Mic-ing The Drums & Experiment 3

10 MICROPHONE SET-UP EXPERIMENT



TYPES OF MICROPHONES USED, THEIR SETUPS AND INPUTS (First Attempt)

  • Overheads - Two sets of AKG C414 XLII - AB technique - Input 13 & 19 (Phantom Power)
  • Bass Drum Out - One Ribbon Mic - Off Axis - Input 18 
  • Bass Drum In - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Off Axis - Input 17
  • Tom 1 - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Input 16
  • Floor Tom - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Input 20 
  • Snare Top - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Input 15
  • Snare Bottom -  One dynamic SM57- Pointing towards the snare wires - Input 14
  • Hi-Hat - One Neumann Km 183 - Pointing away from the drum set towards the edge of the hi -hat - Input 12 
  • Room Mic - One condenser Neumann mic - Facing the middle of the drum set - Input 21 (Phantom Power) 

RECORDINGS


WHAT WENT WRONG

  • We didn't check the settings of the overhead condensers and the bass roll off of the dynamic mics (Sennheiser md421)
  • The dynamic microphone (Sennheiser md421) on the toms and snare wasn't pointing towards the focused area. (Which is why the floor tom is picking up the snare and the tom 1 is picking up the ride cymbal. 
  • We got the wrong microphone for the hi-hat, we took the omni Neumann km183 instead of the cardioid MXL 993 pencil condenser. 
  • The overheads were placed further away from the crash and ride cymbals.



TYPED OF MICROPHONES USED, THEIR SETUPS AND INPUTS (Second Attempt) 

  • Overheads - Two sets of AKG C414 XLII - AB technique - Input 13 & 19 (Phantom Power)
  • Bass Drum In - One dynamic AKG D110 - Off Axis - Input 17
  • Tom 1 - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Input 16
  • Floor Tom - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Input 20 
  • Snare Top - One dynamic Sennheiser md421 ii - Input 15
  • Snare Bottom -  One dynamic SM57 - Pointing towards the snare wires - Input 14
  • Hi-Hat - One MXL 993 pencil condenser - Pointing away from the drum set towards the edge of the hi -hat - Input 12 
  • Room Mic - One Ribbon Mic - Facing the middle of the drum set - Input 21 (Phantom Power) 

WHAT CHANGED

  • All toms and snare microphones are pointed towards its focused areas, especially tom 1 with its deflected part facing towards the ride cymbal to minimise bleed.
  • The bass roll off from the toms mics are set to the first position next to M (Music) giving it a little bass roll off, the snare mic is kept to M. 
  • The overheads are lowered to capture more of the cymbals and the settings are changed to hyper-cardioid. 
  • The room mic is replaced with the ribbon mic to get a more smooth sounding sound. 
  • The hi-hat mic was also replaced with the correct cardioid mic (MXL 993 pencil).
  • The bass drum 
  • We had a malfunction with the condenser mic to capture the outsides of the bass drum, so we've decided to not have an outer mic. 







Tom mics settings


Overheads mic settings (hyper-cardioid) and pad

RECORDINGS

    (Panned)

    WHAT WAS GOOD

    • We could hear the cymbals clearly by changing the polar pattern on the microphone from cardioid to hyper-cardioid and lowering the microphones helped. 
    • We could also hear a more defined sound from the toms and snare top.

    THE MIXING BOARD


    OVERALL

    Overall the kit sounded clear and more focused. I learn that double checking from its settings, pads to the correct microphone and its polar patterns is a must because of the amount of mics we have. At the end of the experiment we are able to meet our goal which is to minimise bleeding as much as possible. 

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