Earthworks TC 30K for drums

[citystate]

Joel, you used these for the new unsane drum overheads right?

I saw that Tonteknik in Umea has a pair of these as well. Are they well suited for all styles of music or are they better for loud/heavy music?

Also, has anyone had a chance to try the 3 mic Earthworks setup on drums?

[soundguy]

I should probably just let joel comment but earthworks mics in my experience are really best suited for a good sounding room. They'll do a great job of recording all the acoustic problems you have in your space if any are present along with whatever source you are trying to capture.

dave

[JohnDavisNYC]

i'll throw down my .02 cents on the earthworks as overheads since joel is editing right now. we just finished 2 days of tracking some modern jazz stuff, drums, bass, vibes, guitar, vocals... kinda like 'anti-jazz'... very radiohead-esque harmonic stuff, all straight 1/8th grooves, but still very jazz in terms of instrumentation and execution. we used the earthworks overhead, FET47 on the outside head of the bass drum (it was a small gretch kit with an 18" bd, full heads both sides) oktavas on the toms, that revox thingy on snare, and the c12 about 5 feet in front of the kit. the earthworks are awesome in this sort of situation, as well as heavy music. for jazz, they were awesome, because they picked up the sound of the drums in the room, as well as some nice acoustic bass bleed. IMO they pretty much rule, although tehy definately hear alot of room, so it helps that the room over here sounds really nice and neutral. the close mics added some definition, and the c12 added some anti-jazz (through the 33609), but the earthworks sound pretty awesome. i will say, though, that they might not be everyone's cup of tea... for some stuff i'd rather have large diaphragm tube mics or something with some more character. the earthworks rely on the character of the pre (in this case, a drawmer 1960 with telefunken tubes in it) to sound 'cool', in my opinion.

hope that helps,

john

[BJohnston]

I've used the TC 30 on kickdrums. They sound really cool. Really punchy. Those mics are one of the best investments I've ever made. I've used them as overheads also. Never as anything else thouch. Again they sound great.

BJohnston

[djimbe]

We had a guy in here in December that got the most bitchin' drum sound I've heard in a while with TC30K's. Two kits near each other, two controlled hard hitters, and two Earthworks looking up just under and away from the rack toms on each kit. There were overheads too, but the Earthworks really tied the drums together. They take alot of SPL and they have no proximity effect, so you can get them right up on a loud source if you have to.

Dave's so right about the room. They can be completely unflattering 'cause they get it ALL.

Great looking up the fingerboard of an upright too. If the performer lets you fit it in the bridge area with a bit of foam, so much the better...

[joel hamilton]

I like them as overheads a lot.

Like Toaster said about the current session I am in, They rocked it for OH in thos case again.

I used them as the OH on the new Unsane record as well. I like the "hovering above the kit" type overheads. Like my ears up there, but better...

I get "focus" for the drums with a centered cardioid out in front of the kit.

I usually run a Lomo 19A19 down by the floor on the floor tom side as well for more "focus" and it helps center the floor tom in the kit image fo me, so it doesnt sound like a barrel being hit behind the drummer, as opposed to the rack tom that always seems to sound good in every mic on the kit...

I use that drawmer with the NOS gold base 12ax7's in it these days for the eathworks, butu I liked the 2-610 and I have liked the Telefunken V76 as well. Something like that seems to work well with the earthworks.

They are great mics.

I have used them for OH for almost every record I have done in the last two or three years.

[@?,*???&?]

I had a set of these for awhile. Loved them on acoustic instruments. No proximity effect and you could get them right on the instrument because of the omni-directional pick-up pattern. Incredible detail with a slight degree of noise. Recording in a dead space yielded a great, sincere, honest sound. Check out Neal Casal's "Sun Rises Here" disc as I used them on much of the acoustic instrumentation. Greg Leisz' dobro solo on "Dandelion Wine" was an insane performance, glad I had a great mic to capture every nuance of his performance.

[twitchmonitor]

I always used them for room mics (until the guy who loaned 'em to the studio took 'em back). Taped to the floor, pointing at the kit. Yum.