Studio Projects B1 vs. MXL V67G on snare drum...

[sparky]

I've used a B1 on drums, never closemic'd snare though. I don't really like that mic for that purpose. Its too...I don't know how to describe this but the high-end is like too...poky? high brilliant things, sibilance, strainers, cymbals, i don't like how they sound on that mic, at least plain, maybe you could roll off the top a bit w/ EQ or pres.

more generally though

that's where the "snap" or "crack" of a snare is found.

In my experience, which is pretty limited, I find that without a big chunk of otherwise pooey sounding mid, you don't get the snap or the crack of the snare, its not the high brilliance that does it. Like take a SDC, put it far away from the snare, even like six or eight feed away, but point it at the top of the drum. You'll get tons of brightness in the recorded track (Assuming the drum and player were putting it there) but there's no crack or snap. Maybe an awesome drummer with sharp clean hits would deliver it more, I don't know. I find it hard to get snap or crack without mixing in a close dynamic. The close dynamic can be on the shell, off axis on the top, even on the bottom, but alone, it will sound like ass: sort of like someone wailing on an empty cereal box with a drumstick. But mixed in with the other brighter mic, you get snap/crack.

Anyway, YMMV, just that chasing high end has not increased my personal snare crackiness.

[vintageblue]

I've used a B1 on drums, never closemic'd snare though. I don't really like that mic for that purpose. Its too...I don't know how to describe this but the high-end is like too...poky? high brilliant things, sibilance, strainers, cymbals, i don't like how they sound on that mic, at least plain, maybe you could roll off the top a bit w/ EQ or pres.

more generally though

that's where the "snap" or "crack" of a snare is found.

In my experience, which is pretty limited, I find that without a big chunk of otherwise pooey sounding mid, you don't get the snap or the crack of the snare, its not the high brilliance that does it. Like take a SDC, put it far away from the snare, even like six or eight feed away, but point it at the top of the drum. You'll get tons of brightness in the recorded track (Assuming the drum and player were putting it there) but there's no crack or snap. Maybe an awesome drummer with sharp clean hits would deliver it more, I don't know. I find it hard to get snap or crack without mixing in a close dynamic. The close dynamic can be on the shell, off axis on the top, even on the bottom, but alone, it will sound like ass: sort of like someone wailing on an empty cereal box with a drumstick. But mixed in with the other brighter mic, you get snap/crack.

Anyway, YMMV, just that chasing high end has not increased my personal snare crackiness.

Thanks to everyone for their input. It seems I won't be able to escape using at least a few dynamic mics on kits. However I recently was turned onto the MXL V67n: it's the the pencil mic version of the 67g and features interchangeable capsules. For the same price as the 67g it's the only other condenser in the $100 market to feature anything remotely close to a truly "flat" frequency graph. I'll order one and keep a couple of 57s & 609s close at hand.