Give me character!!!

[SamPura]

Hey everyone!

I'm looking to beef up my kick and snare tones with some interesting mics. I am way into queens of the stone age's drum sounds for example... very brilliant natural sounds utilizing a lot of fun gear to make some crazy unqiue drum sounds. I'd like to try and start doing the same.

I'm using the usual Subkick, B52, D112 on Kick and SM57's, Beta 57's and SM58's on snare. I'd like to add a 3rd mic for more natural... or weird.. but mainly character microhones.
I've been thinking possibly a Fet47 type mic for Kick, or a Beyer M88... maybe a contact mic for snare or something amazing I've never tried...?

What would you reccomend / what microphone-pre-comp signal flow do you like to use to get really unique and different sounds that remain way natural. I've heard of people throwing 57 "crotch" mic's on NUKE into ampeg bass amps to get more punch. I'm interested to hear if anyone has any reccomendations of fun stuff to try.

Thanks!

[cgarges]

way natural... 57 "crotch" mic's on NUKE into ampeg bass amps to get more punch

Those two things don't sound very similar to me.

There's tons of stuff you can do to get the drums to sound like drums, but many people have differing opinions on that. To me, that means selecting mics that represent the sound of the kit in the room, making sure they're phase coherent, and then avoiding as much "extra stuff" as possible. That's totally different from plugging in a bunch of weird compressors or distortion units, which can be really cool, too.

As far as mics that sound natural, I really think the Beyer M88 does a great job of reproducing the sound of a well-tuned kick drum. For snare drums, the Shure KSM 141 is an incredible mic for capturing the natural sound of the drum in a usually flattering manner. The Beyer M201 is another good candidate there, although the top end isn't quite as crisp and the "crack" of the drum isn't quite represented as well to me with the Beyer as with the Shure. Sometimes that can work to your advantage.

As far as FET 47-type mics go, the FET 47 if a GREAT mic. One of my favorite mics, ever. (Why I don't own one yet, I can't tell you.) the closest mic I've heard to a FET 47 is the Lawson L47FET, which sounds awesome on kick drum. Other good contenders are the Blue Mouse, which has a very similar characteristic with maybe a slightly "harder" sound and the Soundelux version, which I've only heard on kick. (I can't remember the model number, but it's that less-than $1000 FET mic. 195 maybe?)

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[SamPura]

I'm reading a bunch of people talking about that Beyer mic. I honestly had the best kick and snare tone of all time when I used my Beyer M130 with the figure 8 in between the kick and snare. that was amazing for about 15 minutes... Hahaha. (How did it even last that long?)

Anyways, where can I find the Beyer Mic? I alsdo read that Soundelux mic (the U195) has two switches... which apparently has been quoted as "a fet47, and a u87 in the same mic"... sounds like a pretty good purchase!

Thanks for the input!

[cgarges]

Anyways, where can I find the Beyer Mic?

Any Beyer dealer. They're not hard to find at all. I've had really good luck with Full Compass in Wisconsin and have bought several Beyer mics from them.

I alsdo read that Soundelux mic (the U195) has two switches... which apparently has been quoted as "a fet47, and a u87 in the same mic"... sounds like a pretty good purchase!

I think that's the i-FET mic, not the 195, but I could be wrong. I've heard about a lot of those having reliability problems, but that's not first-hand knowledge on my part. In any case, that's not the Soundelux mic I've used.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[calaverasgrandes]

the 201 is one of my favorite mics of all time. That and the 77DX. When I was taking audio engineering classes (at Leo Kulkas CRA uh 16 years ago?) it was the only mic I even considered stealing for a tiny fleeting moment. Of course I wouldnt have! Stealing is wrong for its own reasons, but that studio was like a church of audio engineering. Pope Leo! It did cross my mind though...they are that good that they subvert principles!
It is not common to find in retail channels like GC or Sam Ash. Sweetwater and Compass should have em. Maybe Markertek? they run about $200.
Plainest lookng mic. You could easily mistake it for an inline pad.
Pretty much all the Beyers sound great, except the condensors. Well, if I believe the add in mix from 15 years ago Phil Collins loves the Beyer condensors

[mwingerski]

I will second the vote for the Lawson L47... I actually prefer the L251, since it is not as common... essentially an ELA-M 251 capsule on a FET body. HUGE Bottom end. Very detailed top end. Perfect for a kick in many ways.

I've found that pairing that with a focusrite ISA 428 set on ISA 110 mode impedance, yields an incredibly huge, massive, rake-your-balls-over-a-brick-oven-filled-with-coals sort of bottom end... and i mean that in a good way.

As for more unusual approaches...

Shotgun mic in the middle of the kit
The shure level-loc compressor is a favorite of Tchad Blake...used on a shotgun mic in mid kit (so i've been told by friends that have worked with him)
As are Binaural mics...which can get pricey... i've never had the good fortune to work with on yet but I remain curious... and have heard the results are rather cool.

You could try making a binaural mic if you want to get tweaky... get a motorcycle helmet or something and mount a pair of mics to the side...

just a few thoughts...

[pixeltarian]

you could reverse wire an 8 inch speaker and use it (as a microphone) on the kick... I hear that gives you a pretty nice low end. you still might want to use a condenser mic pointed at the contact point of the beater for punch though.

[lionaudio]

you could reverse wire an 8 inch speaker and use it (as a microphone) on the kick... I hear that gives you a pretty nice low end. you still might want to use a condenser mic pointed at the contact point of the beater for punch though.

he's already using a subkick.. pretty much the same thing.. i would suggest the crotch mic technique.. experiment with the "crotchiness" of the mic.. i usually use a sennheiser e609 for this, but have also used 57's and a radioshack tieclip mic.. you can use anything anywhere for this, your main thing will be to compress the living hell out of whatever you use.. the Queen's albums all sound so unique because they record in unique ways.. as we all should