Overhead mic type & placement

Setting Up Overheads

And now we're going to move on to the overheads. Cool.

Capturing the Overheads

The way we are going to capture the overheads is, I guess you would call it a spaced pair.

• Mic Placement:
  • This mic is going to capture this side of the kit.
  • This mic is mainly focused on this side of the kit.

Distance Considerations

What you have to be aware of is the importance of trying to maintain almost equal distance to the snare and the kick, so:

• Prevent Phase Issues:
  • If the distance is too much of a difference between the two mics, it will create phase problems.

Purpose of Overheads

For this recording, the overheads are primarily to capture:

• The cymbals
• The top end of the kit.

I'm going to try it with a fairly wide image. Obviously, the further apart they are from each other, the wider the stereo image you're going to get on the drum kit. I would say this is fairly wide.

Room Considerations

Of course, you also have to take into consideration the room size:

• You can't put the mic too far or too close to the wall.
• You don't want reflections from the wall getting into the mic.

I think this setup is pretty good, and we are ready to set up the room mics.

Cymbal Impact

Another thing to consider is when you hit the cymbals. If you hit the crash, they move a little bit, which can create some funny phase issues with the overhead.

• Check for Wobbly Phase Effects:
  • Hit the cymbals quite hard to see if the movement creates a kind of wobbly phase effect on the overhead.
  • It's usually if the overhead is too close to the cymbal that it can create that effect.

We might have to move it up a little bit, but I want a pretty tight sound for this recording.

Moving Forward

So here we go. Let's go for the room mics!