Submitted by osmuir on Thu, 02/28/2002 - 10:30

ok, i've started doing the fletcher-esque 3 mic drum kit thang, but i'm not entirely sure how to pan it.

specificaly, the snare always is [kinda obviously] louder in one channel.

as i'm also doing this with a Royer stereo ribbon, this is also an issue with this mic. where do you put a stereo mic over a kit? and how do you deal with lopsided volume [mainly snare]?

thanks.
--owen

Comments

Originally posted by owen muir:
ok, i've started doing the fletcher-esque 3 mic drum kit thang, but i'm not entirely sure how to pan it.

specificaly, the snare always is [kinda obviously] louder in one channel.

as i'm also doing this with a royer stereo ribbon, this is also an issue with this mic. where do you put a stereo mic over a kit? and how do you deal with lopsided volume [mainly snare]?

thanks.
--owen

Owen,

Primarily, when three mic techniques were "developed" , mono was more prevalent than today. So try mono. It should be huge and punchy, with dynsmics & air and ambience. Many records that use 3 mics on the drums and are in stereo are very assymetrical. Listen to "The Song Remains the Same"( Led Zeppelin). A live concert album; which I do not know off the top of my head that it was onlt 3 m ics &/or...but it was just a few and you can hear the assymetry of the drums in the mix.
Apparrently, The whole "huge" stereo 3 mic thing happened when Glynn Johns was recording a record. He had a 3 mic set-up, and was going back and forth with differrent songs, using the same return channels for gtr's as well as drums depending on the song. On one song when he brought the faders up, his normal mono panning was panned hard left and right (from the last gtr od he was listening to) and heard his floor tom mic and his OH mic panned wide...he liked it.

(Dead Link Removed)

If you want a modified 3 mic set-up that works, trynthis one. And/Or put on some headphone swhen you move the mics, Position the mics while having some one lightly tapping on snare & kick for you, then you can fine tune the placements to achieve the image you desire.

Originally posted by owen muir:
ok, i've started doing the fletcher-esque 3 mic drum kit thang, but i'm not entirely sure how to pan it.

specificaly, the snare always is [kinda obviously] louder in one channel.

as i'm also doing this with a royer stereo ribbon, this is also an issue with this mic. where do you put a stereo mic over a kit? and how do you deal with lopsided volume [mainly snare]?

thanks.
--owen

Owen,

Primarily, when three mic techniques were "developed" , mono was more prevalent than today. So try mono. It should be huge and punchy, with dynsmics & air and ambience. Many records that use 3 mics on the drums and are in stereo are very assymetrical. Listen to "The Song Remains the Same"( Led Zeppelin). A live concert album; which I do not know off the top of my head that it was onlt 3 m ics &/or...but it was just a few and you can hear the assymetry of the drums in the mix.
Apparrently, The whole "huge" stereo 3 mic thing happened when Glynn Johns was recording a record. He had a 3 mic set-up, and was going back and forth with differrent songs, using the same return channels for gtr's as well as drums depending on the song. On one song when he brought the faders up, his normal mono panning was panned hard left and right (from the last gtr od he was listening to) and heard his floor tom mic and his OH mic panned wide...he liked it.

(Dead Link Removed)

If you want a modified 3 mic set-up that works, trynthis one. And/Or put on some headphone swhen you move the mics, Position the mics while having some one lightly tapping on snare & kick for you, then you can fine tune the placements to achieve the image you desire.

I've had luck, as far as stereo imaging, with bringing the snare-side mic channel to about the 2:00 position, with the non-snare mic hard left, and positioning either the front mic itself to the non-snare side of the kit, or else panning it until the kick drum is centered in the channels.

Another thing I've done, where I found I liked the imaging results, was placing one mic behind the drummer's right arm, pointed towards the snare; placing another mic on the right-hand side of the kit overhead, and putting the front mic more or less in the same spot as the 'rear' mic.

But then again, having a snare a bit loud in the right channel never bothered me.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Kirk Candlish:
[QB]Here's a great link from prorec.com on micing drums.

1. This is the last thing I'm going to say on this. The "two drum stick method" I've described, ad naseum I'm sure, is a solution for the question on this thread. It will put the kick & snare center, balancing all else, ect.
2. the link mentioned above is allright if your starting from scratch. It's general.