General Music Chat

ok I have posted several adds over net seeking musicians,have someone that is wishing to do some "networking" was also offered to back a Family Friend on a CD for His Wife for aniversay present. delima is...DRUM MICS .... AAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH
go into GC and all they want to do is talk up the HIGH dollar crap or try and push off the older cheap stuff they can not move. am on a budget,have 7 piece birch/mahogany kit.10,12,14,16 rack toms,18 floor tom,snare,kick,roto toms,timbales (2) and an array of cymbals with a gong all on gibralter 2-tier rack/cage. any ideas? best bang for the buck but like Ya"All here remember I am not made of money,,,,was looking at the Samson's as well as the CAD series? e-bay is LOADED with those audix fusion kits as well as the higher end kits,shure pg series AKG,OSP,Audio Technica....the list goes on. am becoming over whelmed. what does or has Your drummers used? what kind of luck with them? am afraid if I go to cheap 1st time I hit one with a stick it will shatter.
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Thank You for the support.


ROCK ON!!!!!!

We have a full set of Carvin drum mic's that we use and have had zero issues / problems.
Often we use only the kick mic and the two condensors overhead with good results as well. The nice thing about thes condensors is you can install an AA battery in the mic and not use the phantom power that creates noise and feed back problems.
The more mic's the greater the probability of feed back.
I have changed those batteries twice in two years. Not continous use but damn near.

I have always used Shure SM-57's for the tom's and snare. The Bass drum don't know because I have always triggered that. The overheads always a electric condencer of some sort "never had a favorite condencer"
Almost forgot, I usually trigger the toms also, depends on what PA I'm using at the time. Don't forget you might want to run a gate on all the drum mics.

Hey RG

What's trigger?

And why gate?

Hey RG

What's trigger?

http://www.americanmusical.com/Item--i-DDR-DDTRS?SRC=D0407FG0HAMS0000&utm_source=froogle&utm_medium=feed&

And why gate?

Keeps unwanted noise down to a limit.

Ok so I understand Noise gate.
Do you put a seperate gate on each mic?
Damn that could get expensive in our case.
I have considered a small 8 input mixer just for the drummer, Mix his sound down and send it into on input on the PA, some mixers have noise gates, or at least I would only need gate the final mix ahead of the PA.

Actually, Sans, the gates used for drum mic'ing would be considered more of a frequency gate than noise. When mic'ing every tom, you can gate out the other drums as they are all different frequencies in their tunings. To my understanding, gates can cut the other drum frequencies and boost the one for that certain drum for that mic. Gets better separation that way.
Back to the thread now. No matter what, the better the mic, the better the recording. But, you can still get a really good recording using cheaper mics as long as you get good signal and you can eq it and/or tweak the sound with effects and processors. I had started out with a cheap set of Nady drum mics and got some good recordings. Later, I got an AKG kick drum mic (D 112, I believe) and a SM57 for the snare. I use the Nady kick drum mic for the floor tom as it has a larger diaphragm for the low end, and still use the Nady's on the toms. Also added a Peavey condenser overhead mic for the cymbals. You can hear it all on "Taint it Love" on my profile at www.myspace.com/jeffcoleysband if you want. It's an old Rogers drumkit and every drummer that plays on them love it.

AH, Frequency Gate! My horizons expand again! Thanks Jeff.

Whats a frequency ? Just kidding.

I found a good deal on Craigslist of a guy selling a 7pc Audio Technica kit. Only cost me about $140. I had to order an additional mic for the snare and, at the time, second kick. I use an AKG for the snare and a CAD for the bass. It makes the original mic sound like crap...the CAD makes the kick drum sound like a cannon!

There's a lesson to be learned here too, about dealing with Audio Technica...don't bother! I asked them if they would sell me seperate mics, because of the size of the kit. They told me to go to Guitar Center and they can order for me. GC told me that they could not order individual mics from AT, and to try getting them direct. HUH???

The other thing I do is run the whole mess into a Yamaha 16tr mixer, then send it to the PA. That way I've EQ'd each individual drum, and set a volume level before it gets to the PA. Leave my EQ flat and only adjust final volume at the PA.

Az:
I assume you mean you leave the EQ flat at the PA? As you already EQ'd at the Yamaha as a pre-mix, yes?

Sans...you are correct! I guess the coffee hasn't totally kicked in yet for me to be coherant!

It better kick in soon...we have rehearsal today!

No, I dont think it is the coffee in as much as the typed word just does not convey the neuance of inflection that would be key in an open conversation.
The set up you describe is exactly the way I would like to go with our percussion.
I also need to gate all three vocal mic's.
Dang this business gets expensive.

There's one additional angle to my setup.

Thanks to my overhead condensor mics, I use some really good little ear buds, plugged into my board's headphone jack, and get a beautiful mix of everybody.

I've tried using a floor monitor and couldn't hear a damn thing...but this is perfect! It also makes you pay more attention to your vocals.

Thanks, that would work well for Steve-o. He sometimes has difficulty with the monitor mix, as it is primarily for the vocalist.
Tuesday, I am going to try putting my amp out front with the monitors instead of behind me. I use the PA mix for the mains anyway so this may cut down on feed back through the vocalist mic,s as well.

Good info, much appreciated.

hey thanks Sans,
as I was reading all the imformation I started having questions too....in fact same ones You asked...LOL,

so I get the mics, have a 16 channel Behringer (powered), now how many gates need I buy? as I have yet to see a reply as to Sana question... 1/mic or can they be "gated" after My mixer to main but before going out to the mains? say a "stereo"? or need I gate each mic before My mixer ( 12...think I just saw $$$$ flieng out of My wallett????????????)what brand? DBX?ALEISIS?BEHRINGER?

ok starting point would be overheads ( condensor's)and snare 1st( SM-57)? than add MORE mics if I need them? triggers I could use say for small venues however that also would require a ?"Module"? Brand? am looking at doing a couple outdoor shows this fall ( still awaiting word) and really want to caputre the warm lucious tones of My kit ( love the way the birch/mahogony sound).I also have a wrap around plexi shield for My kit too. have used it in past when church was micing kit for recordings ( not sure of what mics they used or equiptment but they had some kick ass Carvin cabs)
was looking to go with the SM-57's around entire kit ( bad move?)but not sure of overheads or hi-hat, sorry just I am getting so frustrated at all this wish My Sound Man was still local ( moved to Dallas for BIG BUCKS!!!)

Thank You for all the imformation and the continuing support.
ROCK ON !!!!!