Members Dogoth Posted March 24, 2015 Members Share Posted March 24, 2015 Since I'm doing FOH at a raucous County bar 13 hours a week (most weeks), I've had a chance to experiment a bit. I've often seen guys put an "underhead" mic on the ride cymbal (and of course flip channel phase). Since this is an acoustically LIVE room I've allocated 7 channels to drums K, H, SN, T1, T2, T3, Ride. Even with a plexi shield most crash cymbals seem to cut plenty on their own. I've decided that putting the ride mic on top is a much better option in that it picks up the stick articulation that is an essential ingredient in setting the groove. The drawback is that there is a little more bleed from the crash cymbals but it's not too bad. Other ideas? Comments? Just thought I'd throw it out there as a technique I've been refining (I'm pretty sure the drunks don't notice the difference so I the little extras for me :-). Also I'm guessing it sounds better through the musicians IEMs although I've never gotten any feedback (verbal :-) one way or another. Just .02 for nothing :-). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pro Sound Guy Posted March 24, 2015 Members Share Posted March 24, 2015 Underhead with an overhead/s of course? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members trevcda Posted March 25, 2015 Members Share Posted March 25, 2015 I find that if I need a dedicated ride mic, I want the isolation I can get from mic'ing underneath it. I can high-pass most of the close toms out of it and can get just the ride up where I want it. A gate will inevitably chop off the tail at the worst possible time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members agedhorse Posted March 25, 2015 Members Share Posted March 25, 2015 I prefer mic on top as well, often I will cheat a single overhead towards the ride and closer to the ride and the bleed from the crash (and others) is plenty for a pretty balanced mix. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dogoth Posted March 25, 2015 Author Members Share Posted March 25, 2015 I find that if I need a dedicated ride mic, I want the isolation I can get from mic'ing underneath it. I can high-pass most of the close toms out of it and can get just the ride up where I want it. A gate will inevitably chop off the tail at the worst possible time. As do many other acts I've worked with. The drawback is it doesn't pick up the "ping" that is the stick hitting metal. There are a lot of cases where the ride wants to be washy and indistinct (a lot of traditional jazz for instance). In that situation I guess "under" is a better option but to get that lazer edge stick articulation, the "over" position works much better. Just as Agedhorse remarked, I put it as close to the bow (the bell is never a problem) of the cymbal and as near the stick as possible without the rocking cymbal hitting it (this makes for a better signal to bleed ratio :-). I realize that the closer to the cymbal, the less it really sounds like a cymbal (the cumulative effect of many of those lower overtones get lost). I've even written posts in the past about this. Close drum micing is one of the many tradeoffs we must make in SR as compared to a studio where something like a kick and a pair of overheads can sound wonderful. Considering the style of music and the room (I have a joke that anything faster than a 1/8nd note gets lost in the reverb - forget subtlety :-), I've found that IN THIS CASE "overhead" works better. As with many SR techniques, I guess...........It depends........ :-). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.