Room mics, where have you been all my life?

[Gregg Juke]

Hey Nick-- I always used matched/stereo condensers as room mikes. I am now using a mono room mike, and it is an old Teac dynamic that I bought from a TapeOpper; perfect for the job...

Tonewoods-- I am envious of your RCA, your vintage amp, and your stand-up bass. I am pleasantly surprised/puzzled by your choice of a shotgun(!) for a drum room mike. But what I really want is your "On The Air" sign; quite coolistic.

GJ

[telepathy]

I've noticed that room mikes can add a LOT of high-end sparkle to the drum mix, but a little to a moderate amount goes a _long_ way...

GJ

Hi Gregg,

If you use a good pair of condensers, then yes. This top end also help us to localize elements of the drum kit, as our brain uses mid and top range to localize things in an acoustic space.

Cheers

similarly, spend some time with a good pair of ribbons above the kit (good old passive ones that taper off between 10-15k). you will start hearing "air" in a different way. especially to achieve a natural drum sound in a good space, catching some of the kickback off the ceiling. I love the cymbal tone you get from widely-spaced 4038's, especially. it's no detriment not to have everything all the way up to 20k blasting at you.

[KennyLusk]

MSE, what's your interface for your DAW? Or are you printing to tape?

Also, I dig the books in the background. By trade I'm a bookseller/buyer so I always love to see people with tons of books.

[Nick Sevilla]

Hey Nick-- I always used matched/stereo condensers as room mikes. I am now using a mono room mike, and it is an old Teac dynamic that I bought from a TapeOpper; perfect for the job...

Tonewoods-- I am envious of your RCA, your vintage amp, and your stand-up bass. I am pleasantly surprised/puzzled by your choice of a shotgun(!) for a drum room mike. But what I really want is your "On The Air" sign; quite coolistic.

GJ

Cool... I have used either that or both, and then choose which to use (mono room mic or stereo room mics) depending on the song and how it was played...

Cheers

[tonewoods]

I am pleasantly surprised/puzzled by your choice of a shotgun(!) for a drum room mike.

Yeah, me too...

I've tried a pair of Altec Coke Bottles, an American D22 (got that from a TapeOp article), a Binaural Skull that I made, a Crown SASS, and a bunch of other things, but that shotgun really delivered what I was looking for--a nice capture of the band in the room, with the drums accentuated...

Should mount another one at the other end of the room??

[MoreSpaceEcho]

so many questions!

MSE, how doya pan them omnis?

hard left and right. hats on the right, like you're looking at the kit. because the other way is WRONG.

Also, is the floor surface integral to the sound?

i dunno about 'integral', but certainly there's gonna be a big diff between a hard floor and a carpeted one. just in terms of what happens in the room, nevermind how the mics respond.

are they just placed loosely on the ground, or is there some kind of padding and/or something to hold them in place?

they're just on the floor. if i'm doing an actual session with, you know, musicians, i'll tape the mics down, because invariably those barbarians will kick them or something.

and what about the other 5%?

that would be my top-secret settings on the blockfish compressor.

MSE, what's your interface for your DAW? Or are you printing to tape?

the interface is a lynx AES16. converters are lavry blue. haven't fired up the tape machine in years.

I always love to see people with tons of books.

i've even read some of them!

[Gregg Juke]

>>>>hard left and right. hats on the right, like you're looking at the kit. because the other way is WRONG.<<<<

NO IT'S NOT!

(And I was going to PM you about some ME work. I had no idea you were such a provincialist)

GJ

[No Wave Casio Kitsch]

so many questions!

MSE, how doya pan them omnis?

hard left and right. hats on the right, like you're looking at the kit. because the other way is WRONG.

I find it interesting that a drummer would prefer "audience perspective."

On a completely different note, I always find it strange when people pan out the toms across the entire stereo spectrum as a matter of course.

[trodden]

MSE, do you go all the way on the first date?

MSE, are cooties real?



Everyone knows, especially drummers, THAT it's ALWAYS drummers perspective.

*pans toms far and wide for bitchin Phil Collins air drum fill*

Drawmer. SworntotheDark.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

I find it interesting that a drummer would prefer "audience perspective."

no one listens to records imagining they're standing behind the amps, right?

yeah yeah, lefty drummers, yeah yeah 'how would you pan stereo piano?', i know i know. leave me to my dogma.

MSE, do you go all the way on the first date?

usually.

MSE, are cooties real?

sometimes!

[No Wave Casio Kitsch]

I find it interesting that a drummer would prefer "audience perspective."

no one listens to records imagining they're standing behind the amps, right?

yeah yeah, lefty drummers, yeah yeah 'how would you pan stereo piano?', i know i know. leave me to my dogma.

I'm not dissing audience perspective. I've used it before and will again. I just suspected most drummer/engineers would have a preference for panning drums how they're used to hearing them as they play. I can't say for sure as I'm not a drummer, but I think I would find it off-putting to have a stereo cue mix with the drums panned audience perspective.

[Snarl 12/8]

I'm gonna try mixing my drums "backwards" next time. It might give me some perspective on getting a unbiased mix, a la the "are both our earholes equivalent" thread.

[drumsound]

I find it interesting that a drummer would prefer "audience perspective."

no one listens to records imagining they're standing behind the amps, right?

yeah yeah, lefty drummers, yeah yeah 'how would you pan stereo piano?', i know i know. leave me to my dogma.

I'm not dissing audience perspective. I've used it before and will again. I just suspected most drummer/engineers would have a preference for panning drums how they're used to hearing them as they play. I can't say for sure as I'm not a drummer, but I think I would find it off-putting to have a stereo cue mix with the drums panned audience perspective.

I'm such a drummer nerd than panning audience fucks with my mind the whole damn time, so I only do it if it's specifically requested (and no, I don't ask if there's a preference, I just mix).

And another thing, EVERYBODY likes to air drum, so drummer's perspective makes UNIVERSAL sense.

[chris harris]

^winner^

UNIVERSAL SENSE!!!!

[jgimbel]

+2, agreed.