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The drumset….probably the most dynamic of the things that I mic up on a regular basis.  So many possibilities and so many ways to make mistakes. Do you use a drum shield? Overhead mics or undermic’ing? Do I need to mic everything up? What are the best mics? I’ve done everything right in terms of mic’ing and placement, why does my kit still sound sterile? Before I get into any of these questions, I’d like to say this…there is no one right answer to anything of them.  Context is everything.  What is your room size? What style of music are you playing? How talented is the player? What is your budget? How much overall mix volume do you have to play with? These and many more are all questions that need answered before you even think about what mic to use with that all important kick drum.

So lets start with that.  I’d like to go over how each of the questions I listed above should play into your decisions moving forward. There are two that go hand in hand up there, they are…What is your room size?…How much overall mix volume do you have to play with? If you are playing in a small cramped night club where your drumset is mere feet away from the audience, your mic needs will be different than if you were mixing in a grand hall where the drumset is centered up in the back of the stage 60 feet from the nearest audience member.  On top of that, if you are playing the club you have the acoustic volume to contend with as well along with the fact that 100 db in a small room is deafening to anyone. In the studio, are you looking for an acoustic drum mix where you basically want to let the drum set sound the way it sounds and just mic the kick and snare for some punch or do you want to setup in a larger room and mic the whole kit and put up a few boundary mics to record some natural verb. The style of music you are going for will also dictate what and how you mic certain drums. For instance if you are playing a jazz kit you will need a much higher dynamic range for the snare than if you were playing a rock kit. Lastly your budget often plays the largest role in how you mic your drum kit. In my humble opinion it is better to get the whole drumset mic’d up to match your style and room with cheaper mics (sm57s, clip-on sennheiser mics, etc) than to decide to start cutting corners and only end up with enough money to mic the kick and snare.

Well now that the administrative stuff is out of the way we can get down to the brass tax, how am I mic’ing up my drum kits. To be honest, this is a living breathing mix that I’m working with so my mic’ing decisions have changed and grown based on the context.  At the most basic level, for small gigs or small rooms, I’ll use a single kick mic, top snare mic, a clip-on mic for each tom, and a single overhead mic.  This gives me a 5 input drum set that sounds pretty good in a set of in-ears and gives me a lot of flexibility at FOH. At CCC, because we are set up for a bigger kit and have plenty of inputs, it looks quite a bit different. I utilize a kick in mic (just behind the beater head) and a kick out mic (in the kick drum hole), a top and bottom snare mic setup, a hi-hat mic, 3 tom mics, an under mic for the ride, two under mics for cymbals, and an overhead mic (used mostly in monitors and at FOH when I need some more space in the drum kit). All in, that was 12 inputs. It is my firm belief that it doesn’t take 12 inputs for a drum kit to sound good, but that if you are setup for it, have the budget/style/space for a bigger sound, that 12 mics will be better than 5. It is however much harder to take care of, especially in the monitor mixes.  Lot’s has to be done for the IEM system to keep this kit sounding good but we will save all of that for another post. In the past, I’ve found a great middle ground if you’d to step up to that 12 input mix but not micing the cymbals and ride individually and instead just using 2 overhead mics, going down to one kick mic (kick in) and one snare mic (snare top), that brings the total down to a very reasonable 8 inputs (7 if you only have two toms). Over the years, I have spent most of my time at this middle ground. Especially for setup/tear down events.  But not being afraid to pull it down or add if the need arises can be substantially helpful so don’t be afraid experiment to see what works best for your event, style, and room.

So we’ve talked about what we are going to mic up but I bet you are still looking for suggestions on what mics to try or use yourself…well the time has come my friend.  Here is the rundown of what Christ Community Church uses.  Over my 5 years here, this list has changed and will likely change again in near future (DPA tom mics here we come!). But this is what it is now and we continue to be very happy with this setup. The first mic is the one we are currently using and everything listed after that are options that we keep in our back pocket ready to go if we think they would be a better fit. I’ve put hyperlinks to everything in the list that point towards Amazon for reference.

