Mic technique for : 2 Rack Toms only one mic

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Ryan Silva
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Mic technique for : 2 Rack Toms only one mic

Post by Ryan Silva » Wed Jan 24, 2007 3:52 pm

To deal with equpment limitations. How would you mic two rack toms with one mic?
Usume that stereo overheads are being used x/y or a/b
Goal is to get a close tom sound.

Figure 8 inbetween?
Omni?
Cardiod side shot?

Thanks
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nlmd311
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Post by nlmd311 » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:38 pm

Umm,
Off the top of my head I guess you might be able to do a few things. Depending on the sound you were going for, if you were getting a fair amount of attack from the overheads, you could put a cardiod on the resonant side of the toms directly between the two and backed off (or pushed in) depending on the amount of coverage you are getting from the polar pattern of the mic and/or the amount of resonance you are looking to pull from the drums.
Another way would be to flip that, putting the cardiod between the two toms but on the batter side this time. That would help bring out some of the attack characteristics if you weren't getting what you wanted from the overheads as well as using the proximity effect depending on the placement to squeeze some "boom" out of them.
The third possibly viable approach I could think of would really depend on how far the toms are spaced from one another. If you could arrange the pick up lobes of a figure 8 to pick up the resonance of the shell and possibly some attack and at the same time have the nulls in place of the overheads and kick you might come out with something very cool and useable. BUT, I imagine the toms would have to be spaced a little further apart than typically comfortably set up for most players.

An Omni about waist high and 3 or so feet out of in front of the kit will definitely get you some beefy tom sound, but you'll get a lot of the rest of the set too.

I guess it all depends on your project (I know it is a hypothetical).

Oh yeah. And I'm sure there are a ton of other ways. Those were just the best I could come up with.

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Post by Recycled_Brains » Wed Jan 24, 2007 6:54 pm

i have to do this at my live sound gig a lot of the time, and i always just use a cardioid directly between the toms @ around a 45 (or more/less depending on the angle of the toms themselves) degree angle so the mic is sort of pointing across where the toms are almost touching each other, and so that the spot on the mic where the capsule meets the body is even with the top rim of the toms. works pretty well provided that the drums are tuned well and the player is consistent. i know it's different with live stuff, but i'd give that a try as a starting point if i was in your shoes.

i would imagine some compression at mixdown would help evening them out.

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Post by themagicmanmdt » Wed Jan 24, 2007 10:04 pm

a cardioid is nice. a figure 8 right inbetween them, with each polarity pointing at the top head might be nice. try to aim the 'dead' spot of the fog 8 at the kick. you dont want kick in the tom mic!

give it a try!

if i had to try one first, the fig 8 might be nice.
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Post by tommy » Thu Jan 25, 2007 11:41 am

Do you have access to a large diaphram condenser? Something like a 414 in cardioid hovering over and between both rack toms would work nicely.

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Post by thunderboy » Thu Jan 25, 2007 1:14 pm

A single cardioid, placed between the two drums so that the capsule is on the same plane as the batter heads, pointing UP.

It's counter-intuitive, but it has usually worked well for me (depending on tuning, cymbal placement, drummer's technique/ability/mojo).

Give it a try sometime. Works great for percussion as well - congas, bongos, timbales, etc.

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Post by KyleHale » Thu Jan 25, 2007 4:05 pm

figure 8 polar pattern and turn it sideways baby!
check me out!

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Post by JamesHE » Thu Jan 25, 2007 5:28 pm

The whole micing 2 drums with a figure 8 thing just hasen't worked for me when I've tried it. A 57 isn't bad just stuck in there between the drums. Listen to it in conjunction with the overheads and room mics, and never solo it. or if you have time to experiment try having the 57 (or whatever, i really like 57's on rack toms though) over one tom, but pointing at the other. Get the cymbal bleed to work for you (you might want to point it away from the hats)
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Post by ceilingcat84 » Fri Jan 26, 2007 1:56 pm

I've gotten away with using just one cardioid on both toms, provided that they're close enough together. I've also gotten a decent tom sound with sennheiser 421s pointed slightly off-center, but if you're using one mic for both drums i'd put it right inbetween.

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Post by Doublehelix » Fri Jan 26, 2007 2:46 pm

Ihave done the single MD421 between and over the 2 toms, and to be honest, I've got some pretty decent results that way in a pinch. I prefer the dedicated mic when possible but this technique works pretty well in a pinch.
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