Mic placement question. Live situation

pistonsvox

Howiye folks,

A question for yis, need to reduce snare wire's spill into bass drum mic, as i mic the beater side (no port and looks so much better in a live situation for this particular drumkit...)

Is there any isolation foam i can cover the top of the mic with?
Gate settings have been tempermental at various gigs, sometimes ive no spill sometimes its all over the gaff. Depends how well I set the gate. Ive even tried using frequency dependant gate setting still have problems! Any ideas?

And we cant afford a b91 to be permanently stuck in it:P

Cheers:pac:

DamagedTrax

if you cover the mic with anything you're gonna lose a lot of the kick frequencies. you could try mounting some foam on the back ring of the kick so that it blocks the spill from the snare bottom? (similiar to how you'd isolate the hi-hat from snare but on the underside at drummers knee).

pistonsvox

Sounds like a plan alright, it wouldn't get in the way though would it?

DamagedTrax

as long as its placed carefully between drummers legs it should be ok.. unless he uses a double kick.

pistonsvox

Suppose yeah! Sure we'll try it out. Cheers dude!

DataRecording

Hey
Two things will help. Firstly obviously positioning of the mic by the beater I.e a cardioid microphone facing away from the snare towards beater. Or also approach the beater from the inside of the kick. I sometimes use a PZM microphone, practically up against the beater on a pillow or something, inside the drum. It give a nice clicky beater sound, when coupled with the main kick sound it it gives a really nice, cutting kick. And snare is never an issue with the pzm. Bar all this. afterwards when everything is recording cut out the frequencies you do not need on the beater mic and you could surprise yourself by how little the snare stands out anymore. hope this help. good luck with it.

if6was9

Is the drummer using the tom mounts on the top of the kick drum?
If he's not and it's free then you can place a mic inside the kick and run the XLR up there so it's nice and tidy. Place it once and just leave it in there once it's set up. Very tidy solution if there's no port on the kick.

godfrey

If you care about sound then try micing the front head. Looks should not be the overriding concern.

g

pistonsvox

didnt see all these replies sorry lads,

Yeah for the last tour I used a 57 on the beater side (with a clamp) and d6 on the other side. Still getting snare's through the 57 but it's giving me the best results. If the lads make some cash and afford to spend some money on mics I plan to get those bass drum mic suspender things, so i can leave a 91 in there and run the cable through a port, ill have no problems with snare spill then!!

@godfrey, yeah ive given up on looks, sound wins

@ if6was9, Yeah the rack tom is on a stand, its a standalone bass drum.

Anyone know where ya can get cheap cymbal mic clamps in ireland? Goosneck style?

i57dwun4yb1pt8

you really need to have two mics ,
the one at the back should be gated heavy to just give you the click

and the one at the front for the body and tone

OR put a d6 inside - permanent

roast

DaDumTish is right, gate the back mic so it captures the click and nothing else.
You could also use a pop shield clipped onto the bass drum, with a bit of extra foam mounted on it, positioned in between the mic and the snare.

pistonsvox

roast wrote: »

DaDumTish is right, gate the back mic so it captures the click and nothing else.

Thats what i've been doing, gate never gets it quite right though, frequency filters never work for me properly! Snare always manages to open the gate

pistonsvox

DaDumTish wrote: »

you really need to have two mics ,
the one at the back should be gated heavy to just give you the click

and the one at the front for the body and tone

OR put a d6 inside - permanent

this is exactly what i need! If only there was one's for snare's and toms... could almost get rid of external mics altogether :pac:

fitz

Seems like a whole lot of complication to avoid using a ported front head on the kick, tbh.

pistonsvox

fitz wrote: »

Seems like a whole lot of complication to avoid using a ported front head on the kick, tbh.

Jaysus tell me about it... Drummers not havin any of it

fitz

Yeah, I'm the very picture of fussy musician when it comes to my instruments, but outside a studio environment, I'd question any noticeable difference having a port would make to "his sound" in a live situation. And you can be pretty sure having a port would make it easier to get better results than you're currently getting without the port, out front.

I'll never understand musicians who don't take a practical approach to getting the best results in the given environment. Live or studio, you want the listener to hear things sound their best, but what makes a kick sound good recorded, in a well separated mix, is not necessarily going to be what gives you the best sound live. If it's a mess for the guy trying to make it sound good out front, why do it? Make his life easier, he'll make you sound better. Fact.

Tbh pistonvox, don't envy you that gig.