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ManualsBrandsEarthworks Audio ManualsDrum MicsMicrophone Set for Drum Miking

Miking Drums

There are many ways to mic drums and most every recording or live sound engi-

neer has their own way of doing this. Our objective is not to indicate which drum

miking approach is better, but to make suggestions and look at advantages and

disadvantages of each.

Multi-microphone Method

The objective of multi-microphone drum miking is to place a separate micro-

phone on most or all the elements of the drum set. Typically, separate mics

are used on snare, toms, hi-hat and kickdrum, along with one or two overhead

microphones. The overhead mics pick up the overall sound of the drum set

including cymbals (which are typically not miked separately). By this method,

the mixing engineer can control the level, and signal processing (limiting, EQ,

etc.) for each element of the drum set (toms, snare, hi-hat, etc.). For live

sound, multi-miked drums are desirable by providing more control and more

gain before acoustic feedback. When recording, multi-miking drums in a large

room with high ambient sound reduces the amount of unwanted room sound

and provides greater control of the drum mix.

Earthworks Near-Perfect Polar Response

One of Earthwork’s proprietary technologies is near-perfect polar response

i.e. very uniform frequency response over the front 160 degrees of the micro-

phone. Conventional microphones (even expensive ones) have a loss of high

frequencies at the sides of the microphone (Fig. 3-B). If you ever tried to put

three singers on a single directional microphone you found that the singer at

the front of the mic sounded great, but the two at the sides sounded muffled

due to the lack of high frequency pickup at the sides of the mic. In contrast,

the Earthworks proprietary polar technology provides virtually the same fre-

quency response at the sides of the microphone as at the front (Fig. 3-A). In

addition, this uniform frequency response at the front and sides of the micro-

phone dramatically reduces phase cancellation issues when multi-miking drums.

Figures 3-A & 3-B Earthworks vs. Conventional Polar Response

Earthworks Polar

Earthworks SR30 Cardioid

500

15K

Competitive Cardioid

500

15K

10K

20K

500

Within

3dB

500Hz to

16kHz

at 80º

off-axis

Conventional Polar

Within

10dB

500Hz to

15kHz

and

Within16dB

to 20kHz

at 80º

off-axis

Earthworks SR30 Cardioid

500

15K

Competitive Cardioid

500

15K

10K

20K

500