Best Room Mic For Drums

The akg c414 xls condenser microphone and the sennheiser md 421 ii dynamic microphones may be all that you need for general drum recording.

Best room mic for drums.

Especially so for the sennheiser which you can see wired up to many professional stage and studio drum recordings. If wider stereo imaging is your goal and you have the room size and contour to support experiment with two room mics. Mic positioning is key even try facing the ceiling depending on your room. Make sure cymbals don t overpower everything else they shouldn t be louder than the toms.

In our opinion the c414 xlii are the best overhead drum mics for recording. They are the most revealing of shortcomings self noise etc. Using two room mics will add to those challenges. In this guide we ll look at some of the best mics for recording drums whether studio or stage.

Overhead microphones are used to capture the stereo image of the whole drum kit so we need a matched pair small or large diaphragm condenser microphones. If you only have two channels to record an entire kit the two mics you undoubtedly use are a pair of overhead room mics since their purpose is to provide a balanced stereo image of the drum kit as a whole. When coupled with single drum mics in a more comprehensive modern set up this mic still excels. Drum room mics are often overwhelmed with the sound of loud cymbals and in this episode we talk about how to best reduce the cymbals in the drum room mics.

Best budget large and small diaphragm condenser microphones. While there exists a wide array of kick drum microphones not all of them are intended for the same purpose. It offers a flexibility unlike many others. For its price when compared to other flagship mics it suddenly doesn t look too expensive for everything you get.

Depend on your budget and your need you can only use one room microphone or you can have a near room and a far room microphone. Crush the room mics. First released in 1965 it quickly became a must have mic for guitars vocals drums horns and more. Our picks and tips will make you sound like a pro.

Be sure to review your room mic sound as well as overheads and overall drum sound in mono to check for phase cancellation issues. The shure sm57 is undoubtedly the best value for any microphone available and it s certainly one of the best selling mics in the world. Make sure you use your best mics for the room. If i m using a lot of bright quick condenser microphones close up on a drum kit say akg 414s as tom mics and neumann km184s as overheads a big fat ribbon mic like a coles 4038 or aea r84 my personal favorite makes a fantastic option in the room the picture it takes of the composite kit is comparatively dark silky and smooth.