Overhead Miking Techniques w/Pictures

[Jaws of Hell]

I'm finally doing drums for the first time and I've been reading up on different methods of overhead miking such as Glyn Johns, Recorderman, etc. and I wondered if anyone knows of any pictures of such a setup (especially Recorderman). In reading, I think I'm understanding, but a picture is worth 1000 words, as they say.

Thanks!

[Red Rockets Glare]

http://www.kimcheerecords.com/articles/drums/

[Ollie]

I do not have any pics, but it is fairly easy.

Mic 1: Sit down at the drum kit. Place two drum sticks end to end with one end on the middle of the snare pointing up. Your first mic is placed there. This is over the drummers head directly above the snare.

Mic 2: Still sitting down at the kit. Take the two end to end sticks and tilt them so they are over your right shoulder. Start with your 2nd mic there.

Pan each of these mics hard left and right. Listen to the stereo image thru headphones tapping the drums lightly.

Q1. Are the snare and the bass drum in the center of the image?
Q2. Do you here a nice stereo image going across?

Here is another tip:
1. Cut a piece of string that is the same length as the two drum sticks that just touch mic1 (from snare middle to mic).

2. Now cut another string that is the length from middle of the kick drum to mic above the snare.

3. Tie the two strings together not cutting off any length in either. Now you have a knot where the two strings meet.

4.Tape the shorter end(non-knot side) to the middle of the snare drum. The string shoud be able to be streched and just touch the capsule of the mic above the snare.

5. Tape the longer end(non-knot side) to the middle of the kick drum.

Ok, now mic number two can be positioned anywhere along the access of the knot and you should be very close to equidistant for your snare and kick.

Experiment placing mic behind the right shoulder where the knot touches it. How is the stereo image. Experimenting bringing mic 2 out closer to the toms. See what you think

[Zeppelin4Life]

I think one of the best tricks for stereo micing is the ability to switch phase after tracking. if you can switch the phase and hear a huge spacey weird difference, chances are the original mics are in phase! Adversely, if you dont hear much differnce you probably have a phase problem to begin with. Try the XY technique also.

[rob@SigmaDelta]

I do not have any pics, but it is fairly easy.

Mic 1: Sit down at the drum kit. Place two drum sticks end to end with one end on the middle of the snare pointing up. Your first mic is placed there. This is over the drummers head directly above the snare.

Mic 2: Still sitting down at the kit. Take the two end to end sticks and tilt them so they are over your right shoulder. Start with your 2nd mic there.

Pan each of these mics hard left and right. Listen to the stereo image thru headphones tapping the drums lightly.

Q1. Are the snare and the bass drum in the center of the image?
Q2. Do you here a nice stereo image going across?

Here is another tip:
1. Cut a piece of string that is the same length as the two drum sticks that just touch mic1 (from snare middle to mic).

2. Now cut another string that is the length from middle of the kick drum to mic above the snare.

3. Tie the two strings together not cutting off any length in either. Now you have a knot where the two strings meet.

4.Tape the shorter end(non-knot side) to the middle of the snare drum. The string shoud be able to be streched and just touch the capsule of the mic above the snare.

5. Tape the longer end(non-knot side) to the middle of the kick drum.

Ok, now mic number two can be positioned anywhere along the access of the knot and you should be very close to equidistant for your snare and kick.

Experiment placing mic behind the right shoulder where the knot touches it. How is the stereo image. Experimenting bringing mic 2 out closer to the toms. See what you think

Or put up 2 mics, play and listen, adjust... repeat.

[logancircle]

Red Rockets Glare, great site bruh. I really like the drum sound on your MP3 a lot. Though the snare is pretty loud, I love the snare sound. Is that the Behringer ECM8000 on the snare? If so, is it gated? If so, I never knew it could sound so good on a snare! Never even thought of using it. Omnis are great as close mics, though, when you've got room mics because they blend together naturally with all the same non-fake reverb. Good job.

cd in DC

[cgarges]

That's Andy Hong's record label's site. The mics are Earthworks.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[tubemonkey35]

Ollie detailed Glyn Johns O/H setup in his first portion very well, I have also seen Recorderman document this way as well.

One thing I do with it is keep all my pans up the middle and listen to the bottom end of the mono image as a bring mic up and reverse phase as needed, or actually just move the out of phase mic in to phase.

You will hear the PUNCH of the drums when you are in phase, then you can pan them out and it's a wonderful thing.

The other really important thing to stress is making sure that the kick is balanced in those overheads i.e. in the middle of the stereo image, other wise later you may not be very happy; same goes for the snare.

Oh, as always trust your ears and this technique works best with really good balanced drummers.

[tubemonkey35]

One other thing that Recorderman stressed was to make sure you aim the first O/H at the spot on the snare where the drummer strikes the head.[/b]