Page 25 - Drum Tyme Advertising Book February 15th Updated to Slide Version June 17th 2020

Like all drum miking, there are lots of options for microphone choice and placement
for toms. If you’re in the studio, you can employ whatever mics (regardless of size) and
all the hardware you need. For stage, and especially for video however, you might
need microphones that are less visible. For mic placement when using mic stands,
many of the same rules for snare miking apply. Put the mic near the outer rim of the
tom head, pointing down. One big determining factor when it comes to tom mic
placement ist he presence of the cymbals, both physically and sonically. Some drummers
position their cymbals so low over the toms that getting a microphone beneath them is very
difficult. In that case, a low-profile clip-on dynamic mic such as the Sennheiser e604 may be just
the ticket, or even the Granelli Audio Labs G5790, which is a classic 57 with a right-angle bend
in the middle. One of the studio-standard mics for toms is the Sennheiser MD 421 II, which
sounds amazing. When it comes to condensers on toms, the low-profile Audio-Technica Artist
Elite AE3000 sounds really sweet. And if you’re doing a video shoot and need a mic that is
nearly invisible to cameras, the Shure Beta 98AMP/C is tiny and affordable yet doesn’t
compromise on sound at all — the 98AMP/Cs (seen above) are in constant use on the
Performance Theatre stage at Sweetwater.
NOTE: Some engineers think that using hypercardioid mics on toms, due to their tighter polar
pattern, is preferable for rejecting cymbals from the rear. But many hypercardioid or
supercardioids have a high-frequency lobe (area where it picks up sound) directly behind the
mic, and it’s frequently worse in the high-frequency range (5kHz and above). Using
hypercardioids on toms may actually accent the cymbals that are directly behind the mic far
more than a standard cardioid dynamic.

There are lots of different approaches for overhead mics, ranging from Eddie
Kramer’s 3-mic technique using Shure KSM44As (positioned left, center, right, in
a triangle shape over the drums) to the Glyn Johns’ 3-mic technique (if you
include the kick drum mic) with mics positioned equidistant from the snare at
roughly 11 o’clock and 3 o’clock over the drums (drummer’s perspective). The
most common overhead miking setup is probably two spaced cardioids above
the drums over the left and right sides of the kit. I’ve tried using mic pairs in XY
or even in M-S (mid-side) over the drums, but I generally go back to a spaced
pair. To read more about stereo miking techniques, check out this article about
methods you should try.

Personally, I’ve had the greatest success gathering an overhead perspective of
the entire kit instead of just the cymbals. For recording I start dialing in my drum
sound by listening to only the overhead mics and then fill in with the spot mics. I
generally use more colored mics that are less bright than if I was just trying to pick up
the cymbals. I’veused Audio-Technica 4047/SVs for about a dozen years, but
I’ve also had success with Telefunken C12s, the Neumann U
87 Ais, AKG C414 XLIIs, and DPA 4006-As through the years. And the Audio-Technica
AT5045s are great sounding on drum overheads and a new favorite here at Sweetwater.
Room
Capturing the room, the space around the drums, is often critical to getting a good drum
sound, because it can be the glue that holds all the disparate multi-miked tracks together.
A pair of mics that is positioned 4 feet in front of the kit and about 2 feet above the floor
can give a great overall sonic picture of the totality of the kit. A stereo ribbon mic such as
the AEA R88 excels at this job. You can also position mics as far away from the drums as
possible, given the size of the room you’re recording in. A pair of LDCs, spaced 90
degrees apart from the drum center, works well. Or if you’re in a smaller room, you can
put dynamic mics in the corners, pointing away from the kit, or figure-8 mics in the
corners with the drum kit sitting in the nulls (90 degrees off-axis) to create a bigger room
sound.