Cymbol mic'ing

[Eboy87]

So I've been put in charge of sound for our talent show. I'm pretty shure there's gonna be a few drum kits involved, and I wanted to know how to go about mic'ing the cymbols. I know what I'm gonna do for the high-hat, I already have my own mic for that, but the crash and ride are a different story. Our theater has some hanging mics that I might be able to borrow, I think they're made by Sure, but I'm not shure, won't know until tomorrow.

My question is this: If I gaff tape the hanging mics underneath the cymbols, will it cause damage to the hanging mics? Or would it be better off for me to just find some mics to use as overheads. Like I said, I can't remember what the mics are off the top of my head, I've only used them once, but I'll look at them tommorrow.

Thanks in advance

[CHScrew]

Firs off you spelled "Cymbal" wrong

If you going to mic the cymbals don't put the mics under the cymbals. The only spot that you could put it is taped to the cym. stand and you wouldn't get a good sound at all. All you really need is one above the crash, ride, and the hi-Hat. If they have more cymbals these will pick those up fine. You don't need more than three. As far as mic's. Use small diaphragm condenser mics (SHURE SM57LC works well), it will isolate the cymbals from the rest of the kit.

Try to keep the mic about a foot above the cymbals. If the drummer hits really hadr move it farther away. Don't move it too far away or it will pick up the room. Move it too close and the cymbal will hit the mic.

The angle of the mic depends on the setup of the drums themself. Position the mic so that the cymbal is in-between the mics and any of the other drums. If that doesn’t look possible, then a 90-degree angle from the face of the cymbal will be OK.


For crash cymbals, point the mic at the outer edge of the cymbal. For the ride cymbal, point the mic a few inches away from the bell.

For the hi-hats point the mic down at the hi-hat and angle it so that the hi-hats are in-between the mic and the snare drum. This will help in isolating the hi-hat from the snare drum. Keep the mic around three to four inches above the hi-hats. Don't put the mic along side of the hi-hats, because the air that is pushed out when the hi-hats close will blow into the mic producing really crappy popping sound.


BUT. Depending on the size of your auditorium you probably won't even have to mic the drums. The stage is made to project. And it will. If the drums are quiet, first just ask the drummer to play louder. I'm a drummer, and trust me, we love to be told to play louder. It this doesn't work then use mic's

Hope this helped.


~Ray

[Eboy87]

will c1000's work? those are the only other mics available to me

[CHScrew]

Yeah, that will work fine.

[AVGuyAndy]

An overhead or two will work just fine. Don't forget since there are multiple acts in a Talent show, you'll have to be swapping out mics rather frequently I would imagine. So, I doubt you'll have the time to close-mic everything.

If I had the proper mics, I would do:
2 Overheads
1 57 on snare top
1 mic on kick.

[Andy_Leviss]

A lot of good advice here, so I'll keep it brief:

1) One overhead, not two, will likely do you better. Yeah, everybody uses two. You know why? Because they saw somebody else use two. More often than not, you'll get a better sound from one.

2) If you do use two, use them pretty close in, keeping the 3:1 rule of stereo micing in mind.

3) While I would NOT recommend it for your situation, saying that you'll get a bad sound from under-mic'ing the cymbals is an incorrect overgeneralization. While not common, it is done out in the real world, to good effect (the idea being to minimize spill from the rest of the kit while getting a close mic sound from the cymbals). Probably the most well-known proponent of this technique is Big Mick, the FOH engineer for Metallica.

--A

[Eboy87]

Thanks for the tips. We had the show last night, and it was loud enough that all I had to mic were the kick and hi-hat. It was an awsome show. Thanks guys