Kick Out – AKG D12 (Beta91a, we occasionally decide to just double patch if we can’t get the timing of the mics to sound right), RE320, Audix D6 (great for djembes as well), Shure Beta 52a

Kick In – Beta91a (we’ve also used the Beta91, the only difference is the connector)

Snare Top – Beta57, sm57

Snare Bottom – Sennheiser e914, sm57

HiHat – KSM44, ksm109

Rack Tom – Sennheiser e604, Sennheiser e904

Floor Tom 1 – Sennheiser e904, Sennheiser e902

Floor Tom 2 – Sennheiser e904, Sennheiser e902

Ride (under mic) – DPA 4098 (new model is the DPA 4099), sm57

Cymbals – Audix D2, sm57 (undermic), RodeNT4 (overhead)

OVH – KSM44 (not used if cymbals aren’t undermic’d), any old condensor microphone

That list covers just about every mic I’ve used on a drum set in the last 5 years or so.  I’ve left off things I’ve tried and didn’t like but I would really encourage everyone to experiment with different setups and mic arrangements for your space.  This is just what works for us and may not work for you. CCC has a very high production value service with worship between 89 and 95 db (usually hanging out around 92).  That style has led us to our current setup. Over the years we have gone from budget friendly options to more niche choices which is what I’d recommend for anyone because while it may take longer for you to get there, you’ll have a great selection of mics that often times will come in handy when your senior pastor asks about doing that one extra thing, you’ll already have some great mics to play around with!

The last thing I wanted to cover was what happens when you have refined your drum mic’ing technique but your drums still sound bad.  Putting aside your EQ and dynamics on the console (we will cover that later), make sure your drum set is properly taken care of.  I’d 95% of our problems with the drums when they arise have a direct link to tuning and drum head life span. If you don’t change your drum heads regularly (at CCC the batter heads get changed about twice a year, the resonant heads and such get changed as needed) than doing that will drastically improve how things sound.  It seems like such a simple thing doesn’t it but it makes so much sense.  Having trouble getting your tom sound to sustain properly, is your snare cover in little gel pads or pieces of tape, perhaps it’s time to change those heads. Here is a great pdf on how to tune drums from Pearl and here is a great video about it as well. This isn’t an advertisement for a specific drum head, the drums heads you choose should be tailored specifically to your situation. However, if you aren’t as capable to hear pitches or are going for a specific tone, check out this tune bot to help with your drum tuning.

Well that is the last post of this round of Gear Talk.  Hopefully you’ve enjoyed this new series and look forward to future segments. Over time Gear Talk will cover more than just microphones, we will go through Waves, wireless mics, soundboards, etc.  Let me know in the comments below how you mic your drum set or if you have any questions! As always, if you haven’t already subscribed just click the link down below or up at the top of the page!

We all seem to do this a little bit differently. Mic’ing instruments seems to be more taste than a science. In this area there are so many variables such as getting the right capsule to match the source, personal taste, preferences regarding EQ, personal taste of the artist listening through the monitors, and on and on and on. However, what I’ve learned is that this needs to be a conversation not a decision. Similarly with preparing for the weekend, this area of our work needs to be prepared and flexible so that as instruments change with the humidity in our rooms or studios, we can change with it or be setup to make a change on the fly. We have a variety of instruments on our stage at Christ Community and my time in studios in the past has exposed me to several instruments I never knew even existed. There are however a few basic things we should all have in order to amplify instruments well.

