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Drum micing questions


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Couple-o questions about drum micing:

 

1. Last gig, we notice a pronounced vibration or rattling sound on one of the toms. Mic'd with an SM57. After some troubleshooting (checked heads, hardware, mic mounting clamp), it seemed that the rattling was coming from the 57. A bit of duct tape on the plastic shield covering/ holding in the wind screen seemed to eliminate this. Anyone ever encounter this? Suggestions for dealing with it?

 

2. What is the best way to eliminate unwanted ringing in toms and kick in the FOH mix -- eq (para or 31 band ?) or compression/gating?

 

THANKS!

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The 57 does have a removable screen. There's a little metal spring clip under there. Actually it's more of a "reinstallable" screen, since the first few times somebody smacks it off with their drumstick you can find the clip and put it all back together.

 

For ringing drums I'd try to do something to the drumheads first.

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Originally posted by jlindquist

Couple-o questions about drum micing:




2. What is the best way to eliminate unwanted ringing in toms and kick in the FOH mix -- eq (para or 31 band ?) or compression/gating?


THANKS!

If they are well tuned and EQ'ed,you may not need anything. Otherwise,gates are used. The frequency specific ones would be really cool but you have to pay for them.

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Another thing that may be occurring is a slight feed back at the freq Mark is referring to finding with your eq. Check your placement location and see if you have any effects on the channels for the drums. Gating is also a very good way to manage this. Experiment a little. I play 5 string bass and have found that my open B can rattle a kick or floor tom while my E on the 7th or 9th will rattle the {censored} out of rack toms and snares.

Another thing my drummers have done in the past is to use gels on the heads to combat this. It does help.

 

CJ

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Originally posted by Audiopile


Bury the mid-low or something then sweep the frequency till you find the ring. Then bring that particular eq knob gain/cut up a little to fatten it up and adjust the other knobs to taste.

 

Heavily caffeined road managers always jump on me when I boost the lo-mids all the way to find the ring freq: "That drum sounds like crap!!! What are you doing!?!?!"

 

They eventually figure out that it's my way of tuning the EQ and go back to sipping their Starbucks.

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Thanks to all for the thoughtful responses.

 

We do have sweep-able mids on our channel eq (Mackie 1604vlz pro), and have tried the approach you suggest with very limited success. I will talk to the drummer about tuning the heads, but he loves a bit of what he calls "natural ring" in his kit -- says it sounds "more acoustic" and "more lively," whatever that means. Drummers . . . .

 

If he won't change, sounds like a gate might be the way to go, right?

 

Thanks again.

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Originally posted by grachuss

I saw a drummer use a very different teqnique to get rid of tom ringing. He would tape an empty cigarette pack to the top part of the head, that seemed to get rid of any unwanted ring.

 

 

or a wad of bevnaps...

 

i worked with a VERY experienced drummer who created pads out of ducktape and napkins and would tape em to the rim so that he could just flip em over onto the head of a pesky ringing tom...

 

he didnt do it very often, cause he was an expert at tuning his drums

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Originally posted by grachuss

I saw a drummer use a very different teqnique to get rid of tom ringing. He would tape an empty cigarette pack to the top part of the head, that seemed to get rid of any unwanted ring.

 

 

Funny you should mention that -- this drummer sometimes duct-tapes his wallet to his floor tom. The effectiveness of this technique depends on how many drinks he purchases before sound check.

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