the kick and it reminded me of early close miking, like White Album, Steppenwolf, late 60's stuff.

The snare cut through way too much for my liking and the cymbals sounded good, not mind scrambling fantastic. But, this was all just a 57; an SDC, LDC or ribbon or what have you may have betterly differented results. Of course, Your Mom Makes Vaginas.

Isn't that what YMMV stands for? I don't know.

[rodabod]

Your Mom Makes Vaginas.

Isn't that what YMMV stands for? I don't know.

You do realise that we will think this every time we see the letters "YMMV" now?

[LDT2]

I just did a comparison test of this last saturday.

When listening back, the drum overheads (XY setup) running thru the 12AY7's made the cymbals seem to come forward out of the speakers compared to my regular pre's. Very 3 dimensional.

I didn't notice any harshness, but I also only had to run the input level about 1/4 of the way up from off.

I love these pre's, as a matter of fact, I just bought a 3rd one.