I have been asked this question several times in the last two weeks so thought it might make sense to give you a what and why, and what are the future plans.
In a live recording setting everything in changing constantly. Especially at the bigger
Bonnaroo sized festivals with 8-12 different bands coming on and off the stage each day. Even at the smaller one band shows there is often a last minute change in instrumentation. It is because of the fluid nature of the jobs that I chose the microphones that I did. Most of them are great on just about anything.
Of course there are limits, but for the most part these microphone are extremely versatile, and all of them can be used in a pinch.
Now I'd like preface this by saying that this is what I carry out on live recordings and live streams. Rock and Roll, Hip Hop, ext. Trust me when I am in a studio with a full orchestra, bust out the 67's and 4038's. For the majority of the location recordings though,
Neumann's are a bit of overkill.
I'll lay this out in what I would hand my assistant engineer as an input list, then give some explanations after.
Let's start out with my standard drum kit setup.
Kick Inside (Bass Drum)
Shure Beta 91's
Kick Outside (Bass Drum)-
Electro Voice 868
Snare Top-
Shure Sm 57
Snare Bottom-
Shure Sm 57
Hi Hat-
Shure Sm 81
Tom 1 (Rack 1)-
Sennheiser e604
Tom 2 (Rack 2)-
Sennheiser e604
Floor Tom- Sennheiser e604
Over Head Left And Right-
Shure KSM 32
When I moved to North Carolina in 2008 I wanted to arrive with the best sounding live drum mic kit in the area, and I completely succeded. This grouping of microphone lends a perfect balance of punch and harmonic content without taking up the rest of the spectrum, leaving room in the mix for the other instrument on stage. What I mean by this is you can clearly here each individual element of the kit, but it does not get in the way.
The Shure Beta 91 is pretty standard in the realm of live production. It gives the kick drum some nice punch from the beater. Blend that with the extremely mellow 868 and they create a great Kick Drum tone. The great thing about the 868 is a huge scoop in the lower mid-range. This leave tons of room for the guitars and some of the Bass guitar without having to reach for any Eq's. These two together create a fantastic punch in the top end of the spectrum as well as just the right amount of low end to be there, but not be in the way of the bass guitar.
There is in my opinion not better microphone for the snare drum that the Shure SM 57. I've tried all of the alternatives, Audex, AKG 451, Beta 56, Beta 98, E905, Beta 58. There is nothing that I have used that is just "IT". I throw up a Shure sm 57 that's is the sound of a snare drum. A little blending of the top and bottom mics dependent on the type of music, (One of them out of phase as well) a touch of compressions, and this is the sound of nearly every snare you have ever heard.
I am not locked into the Shure SM 81 as a High Hat mic. Don't get me wrong, it is a phenomenal microphone, and I love it on Hat's. The thing is that it has an extremely flat frequency response. So whatever you put in that microphone is what you get out of it. It has a nice tight pickup pattern as well.
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| Shure SM81 Frequency Chart |
With just a little bit out thought it is really easy to place this microphone so that there is not a lot of the rest of the kit bleeding through. But I have other things that sound great on a High Hat as well. AKG 451, Shure SM7b, Sennheiser 4041, the great thing about the SM 81 is that (as I said earlier) it is extremely versatile. I picked up a couple of them. High Hat, Rack Toms, Drum Overheads, Violins, Saxaphone, the Shure SM 81 is one of those mics that I can just grab and throw on any instrument and it will sound good.
The Toms are my favorite components of the kit. They are, in my opinion, what give the drum kit life and excitement The boom-click monophonic timing of the snare and kick are of course critical elements of the performance and of mix. The Rack Toms helps widen the kit away fromt he monophonic's of the kick and snare. The effect that has on the entire mix is some fantastic space and punch.
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| Sennheiser e604 Frequency Chart |
I said earlier that these mics are all live application microphones only. Well that is not at all true for the
Sennheiser e604's. I love these microphones, I use them live as well as in the studio. They are the best Rack Tom microphones on the market today. With a nice little, and I do mean little, bump in the 3k-4k rage, and a descending slop through the lower rage, these mics just fit into the mix.
Aaaand the Overhead's. 95% of the time, I lean on these mics the heaviest. Before the kick faders, before the snare faders, I push up the overhead faders. This gives you a great idea about the overall sound of the kit and the ambiance surrounding it.
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| Shure KSM 32 Frequency Chart |
With their flat response in the mid range and the bump in the 7K and 10K range, the KSM 32's are perfect for grabbing an honest picture of the overall kit and helping the higher frequencies in the cymbals stick out a bit. Again a great overall microphone that fits perfectly into my little mic locker.
All of that comes together to look like this>>>>>
and sound something like
THIS.
Space By Robbert Warren
Sadly this was the one and only time I got to work with drummer Kevin Brock. He passed away a couple weeks after this session. It was, and remains, one of the best drums session I have ever had.
Well, I obviously cannot be concise. I'm at nearly a thousand words here already, and that's just on the drum kit. LOL. I'll round out the rest of the mic locker after the holiday.
If you would like to jump ahead, there is a full list of microphones, as well as all of the other gear that I use
here
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!!!
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| Rock And Roll Mistletoe! |
Cheers,
How The World Hears You!
Todd
Toddfitch@soundshoprecording.com
