overheads with two 414's

drumsound · Post by **drumsound** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:09 am

trodden wrote:
firesine wrote:
kingtoad wrote:I would have thought the km184s would suit the "hi fi pop" thing more, though.
And put the 414s on toms. They have a hypercardioid option and thats the definition of hi fi toms.
totally.. even in cardioid there is so much more separation.. and they sound great on toms.

But 414's work well, be it x/y, ORTF, or spaced pair. The times i get to use them as OH's, since I don't own a pair, is at a place that also has a good room, so its all part of the equation.

Back at my place though.. which is 414-less unfortunately, i've discovered that sd mc-012's sound better in my crap room than LD version, the mc-102's, as OH's... so i'm thinking a pair of 414's would not be good for OH's in my room. The mc-102's are great capsules for the 012 body, but... for OH's it seems i prefer the sdc at my place... that's the idea at least today.. that will probably change a few times, over and over.. again..

I love MC 012 on OH. I've been loving OTRF lately...

akg414 · Post by **akg414** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 9:42 am

I use two 414's all the time:

one overhead
one "side" (ala Glyn John's).
421s on my toms
D12 on Kick.
a little Lexicon PCM81 reverb

My drums sound like a million dollars! If I heard them and didn't know where they were recorded, I'd think it was some huge/pro studio.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 10:50 am

Back in 2006, when I worked on the Swivel Chairs' The Slow Transmission, we tracked all of the drums for that record in a 200 year old barn. 14ft + ceilings, concrete floor, big garage space. I was having a problem hooking up my MK-012s (standard overheads for me), wasn't sure if it was my snake or cables (RF interference)... or possibly a capsule (which was whacked a few months prior). Anyway, I pulled the MK-012s for a single AKG 414 B/ULS in Omni about 6 ft over the snare, and holy crap. Sounded amazing. We decided that combined with a MG UM70s as a room mic that that was going to be our sound. And it worked. At the time I was listening to Tom Petty's Wildflowers and the drums on "House In the Woods" sound like they're in mono, so this went right along with what I was listening to. In the end, we ended up panning a lot of the overheads on the record, at 9 to 3, or at 10 to 2, and it still worked.

Anyway, yeah, I want another AKG 414 B/ULS so that I can use them as a pair in larger spaces.

Jeff

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 5:01 pm

drumsound wrote:
I love MC 012 on OH. I've been loving OTRF lately...

I have been using a pair I did the dorsey mod on in a close approximation of ORTF for about a year now and they are great. Everytime I try something else I keep coming back to them. Although I would love to either try a pair of Stapes omnis (or another Bova ball) or a pair of 414's to see how they would sound in my room.

Rick Slater · Post by **Rick Slater** » Tue Mar 10, 2009 7:35 pm

drumsound wrote:
signorMars wrote:If you do XY, think of centering it over a line running through the kick and snare, rather than the set as a whole... another way to put it would be that the line between the two mics is not parallel to the drumset... this keeps the kick and snare centered.
I've been doing that for a while now and have been quite happy with the results, though not with XY, just thinking of the senter running through the SD/BD line.

If you are having problem with the hats in the ride side mis using spaced 414s try figure 8 and adjusting the right side mic so the null is pointed at the hats. I've hadd good luck with that.

I've been seeing it this way for a bit myself. The one thing I found which made me happier was when both overheads were equidistant from the center of the snare.

ott0bot · Post by **ott0bot** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 1:06 pm

So reguarding the actual model of the 414's...

I've only used the newer c414 B-XL II model. It was great and I really want to pick one up (or two)...but it's the most expensive model. Is there really a big difference between that and the B-XLS and the B-XL-II. I know there is a ULS model as well....plus numerous vintage versions. It's kinda hard to discern whats really going to be the best for the money. The general consensious is that the XLS is for instrument micing and the XL II for voxs but I've never heard the actual difference. The XLS can't be unusable for vox.....that would just be silly. Whats the real deal?

What model/year do you guys think is the best and elobarate if you can?

trodden · Post by **trodden** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:23 pm

I've only used the 414B-ULS model

mscottweber · Post by **mscottweber** » Wed Mar 11, 2009 6:21 pm

I've also only used the ULS, and it has pretty much always sounded good for me. Worked very well as drum overheads, on snare drum, and on grand piano. i thought it sounded particularly great on female vocals as well.

scott oliphant · Post by **scott oliphant** » Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:51 pm

[quote="firesine"]

And put the 414s on toms. They have a hypercardioid option and thats the definition of hi fi toms.[/quote]

that, run through our apis = happy engineer. I used to use them on overheads until I got a pair of coles (i like the overheads to be less hyped than some). When i did use them as OH's, I experimented with lots of different combinations. I recall being fond spaced pair omni 6 feet or so out from snare on either side of the kit, or just a spaced cardoid pair

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overheads with two 414's

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