Drum Overhead Mics - Studio Projects

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 7:32 am

I was wondering if anyone has used any of the studio projects
mics as drum overheads and what the results were. Just curious
about how they would sound. Thanks.

Nathan

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 9:52 am

I rented the C4's for a month and used them on drums twice. I didn't get a lot of time to try them out but overall they were good mics for the price. Before that I was using some cheap apex mics and the C4's kicked their butt. I was able to hear the toms better when just using a 4 mic setup. I actually made a pretty good drum recording with the C4's as overheads and a 4033 in front of the kit. I didn't need a snare mic. I think that they're a great deal for the price.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 10:58 am

I've used C3's on Drum overheads. Worked good for me. Usually XY. Depending on the cymbals and space the C3's can be a bit bright in cardiod. They sound smoother in figure 8 and omni. I've had success using them in Blumelein on Drum OH (essentially XY with fig 8 pattern) and spaced pair omni was cool on one track I did.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 5:05 pm

A pair of C1's are the mics of choice, or Bruel&Kjaer 4006's either works fantastic.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 5:22 pm

I bought a pair of B1's for the task and they did not work. We wound up overloading them.

Oktava 012's do the job for us now. B1's for room.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 7:21 pm

for anyone interested, RECORDING magazine almost a year ago had an artical on hot-rodding the 012 mics. All I can say is WOW what a difference. The 012's used to be my disposable mics that sounded real good, but now they are a GREAT asset to my mic closet.

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2004 7:51 pm

Chance, what exactllly do you meen by hot-rodding the mc012's?

Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2004 9:18 am

Quote:

I bought a pair of B1's for the task and they did not work. We wound up overloading them.

Hrm.... that was going to be my plan in the near future...

I had trouble with them overloading when using them on guitar, but that was when I was using my Q10s built-in preamps... we re-routed them thru my mixer (allen&heath) and the preamps there handled it just fine- had to turn on the pad, but they worked.

Did you try putting a pad on them? I've heard other people say the B1 works nicely on overheads...

Kase
www.minemusic.net
"to hell with the CD sales- download the MP3s and come to the shows!"

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 9:37 am

missilanious wrote:

Chance, what exactllly do you meen by hot-rodding the mc012's?

Scott Dorsey did an article in Recording Magazine a while ago that described how to replace certain components in an octava mc012 in order to improve the sonic quality. There were actually a few mods he suggested which ranged in level of difficulty and how much of an improvement it would make. If i recall correctly the main mods were just replacing some capacitors...

I was wondering whether those would be worth attempting... it's interesting to hear that they seem to make a difference.

greg

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 9:54 am

It'd probably work. My band's guitarist has been talking about cracking open his old BOSS MetalZone pedal and replacing all the components with high-end audiophile parts- apparently that retro-fit has been making a difference for a lot of people.

Kase
www.minemusic.net

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 9:55 am

C4's work very well, especially if you use Recordermans mic positioning

Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2004 11:02 am

Is there a place on the web we can access the Oktava's 012 mods? I used to have the Recording magazine article on it but it developed feet and left my studio and hasn't come back... perhaps we can talk Scott Dorsey into posting it and sharing it... anyone knows him?

Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2004 7:34 pm

dymaxian wrote:

Quote:

I bought a pair of B1's for the task and they did not work. We wound up overloading them.

Hrm.... that was going to be my plan in the near future...

I had trouble with them overloading when using them on guitar, but that was when I was using my Q10s built-in preamps... we re-routed them thru my mixer (allen&heath) and the preamps there handled it just fine- had to turn on the pad, but they worked.

Did you try putting a pad on them? I've heard other people say the B1 works nicely on overheads...

Kase
www.minemusic.net
"to hell with the CD sales- download the MP3s and come to the shows!"

You are probably right. I have not tried them since I got my new preamps, but since the Oktavas are working so well, I do not have a need.

But your point is valid, the Q10 pres seems to get a little funking on some loud sources with some mics (in my very limited experience.)

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2004 9:38 am

spldesign3 wrote:

I was wondering if anyone has used any of the studio projects
mics as drum overheads and what the results were. Just curious
about how they would sound. Thanks.

Nathan

I've spent a good deal of time using a pair of C3's as overheads. I liked them on elec guitar but not drum overheads. IMO hyped high end bordering on sybillant, tough to mix or eq. Sold and bought a pair of C42MP's which I like infinitely better.

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2004 6:08 pm

has anyone ever tried 319's for overheads? if so, how did they perform?

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