The first is a great set of direct boxes. Whether that’s whirlwind’s director direct box, whirlwinds budget alternative imp direct box,  or something like the radial’s active J48 Direct Box, there are so many options to choose from. Good features to have are the ability to pad the input side of the box, a ground lift, maybe even an output if the artist would like to have their amp on stage behind them. The key is to find the DI that gives you the features you need, the quality you can afford and want, and work well in your space.  For us at CCC, we are a radial house.  We have passive and active DIs both mono and stereo and we love them because of how clean the sound is coming from them and the ability to mono sum inputs if necessary, great electronics on the inside, and their sheer reliability. However in the past the much cheaper whirlwind products like the IMP or the Director, or even direct boxes made by countryman.  These while not quite as nice, worked well in the spaces I was working in and we were able to get enough of them so that I’d never be concerned about who I could jack in or not. This gave me a tremendous amount of flexibility that many lose when they will only purchase the nicest products. It is important to note that CCC has worked up to having mostly radial gear, over the years we have replaced a lot of our gear with better stuff as more and more of our ministries are asking to borrow gear and we are able to send stuff with them without worrying about a $200 direct box being wrecked in the elements, IMPs are perfect for those types of events.

The second set of things to have in order to be well prepared if you can afford them is a wide array of pencil/condenser microphones. This variety allows you to experiment with things if you aren’t happy, it allows you try new things and move with the times. You don’t need to have a lot just one or two of say 3 or 4 different types of mics. One of the studios I worked with had a drawer of these types of mics (CCC has built up a collection as well) so that no matter the instrument we have something we can at least try.  Having a few sm58s and sm57s never hurts either. A few microphones that most people seem to have are the sm81, ksm44, sm7, Neumann KM184, sennheiser e914, a standard AKG condensor, or a few dpa 4099s.

As for how I mic instruments, all of the above. For bass guitars, in most cases, I am taking them direct as I’d prefer not to have a bass cab on stage throwing off my PA timing.  If the artist is insists on having a cab up there I’ll take a DI with an out on it and still take a direct line.  At CCC we use the Neve RNDI but a lot of people love the sounds of both the active and passive versions of the J48. For live sound I’m not incredibly picky so if we can land the plane with at least one of those three, life is good. In a pinch I’ll use an IMP as I’ve always felt the no frills gear is always reliable and great in most cases. I honestly feel like it’s the sm58/sm57 of the direct box world.

When it comes to electric guitars I seem to find myself using the sennheiser e906 the most.  These mics when used correctly have always seemed to yield a very balanced and solid tone that both sound techs and musicians can be happy with.  We also use the Shure SM7 when our guitarists have a deeper sound to help capture those lower tones more effectively.  However, if you are on a tighter budget, the very popular sm57 seems to be a perennial favorite.  Here is a great video from Reverb.com that goes through a few different mic techniques that apply both in the studio and live world both for single and double horned cabinets. At the very least, either within the live or the studio setting to isolate the cabinet away from the stage or studio that vocals are being recorded into.  While this makes accessing the amps and making changes a bit harder, it will completely minimize or eliminate any bleed from the electrics into the vocal mics. Since this is a widely accepted practice this shouldn’t be an issue for the players as they might come to expect it.  But, if you do have issues with this, remind them that if they agree to isolate their cabinets, they can feel free to run them at the volume that sounds the best rather than the volume that works for the vocal mics (often two very different levels).

This covers the majority of the instruments we see around Christ Community Church where I work. What techniques or unique instruments do you see where you work or volunteer?

 

Well we are back for round two….this time it’s about vocals.  I wanted to do this group first because in the live setting I work within at my church, the vocals are what we build mixes around. Because our congregations look to our vocalist for not only the words and vocal rhythms  but also for the confidence to sing out themselves. It is extremely important for our listeners both in the room and online watching the stream to be able to easily and effortlessly understand what is being sung by the vocalists on stage, especially our worship leader for the weekend.

We make our front line band members all wireless and we are a shure house so all of our microphones that we use can be found within shure compatible microphones. We have a variety of capsules available to us but right now we have three main capsules. Those capsules are the sm58 (I’m betting you guessed this one), the KSM9, and the KSM8. We are currently testing the SE Electronics V7 MC1 and over the next couple weeks I’ll be throwing it at a few different situations and see how it stands up.  But for now, we will focus on the first three. I recognize that on paper, some of these mics perform differently but I am here to talk about what happens in real life, in my room, with the band that I’m working with so realize that things may play out a bit different depending on your exact setup and user.

