keep the room mic

[dokushoka]

I find omni directional room mics to be redundant on drums. They just let in too much of the room for me to really use them in a mix, strangely. Its unintuitive, but the best room mics, in my experience, are hypercardioid or figure 8 (with dampening on the back) because you can place these far away but still get a really strong mono kick/snare image that will be highly usable come mix time. The Beyer M160 is one of my favorite room mics, btw.

I also like a room sound that I can put into a reverb/IR later to really shape it more.

[drumsound]

Part of what I like about omnis for room is that I hate most fake reverb, especially on drums. Between rom mics and parallel compression I'm generally good to go.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

agreed. haven't put reverb on drums in a million years...

[Mane1234]

I've used an EV 635A as a room mic when I record vocals in my tiled bathroom sometimes. Sounds pretty cool sometimes. Works ok for accoustic guitar at times too. It would be better if the bathroom was bigger.

[lionaudio]

Part of what I like about omnis for room is that I hate most fake reverb, especially on drums. Between rom mics and parallel compression I'm generally good to go.

Here, Here! fake reverb is for The Cure, and only if you have a tiny dead room to record your drums in. otherwise, real room mics always win.

[cgarges]

fake reverb is for The Cure, and only if you have a tiny dead room to record your drums in.

Tell that to Mitch Easter.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[dokushoka]

Part of what I like about omnis for room is that I hate most fake reverb, especially on drums. Between rom mics and parallel compression I'm generally good to go.

Here, Here! fake reverb is for The Cure, and only if you have a tiny dead room to record your drums in. otherwise, real room mics always win.

I would counter you, respectfully, and say that perhaps you have just not heard the right reverb units. I have a box that has such a good room sound on it that I bet you'd think it was real! And no, its not an impulse response!

Don't get me wrong, I love room mics as much as the next guy and they are very important to my drum sounds but I rely on them to glue the kick and snare together and to get some decay but not to get the ambience I need. Its just not going to be a flexible as a high quality reverb for fitting it into a mix.

[japmn]

I'm also a big fan oof mono room mics.

I'll second. A lot of people here "room mic" and automatically think STEREO!
If you get to many stereo signals going at once you can run into a lot of washy phase issues and unfocused mixes. Plus I have a lot of fun panning my mono room sound around in the mix to find nifty places for it to rest.

[jabe]

First of all, I'm new to the board, so: hello everyone! It's a pleasure to be here.

I often record with a full band playing in the same room, no iso booths or closets. Has anyone found merit in using a room mic on the drums if other instruments bleed into it? I've tried it, but almost never used it in the mix and have been wondering if I'm missing out on something.

[mcmurrich]

room room and more room. stereo. mono. multiple. i do most of my tracking these days in a room that has about 4 seconds of reverb time. its not huge just some cinderblock walls and really high ceiings. any time i go to another room and put up a mic i ask myself how much am i paying for this really boring sound?? it's all about the room. the bigger sounding the better.

even with a full band playing i find the room mics are the glue that holds it all together. the room just has to sound good. longer and brighter will get out of the way of dry mics. bad rooms will always sound bad. boxy is the worst sound a room can have. i would rather be just dry.

can't make a record without lots of rooms anymore. i hear really dry records and think "wow! that sounds amazing!" but i can't bring myself to go in that direction when i'm behind the console.

[cleantone]

So how about adjusting the time correlation of the room mic? I know that is not easy for analog guys but do the digital people slide the room mic around to find a good place in which it works without mucking up the phase relationships? I do with live recording almost always.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i don't. i've tried it a million times and it never sounds right to me.

i'll move it around a bunch in the room, but never on the computer...

[japmn]

i don't. i've tried it a million times and it never sounds right to me.

i'll move it around a bunch in the room, but never on the computer...

Seconded. I try not to slide waveforms around ever if possible. I find I only am doing it if something has gone very wrong.

[firby]

Wow. I hit the wrong damn button and created a two page post about room mics. Whatever, I lurves me room mic and thats the ticket.

My room mic is an apex205. Its at the top of my stairs in this really dinky house from the 20's. The walls are all plaster and thus pretty reflective. I have developed this technique trying to add a little bigness to my drum sound. After a while I worked out how to place the room mic by hollering and clapping as I wander around the house. The sound up at the top of those stairs is 2 doors and a bunch of plaster. The stairs are carpeted. When I clap my hands up there it kind of goes "squonk!" or sometimes "squank!" . I just grabbed the sound because it is unusual and I liked it so I kept it. I used to have the room mic in the kitchen but in queit spots you could hear the compressor in the fridge turn on. Thats only cool for so long. Then I would turn the temperature up on the thermostat in the fridge during recordings. Same with the central air in the place. Eventually I would forget to turn it back down when I started mixing the tracks and stuff in the fridge would get too warm.

Also, the power supply from the mixer gets really friggin hot and will heat that room up in no time. So I never forget to turn the AC back on. There are a couple of months in Spring and fall where this house gets primarily heated with gear.

Blah blah blah. Sorry to digress on the room mic thread.

Other room mics I have tried are a 57 pointed about an inch from the plaster wall just trying to get the splat.

Generally I do the same old trick with the room mics which is compressing them pretty heavily and sliding them under the sound. Generally I pan it hard right.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

a little bigness