ORTF, XY, spaced pair, recorderman method..

I tried all of these last night.

1. ORTF gives the best clearest imaging. Everything seems to be placed well. Toms sounded the the best with it. And cymbals imaging seemed to pretty tight.

2. Recorderman method. Best for reinforcing the snare and kick, IMO. Places hi tom and fl tom far left and right redpectively. Sounds very full but cymbals tend to get a little phasey. For instacne the hi hat when played open will show up split on the left and right. Basically cymbal stereo imagining inst as wide but strangely the toms are. weird.


3. Spaced Pair: Sort of like ORTF but to my ears the cymbals dont retain stereo imaging as well and doesnt reinforce the rest of the kit. Not a fan.

4. XY : just kinda boring. not much stereo spread

Last night, I recorded my buddy playing drums. He was using my kit which tuned to the best of my abilities.

Drum Specs:

1967 Ludwig Champagne Gold 4pc
kick 14x20 | snare 5x14 |
rack tom 8x12 | floor tom 14x14
Hi Hats: 1960s 14" Zildjian Avedis (On the thin side)
Ride: 1960s 20" Zildjian Avedis (On the medium side)
Crash: 16" A. Zildjian & Cie Vintage (thin)

Emad Kick beater side, felt style beater, Embassadors on toms, ambassador clear on bottom. Some sort Coated Aquarian like an Ambassador on snare, evans 300 hazel on bottom.

Mics:

(I just got a pair of at4033 that I wanted to test out as overheads. I have been using nt5s. The nt5s are brighter. The 4033 seem more natural to my ears and more open.)

Kick= D6
snare=D1
Rack Tom=D2
Floor Tom=D2
Overheads= at4033


I am going to post three clips below each using three different overheads technique. spaced pair, ORTF, and Recordman method.

IM not going to tell you which is which since I want people to decide which they like best without being influenced by what they themselves use for overhead mic'ing technique.

Here's a pic of my drums:

http://www.jetrecording.com/100_0965.jpg

here's a pic of the space used drums placed center stage):

http://www.freewebs.com/ryansgallery/sad%20cafe.jpg



THESE CLIPS ARE RAW. NO eq, compression or reverb and other such effects that manipulate audio signals.

http://www.jetrecording.com/DrumSampleA.mp3
http://www.jetrecording.com/DrumSampleB.mp3
http://www.jetrecording.com/DrumSampleC.mp3

pick your favorite. Ill post aftar a day or two and ill tell which overhead technique used.

i posted this over at recording.org too.

sample A is the best on my laptop speakers
fullest overall sound.


p.s. can I have your drummer?

You didn't say exactly where you put the overheads, but I'll take a stab at it for shits and giggles anyway. Oh, and I'm listening on a mono PA system.

I liked A and B the most. The snare has more balls on B. C sounded like there was something weird going on with the snare. It seemed a bit thin.

A. ORTF.
B. Recorderman.
C. Spaced pair.

I felt like guessing.

Again, listening in mono, with a head cold, on a PA.

also i just wanted to add, I used mackie onyx 800r pres lightpipe into an digi 002r

I liked them all equally. Would depend on the kind of music you're doing. B sounds most open. I like that for jazzy stuff, but wouldn't use it for rock. A sounds good for R&B, Pop. I liked the OH's on C for rock, pop, harder music, but would tweak the snare with the close snare mic/s and probably Drumagog - to bring the snare forward.

I probably wouldn't use A or B for rock or harder music.

4033's are a much better OH mic choice than NT5's.

My 2¢.

I agree with Dan, I like all 3 (maybe B the best) - they would all be usable I would think. I like the sound of drums without all of the "goo" attached actually, so this was cool with just room sound, no EQ, comp, verb. Just a preference thing.

Just purely from the average listeners POV:

I would like to hear the cymbals a little more, when you're on your downbeat coming out of a fill, etc., or the ride, they sound very small (volume-wise). The drums all sound very nice though - just a little weak in the cymbals for my preference.

You're a damn fine drummer too BTW if you ever ermmm... ahem... accidentally find yourself in far northern California, look me up

-Adam

I also liked A and B the most.

A. ORTF, B. Recorderman???


-Kaapo-

My guess is-

A. ORTF The snare is a little off to the left, but doesn't sound phasey.
Nicest overall image. Were the mics behind the kit?

B. Recorderman. Toms are wider than cymbals. You can hear the hats a little in the right side because the right mic points in across the kit.

C. Spaced pair. Good image. Snare is weaker, maybe because the left and right O/H are not the same distance from the snare?

quote:

Originally posted by dudge:
My guess is-

A. ORTF The snare is a little off to the left, but doesn't sound phasey.
Nicest overall image. Were the mics behind the kit?

B. Recorderman. Toms are wider than cymbals. You can hear the hats a little in the right side because the right mic points in across the kit.

C. Spaced pair. Good image. Snare is weaker, maybe because the left and right O/H are not the same distance from the snare?

My thoughts exactly!

For most stuff, I prefer a mono overhead.

after listening to these track for the past few dtys and trying to mix them a little, i've decided that kick drum actually has to much low end.. well they wrong type of low end. There are some buldges i dont care for. Mic placement mave have a little to with it. I placed the mic so the diaphram is on the threshold of the kick drum hole. Probably need to loosedn both head up a little. But I've tried different tunings on the emad head before and its always seems to sound not right. Probably need to try a need different head. I understand some heads will sound better on certain kicks.

Toms sound pretty good but i think they are too mellow. I think i should try ambassador clears on the batter head to mak'em louder and more resonant. My shell have reinforment rings with the rounded edges that most drums from this era has i think its a warm sounding shell to begin with and the embassadors much them sound really warm its nice but for general recording purposes its a little over the top in that regards.


Snare...no complaint on that so much. I had an ambassador coated on it before which i think i liked better. So im gonna go back to that.

Anyways. Its always foun to record drums an listen back and go...dammit i could have gotten better sounds.