Most weeks we customize the capsule to the singer but we also only have a limited number of each capsule so usually we just end up optimizing as best as we can. We use the sm58 as our microphone of choice for several situations.  The first of which is for new vocalists. I like to put this capsule in place when I’m unsure how someone will sing on stage. After a weekend on this microphone I can get a good feel about what that voice sounds like through a PA and then match it up to capsule that should serve to compliment it as best as possible.  It’s also the microphone we use when we have someone singing from the back row (sometimes we have a bass player or acoustic player singing from the back row). In either role the sm58 provides great rejection and even tones regardless of volume.  It’s not as warm of a sound as you might want but this isn’t a lead voice so we can add this back in if necessary or just go without.

The next capsule is the KSM9.  Since the release of the KSM8 we have used this capsule less and less but it still has a very important place in our space. We always try to match up bright microphones to voices that aren’t as bright.  The KSM9 is a great companion to those power female vocals that have no problems belting out the chorus line. The mic itself always has a very warm and smoothing tone to it which is great because within the microphone we can fix some issues making EQ either unnecessary or vastly reduced. It also does really well with rough handling.  This is definitely an improvement in many areas over the sm58 but it can struggle a bit with singers who don’t have the best mic presence as well as pick up a lot of stage volume, more so than the 58.  So you can be trading off added warmth for increased stage volume in some cases with some vocalists.

Next is the KSM8.  This is supposed to be an updated KSM9 as well as a brand new capsule. But what it just excels.  Here is a short video about what is new about this capsule! It is the first dualdyne capsule ever to be made.  Yep, you read that correctly, there are actually two diaphragms crammed into that capsule. I would say this particular mic’s biggest asset is the fact that it greatly minimizes the proximity effect. I love using it with our background singers as their mics aren’t on stands and they aren’t necessarily pro vocalists (many of them sing like they are though!). This means that more often than not, they are always in the sweet spot of the mic despite their enthusiasm in leading worship.  In our use this means that our vocals have cleaned up considerably, they are much clearer, and as a result mean that it is incredibly easy to lay the BGVs in the mix really well just right behind the lead vocal.  It has a reasonably flat response curve which means you’ll have to make sure and control the lower vocal spectrum as with our lead vocal I’ve had to do a bit more of an aggressive EQ curve to help manage that but I’ve really like having a deeper vocal if I want it.  Personally, I like mics and equipment that allow me to make the change at the sound board so that I can have full control over the sound at the board itself.

Having just received the V7MC1 from SE Electronics, I don’t have much to say yet.  But I will say, so far, I really like it on our lead vocalist Ben.  This capsule really makes his voice pop without much work. That means that it is quite a bit brighter than the KSM8 but we have the equipment to compensate for that if needed. What I have liked the most is that I don’t have to work to hard either with EQ or with our C6 plugin to make his voice pop, it just naturally raises to the top of the mix. I have also been able to throw a bit more gain at it before feedback than either of our KSM9 or KSM8 capsules which has been a nice option to have waiting if I need more power from our leader.

Well those are the capsules we generally use on our vocalists.  I know we are extremely blessed to have the resources to have 4 choices for capsules but we have come to realization that when you get to a certain level of quality it’s the little things that start to make a big difference.  The great thing is that both the sm58 and SE V7MC1 capsules are only $99 with the other two up around ~$350 or so.  As I’ve said before, it’s really early for us to say but that new V7 may be an awesome option for the more budget conscious techs when looking for something different on the other side of that vocal mic. The biggest thing to remember here is that if you have options and choices, make sure you are thinking about which mic has and should perform the best for each vocalist for every event that you do.

Be sure to speak up in the comments with any experience or thoughts that you may have!