DEMO01 // New PC machine // Miking Overheads - DRUMS - DTube

dimitrij (57)in #music • 6 years ago

Ok, the month of March was supposed to be very productive but ended up to be a train-wreck :)
First we spent some time and cleaned the studio up a bit so we can have a fresh start. And then the studio computer decided to die...

R.I.P. my old friend...
https://steemit-production-imageproxy-thumbnail.s3.amazonaws.com/DQmV4QpRFPvptXNaJWSBuhRxrwZQypaBJz4pqqWRZMG54fA_1680x8400
...

Unfortunately, the motherboard fried itself, and obviously damaged the hard drives. I somehow managed to get a backup of the current "electro" project I'm working on, but everything else seems to be lost. Around half a year of different jams, themes, and other misc. stuff that was archived and waiting for better times. :( somehow I still don't accept that that's the case...

The computer itself was really old and compiled of a bunch of different parts, so I decided to buy a brand new machine in order to continue my work.

The new PC is beautiful - top of the line artistic machine that will substitute any need of humane artistic work or thought - or in other words: i7 - 7700 up to 4.20GHz, 16GB DDR4, 240GB SSD + 1TB HDD...

But the funniest thing is that as soon as we connected the old hard drives on the new computer, it didn't want to start and / or turn on... Absolutely crazy stuff - but after a detailed diagnostics in the shop they said that the RAM's weren't properly installed in the shop. Which we checked, but who knows.. It sort of acts like a disease...

So, now it finally works.

https://media.istockphoto.com/vectors/sick-pc-vector-id489349760

We had our old mic setup that we did prior the computers death, that I tweaked through headphones, but after adjusting the mics, another drummer friend came in and just completely moved and changed the mic setup...
I had a minor stroke, and a mini breakdown, but decided to do it again and somehow measure the position of the mics, so I can recreate it every time if needed.

Ok, so...

THE TRIANGLE

I tied a thread on the middle of the kick drum, and every time I set up a microphone it's measured from the kick drum and in respondence to one other element (mostly snare).
So basically, you're forming a triangle - the first bottom point is on the kick, the upper point is where you put your microphone, and the third (and also bottom) point is on your snare. By moving the second upper point (where your first mic is) you can see where to set-up the second overhead and have he kick and the other element in equal distance from the element (that way, keeping it in the center of the stereo-field).

I did five different setups that I should be able to recreate, and that's shown in this video.

The overheads are perceived from the drummers point of view. Hihat's are left, Ride and floor's are right.

(if you want you can skip to the 4:05 of the video just to hear the switch between the setups)

The setups:

The 1st broad kick/snare setup was pretty cool, it's a broad setup in respondence to the kick and the snare. I liked the punch of the snare in that one, all tho' the kick goes a bit to the right, and the wideness of the image is middle.

The 2nd kick/pedal is in respondence between the middle of the kick and the pedal. Just wanted to try what will happen. The cymbals seem a bit closer, but an overall wider stereo image than the prior one. The kick seems to go on the right more on low volumes. And the snare is punchy.

The 3rd kick/snare 2 setup is like the first setup but not as far apart.
The cymbals are brighter and more precise, the snare is singing and the kick is more-less in the middle of the image with the snare. The wideness is moderate and middle.

The 4th setup is the strangest, it has two points, the right overhead is a triangle between the kick/mic/snare, and the left is a triangle between the kick/mic/floor.
The kick is in the middle, but the snare is dislocated a bit (logically), but the overall color is pretty great. I like the wideness of the cymbals, as well as the color of the snare and the cymbals while washing them / playing louder.

The 5th and last setup is between the kick and the knee (somewhere on the line between the kick and the snare axis). The kick and snare are in the center, and the snare is singing and it's dark. The cymbals are darker, and more mellow, but the image isn't so wide and precise as expected.

Conclusion:

To conclude I'll try to get the best out of all worlds. Hehe... I'll try to get the precision and the cymbal color of the kit from the 4th mic placement (maybe it's because the overheads are pointing in an angle towards the cymbals), but try to center the stereo image a bit. I want the cymbals to have that dark tone quality, but also want them to be close.

Don't know, I'll try something new today that's between these options.

I know that this probably isn't the most precise method to capture the sound, but..