Our session drummer, Justin Cole, plays a variety of styles into Configuration 1.
he Drum Overhead Literacy project was born through conversation between the section's AES officers about the best way to set up drum overhead mikes. We thought it would be a fun, informative experiment to set up various overhead mikes in different arrangements, record them, and then compare afterward. The experiement was split into two parts; the first for recording, and the second for listening and analysis.
There were 9 different overhead setups tested over two takes:
C414-XLS Spaced Pair (Cardioid, approx 3ft apart)
U89 ORTF
C414-XLR Glyn Johns
KSM-44 Blumlein
KSM-141 XY
KSM-141 Spaced Pair (Omni, 1.5ft apart)
C34 Mid-Side
C34 Blumlein
Shure 55SH mono (under drummer's left rack tom, near floor, facing snare)
There were only two full setups required to fit in all of these mic arrangements, and there there were two takes recorded, each with half of the arrangements. Different rhythmic styles and single drum/cymbal hits were all recorded through either Millennia HV-3D or John Hardy M-2 preamps into Pro-Tools HD at 24bit, 96kHz resolution.
