Sixteen Samples Of Mics On Snare

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 9:12 pm

Well now...
This is one I've been meaning to get to for quite some time.
I've put it off long enough, so here goes.

The gear:

Again, the mixer: Yamaha 01V96v2
Snare: Pearl Omar Hakim Signature 13x5"
Recorder: Tascam CDRW2000
The DAW (for normalizing): Sony Soundforge 7

All mics recorded at same basic angle - roughly 2-3 inches from top head, off to left side and aimed at the center.
75Hz HPF on mic channels. No other EQ. No Compression, gating, etc...

The mics:

1) Neumann KM84 (Switched to -10)
2) Audio Technica 4050 (Cardioid, -10, Flat)
3) Shure Beta98
4) AKG C480B with CK61/ULS (Cardioid) capsule (-10, Flat)
5) AKG D125 (Because it was in my way)
6) Shure SM77
7) AKG C535EB (0dB, Flat)
8 ) EV 468
9) Sennheiser e609 'Silver'
10) Sennheiser 409 (The real thing)
11) Shure SM57
12) Shure Beta57
13) Beyer M88
14) Sennheiser MD421 (M)
15) Audix D2 (For DaveDog)
16) Sennheiser MD441 (M, Flat)

Click here to access the trax.

Enjoy!

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:23 pm

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 11:24 pm

rockstardave wrote:

+1

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:52 am

Really instructive - thanks, Bent!

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:08 am

Ben- Thanks a million. On a quick listen, I liked the 57 and the 4050 best. Of course, the fact that a 57 can be safely placed in the path of a drummer is a huge consideration.

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:54 am

Would I be wrong to sat that all/most of these sound really on the dark side? I'm just wondering if it's the streaming player or maybe just the snare itself. This isnt a criticism, I'm really just curious.

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:07 am

the audix really surprised me.
the 57 I think is the best, for me.
also I really liked the 4050, but i would have a hard time putting a 4050 in swinging range of a drummer.

thank allot for this.

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 12:50 pm

I would also say that the snare is a tad 'dark' but for this purpose suits just fine. A good test as there are a lot of dark sounding snares with the advent of the two-ply heads and the sometimes mad desire to get that calf-head sound. An under-snare mic will brighten this snares sound out a lot while retaining the 'thump' that this particular drum exhibits. Notice there is no 'ring' whatsoever.

Great job Ben.

So lets point out some of the aspects of the mics. Of course it goes without saying that each one would require a little tweek in placement and a touch up here and there on EQ to be perfect......and none would be the same.

I came up with three categories. These pertain to the mics themselves and nothing more.

I've got.....Natural, Accented, and Bens' bored and found yet another mic in the drawer.

Natural :

AT 4050. I would use this on a jazz player with no problem
C535EB. THIS is the perfect example of why we experiment. A predominately stage vocal mic that kiks serious ass on the snare.
SM77. I have always loved these . Most TV studios used them throughout the years.
Beta98. Almost as much as I like SM81's.....not quite...
KM84. Study this sound a bit before you dismiss it. It is very rich in tone and at first listen sounds a bit wonky. To me it sounds exactly like the drum and where its being struck.
C480. Another favorite. Its family includes the C451, and C460. All are great mics.

Accented: These all have an extended thud factor and would be great on many other sources as well. Guitar cabinets, kik drum percussion etc.

MD441. Love this mic.
Audix D2. See what I mean.........WHUMP galore!
MD421. No explanation needed. You can see why Remy has several.
SM57. Ditto.
Beta57. The SM with some upper mids.
MD409. While not a choice for snare per se, can you hear the mids just aching to get out? This is a guiat amp mic that cannot be beat.
E609. This is what they replaced the 409 with. A bit more highs but lacking in the guitar range. Still a good mic.

Ben's bored and found another mic in the drawer.

Well you get the picture.

Great job Hombre.

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:41 pm

Gracias Señor!

Alrighty then...

My favorites of the bunch are the KM84, D2, and SM57.
The D125 was literally in my way when I grabbed the 535, so into the mix it went.

There were a few other mics that I wanted to slap up, but I felt 16 was ample - I feel I've captured a 50/50 mix of standard and atypical mics here.

The snare's top head is a Remo Coated Ambassador, and it did sound a bit dark in the room (4 wood panel walls, industrial carpet on the floor).

As I said earlier, there is nothing in the signal chain to color the sound, short of the 01V's pres (with 75Hz rolloff) and the CDRW2K's inputs - perhaps I should have run optical from the board to the CDR, but I chose the analog path instead...

I positioned the mics in such a manner to pick up a little room / a little strainer - my reasoning being that I feel this gives a better representation of the mics' frequency responses, which is ultimately the purpose behind the post.

I originally intended to follow this up with mics on toms, but after listening to this one I think that we can all hear the details of the mics (most of these would work on other percussion instruments in the same manner) and can correlate that to the response they would give, so it might be a moot point.

I'd much rather move on to either different mics / positioning on Overheads, or guitar - anyone object?

Anyway, I'm glad you guys enjoyed these. Sorry it took so long since the last post (Twelve Mics On Kik), and I'll try to get to the next round as soon as I am able!

-Ben

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 6:43 pm

Bumping this to keep it in the current list.

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:39 pm

Keep on bumping, and making such useful collections of mic comparisons.

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 7:53 pm

Thanks, man!
What do think of this bit of my last post?

Quote:

I originally intended to follow this up with mics on toms, but after listening to this one I think that we can all hear the details of the mics (most of these would work on other percussion instruments in the same manner) and can correlate that to the response they would give, so it might be a moot point.

I'd much rather move on to either different mics / positioning on Overheads, or guitar - anyone object?

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 8:50 pm

Ben- This has been really valuable. I'd love to hear an overhead test, but I think it's a much harder test to design. My alternative for overhead is a pair of Rode NT5s or a pair of 414s. I'm not completely committed to this judgment, but I feel that the 414s sound better on the "whole set" while the nt5s sound better when combined with a snare and kick mic. (Obviously, this depends on how good I am at mixing the four mics.)

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 9:50 pm

Overheads would be really nice to hear. also mics on a guitar at like the 14th fret would also be a nice compassion.

What ever you can do. It really helps us guys who don't have such a nice collection of mics, get an idea as to how many of them preform next to each other.

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 10:24 pm

Bob,

I agree.
That being the case, it would probably be best to give you guys a list of the mics I have and let you pick and choose the pairs you’d like to hear.
Does that make sense?
I don’t have any R0DE mics at my disposal, so I couldn’t post a comparison to those which you own versus other mics that you do not, on the same kit, at the same time.
(I'm not sure that makes sense, even to me. I think it does, somehow. Stupid Heineken...)

---

Fraz,

I take it you’d like to hear some mics on an acoustic?
Thankfully I own a few.
I was originally thinking only (duh) of mics on amps (any excuse to bust out some Iron Maiden on the Ibanez is good with me!!!), but now that you mention it, mics on acoustic are equally intriguing, now I’ll have to do both! Damn the bad luck!
Any comments on my response to Bob above?

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