Hey guys, I have a question about drum mic leakage. I have my kit completely setup with mics(1 snare, 1 high tom, 1 low tom, 1 kick, 1 high hat, 2 condensers on top for crashes and overall set). I guess my question is how to get the best isolation for each mic as I seem to have a lot of leakage (high hat mic is an SM57 which is picking up both high hat and snare, main leakage comes from high tom mic, low tom mic and high hat mic picking up the snare, hoping to isolate the high hat and snare especially so I can EQ the snare by itself). TIA for any help.
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Bob Seifert, SEIT
LiveSine Productions
Drummer of 3up3down

CrimsonDrummer wrote:

Hey guys, I have a question about drum mic leakage. I have my kit completely setup with mics(1 snare, 1 high tom, 1 low tom, 1 kick, 1 high hat, 2 condensers on top for crashes and overall set). I guess my question is how to get the best isolation for each mic as I seem to have a lot of leakage (high hat mic is an SM57 which is picking up both high hat and snare, main leakage comes from high tom mic, low tom mic and high hat mic picking up the snare, hoping to isolate the high hat and snare especially so I can EQ the snare by itself). TIA for any help.

The short answer is "not easily".

In fact using that spill can be your best weapon to creating a kit which sounds like a whole instrument. Often a drum with individual mics on each part can in fact sound just like that, certainly not as you'd hear the kit in real life.

Also the more microphones you use the more phase issues you will likely encounter due to distance and reflections and spacing.

However, dispite all that you can use polar patterns to your advantage to eliminate as much spill as possible - cardioid mics for example have a dead spot at 180 degrees off-axixs, hyper-cardiods have the spot at about 120 degrees. So some thought to mic choice and then placement with and ear for spill reduction might help.

Don't get me wrong I like individual sounds of the drums too, but may I ask what style of music is this for? - could you not use 2 mics and get a geat phase coherent drum sound?

Just curious.
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Recording Studio Suntans

www.myspace.com/rememberingcrimson
That is what we sound like, those mixes were done with audacity so don't mind the mix, just use it as a reference to what type of music we play In terms of using fewer mics, I will try that, I just thought it would be better if you had multiple mics so that you had an individual sound to EQ if you don't like how it sounds. But I did look at BlueBear's EQ guide and it says in there if you don't like how it initially sounds EQing isn't going to do much good. I also know that there is a problem with how I tune my drums, and I have a feeling I'm not getting that "big band" sound in part due to that. So I am going to keep on reading the drum tuning guide I have as well. But I will try fewer mics, maybe just 2 overheads, a snare mic, a kick and one to pick up the two toms (high and low). Thanks for the tips, if you have any more they are much appreciated.
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Bob Seifert, SEIT
LiveSine Productions
Drummer of 3up3down

CrimsonDrummer wrote:

www.myspace.com/rememberingcrimson That is what we sound like, those mixes were done with audacity so don't mind the mix, just use it as a reference to what type of music we play In terms of using fewer mics, I will try that, I just thought it would be better if you had multiple mics so that you had an individual sound to EQ if you don't like how it sounds. But I did look at BlueBear's EQ guide and it says in there if you don't like how it initially sounds EQing isn't going to do much good. I also know that there is a problem with how I tune my drums, and I have a feeling I'm not getting that "big band" sound in part due to that. So I am going to keep on reading the drum tuning guide I have as well. But I will try fewer mics, maybe just 2 overheads, a snare mic, a kick and one to pick up the two toms (high and low). Thanks for the tips, if you have any more they are much appreciated.

OK sounds good...

Do try this technique:

http://sfrecording.com/videos/DrumRecording.mp4
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Recording Studio Suntans

So they actually only use two overhead mics? Wow, that's pretty cool. Ummm....so I guess my question is that for say a "typical" professional setup, do they use the two condensers placed like in the video and then a mic on the kick and snare and that's it? Thanks again for the help, I'm definitely going to try that overhead mic technique tonight. Thanks again.
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Bob Seifert, SEIT
LiveSine Productions
Drummer of 3up3down

CrimsonDrummer wrote:

So they actually only use two overhead mics? Wow, that's pretty cool. Ummm....so I guess my question is that for say a "typical" professional setup, do they use the two condensers placed like in the video and then a mic on the kick and snare and that's it? Thanks again for the help, I'm definitely going to try that overhead mic technique tonight. Thanks again.

Typical does not exist, there are no rules, every drum kit sounds different, every player is different and every song needs a unique sound.

No they use only those two mics for that recorderman technique, no extra kick or snare, sounds great too, especially if you make a duplicate set and compress it heavily.

On the other hand i've known engineers to use 20 mics.. remember no rules, but the more you use the harder it can become to battle or, utilise phase issues.
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Recording Studio Suntans

Quote:

especially if you make a duplicate set and compress it heavily.

So basically when you do that, do you just do a copy and paste of the actual waves and then compress it? And what ratio do you use for that (just generally, I will still mess around with it for the sound I want, but it's nice to have a place to start ) But yeah, I will try a couple things out and let you know how it goes. Thanks again for all the help!
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Bob Seifert, SEIT
LiveSine Productions
Drummer of 3up3down

CrimsonDrummer wrote:

Quote: especially if you make a duplicate set and compress it heavily. So basically when you do that, do you just do a copy and paste of the actual waves and then compress it? And what ratio do you use for that (just generally, I will still mess around with it for the sound I want, but it's nice to have a place to start ) But yeah, I will try a couple things out and let you know how it goes. Thanks again for all the help!

Well I'm used to a desk with patch cables, so I;d "borrow" the signal (take a feed) and yeah plug them into to other channels and compress the crap out of them. Fast attack for drums, and cranked to 2:1, 3:1 or much higher depending on the sound you want, the point for me is to make it obviously compressed, as an effect, then blend with the dry.
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Recording Studio Suntans

Great call AC on the miking technique in the vid above. It worked great!!! We put a snare and kick mic in for emphasis on those two pieces but the drums sounded great! Thanks again for everything, can't wait to mess with compression on the duplicate tracks
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Bob Seifert, SEIT
LiveSine Productions
Drummer of 3up3down

Ah I love a happy ending
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Recording Studio Suntans

well what actually worked pretty well for me was that i tried getting all the tom mics about 2 inches from the rim and about 3 inches high and point them away from the snare. i would also put the kick drum mike inside the kickdrum, try it out see hoe it works i had pretty good results with minimal bleed